🎮 Next Fest Begins!
Steam Next Fest 2025 has arrived — a week-long celebration of indie creativity, packed with hundreds of free demos and developer livestreams.
This week, we’re turning the spotlight toward some of the most intriguing and imaginative worlds you can explore right now.
Below are three standout demos to try first — each one fresh, clever, and full of heart.
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👻 Curses
Developer: Studio Curses
A story-driven action-adventure about loss, ritual, and the blurred line between life and death.
When a Halloween ritual goes wrong, Calvin’s friends vanish—and his attempt to repeat the ritual traps him in a realm where life and death overlap. To escape, he must help wandering spirits and confront the powerful entities that haunt this liminal world.
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✦ Explore a Hand-Crafted World
Journey through eerie, painterly biomes filled with secrets, danger, and the echoes of lives once lived.
✦ Encounter Spirits and Stories
Meet lost souls burdened by grief. Some will guide you, others will test your resolve as you uncover their pasts.
✦ Confront Powerful Entities
Battle corrupted spirits in fast-paced, skill-based combat. Use your staff and abilities to release them—or risk joining them.
✦ Discover the Truth
Piece together the mystery of that night and learn why Calvin is trapped between two worlds.
✦ What Makes It Unique
- A blend of cozy and eerie: soft art style meets dark emotional themes
- Personal storytelling about grief, guilt, and letting go
- Every battle tells a story, tied to each spirit’s past
- Beautiful handcrafted environments with quiet atmosphere
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⚙️ Automatic Kingdom (Demo)
Developer: Matthew Pontarolo
A strategic blend of automation, board-game logic, and city-building.
In Automatic Kingdom, every decision ripples through your realm. Citizens generate resources when placed together in the right patterns, forming powerful synergies that drive growth. But each turn resets your progress — forcing you to adapt, rebuild, and optimize your way to prosperity.
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✦ Build and Balance
The demo covers the first two tiers of gameplay, letting you establish your kingdom, manage citizens, and unlock new cards while defending against early threats.
✦ Create Chain Reactions
Position citizens and buildings to trigger resource synergies. Keep your Cobbler near Farmersto boost Food, or swap them to help Miners for Labor — every tile placement shapes your success.
✦ Endure the Unexpected
Nature, rival nations, and strange magical forces constantly threaten your kingdom. Diseases, crime, and invasion grow stronger with every turn, pushing your strategy to its limits.
✦ Adapt or Decline
Resources reset each round, so there’s no waiting out scarcity. You’ll need to constantly refine your layout, replace cards, and find new paths to efficiency.
✦ What Makes It Stand Out
- Hybrid design blending city-building and card-based logic
- Tight turn cycles that reward smart adaptation
- Dynamic challenges from both politics and fantasy
- Five-tier progression, with the demo covering the first two
➡️ Play the demo during Next Fest »
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🔢 Node Math (Demo)
Developer: Luminous Engine
A simple, idle-factory puzzle about math, money, and exponential chaos.
If spreadsheets were fun, they’d look a lot like Node Math.
Combine numbers and operators, unlock new nodes, and watch your math machine churn out endless profits. What starts as a humble equation quickly spirals into a symphony of logic and automation — where every “+1” and “×2” adds up to a satisfying cascade of growth.
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✦ The Core Loop
Combine numbers with operators. Make money. Buy new nodes and upgrades. Make even moremoney. Repeat until your brain purrs.
✦ Demo Version
The demo offers the full experience through the first two goal islands (of five total), featuring:
- Positive and negative number nodes
- Sum and multiplication operators
- All powerups and mechanics up to the second island
✦ Why Play It
It’s part logic puzzle, part idle sim, and 100% dopamine. Whether you’re a fan of incremental games or just want to feel smart while watching numbers explode, Node Math hits the sweet spot.
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🌾 More to Explore
We’ll spotlight more demos later this week — but here’s a quick look at a few other titles worth checking out during Steam Next Fest 2025:
🧟 Lone Survivors (Demo)
An action roguelite where you fight to survive against endless hordes of enemies. Choose from five different classes, master unique abilities, and battle through swarms of enemies and challenging bosses.
➡️ Play on Steam »
📜 Fate of the Seventh Scholar (Demo)
An action roguelite where you fight against an unyielding horde, explore a handcrafted world, solve puzzles, and uncover the Fate of the Seventh Scholar.
➡️ Play on Steam »
🌙 Nocturnomaly (Demo)
A horror anomaly game where you’re heading home from school—but something feels off. Observe your surroundings carefully to escape the endless street.
➡️ Play on Steam »
⚗️ The Bestest Alchemist (Demo)
Solve puzzles and brew potions in The Bestest Alchemist, a strategic match-3 roguelike! Freely arrange ingredients to create magical combinations, discover 100+ new recipes, and upgrade your collection to build powerful synergies. Your journey to becoming a master alchemist starts now!
➡️ Play on Steam »
Each of these demos offers something unique to explore during Steam Next Fest, running until October 20.
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✨ Join the Saga
That’s just a glimpse of what’s waiting in this year’s Steam Next Fest — a showcase of creativity, passion, and indie brilliance.
👉 Explore more featured demos and weekly highlights at IndieSagas.com, where we cover hidden gems, dev updates, and upcoming indie events all month long.
🎮 If you discover a favorite demo, wishlist it, leave feedback for the developer, and share it — small studios thrive on your support.
Thanks for being part of the journey. Play more indies. Join the Saga.