Steam Next Fest 2025 has officially begun, bringing hundreds of playable indie demos to players around the world. To help you cut through the noise on this Wishlist Wednesday, we’ve chosen three favorites. Each one shines in its own way, powered by that familiar indie spark. Whether you’re composing galaxies, surviving with your best pig friend, or rolling cursed dice in a doomed kingdom, these are must-try experiences this week.
This Week’s Featured Demos
🎵 Cosmic Composer
Developer: Juhani Viitanen
🎮 Play the Demo →
Create and Combine
Build, collide, and orchestrate the stars themselves. Cosmic Composer turns the universe into a sandbox of sound and creation. Every supernova, orbit, and collision reshapes the cosmic symphony you’re conducting.
Players can create stars, planets, and nebulae, then modify and combine them into new celestial objects — from gas giants to black holes. Each body carries unique abilities that consume Cosmic Energy, the game’s key resource. You’ll balance energy use to complete build and event-based quests. As a result, each choice becomes a delicate balance between stability and glorious destruction.
Why You Should Play It
If you love creative systems and experimentation, Cosmic Composer is a soothing playground for curiosity. It’s part puzzle, part music toy, and part cosmic sandbox — a blend of art and science that invites you to create, destroy, and start again.
If You Enjoy Cosmic Composer, Check Out:
- 🧩 Mik –An atmospheric, narrative-driven platformer set in the decaying remains of a post-apocalyptic megastructure.
- 🧙♂️ Dungeon Bodega Simulator – A retro-styled fantasy shop sim where you grow crops, brew potions, and raise slimes while uncovering the mysteries beneath your bodega.
- 💀 Graveyard Simulator – A strategy and management sim where you restore an abandoned cemetery into a prestigious memorial site while exploring humanity’s relationship with death.
🐖 Hermit and Pig
Developer: Heavy Lunch Studio LLC
🎮 Play the Demo →
Battle Anxiety, Literally
A story-rich, turn-based RPG where you battle social anxiety, forage for mushrooms, and stumble into a corporate conspiracy with your loyal pig companion. What begins as a quiet morning of mushroom picking quickly spirals into an adventure far beyond your hermit’s comfort zone — and pay grade (which, to be fair, is zero dollars).
Hermit and Pig turns emotional awkwardness into literal combat. You’ll enter fighting-game-style key combos to unleash moves while racing against the clock to outwit more than 100 bizarre enemies. Additionally, conversations can hit just as hard: say something awkward, and you’ll take cringe damage.
Meanwhile, you’ll forage mushrooms and truffles, equip quirky trinkets, and customize your combat style. Don’t like timers? Turn them off. Prefer to skip the pressure? Story Mode lets you simply enjoy the humor and heart of the journey.
Why You Should Play It
Equal parts heartfelt and hilarious, Hermit and Pig delivers an inventive twist on RPG mechanics — turning anxiety and awkwardness into a language of gameplay. Recognized at Day of the Devs (Game Awards 2023 & San Francisco 2024)and the Wholesome Direct 2024, it stands among the year’s most charming indie experiences.
If You Enjoy Hermit and Pig, Check Out:
- 🐸 Critter Drifters – A retro kart-racing adventure set in a vibrant theme park, featuring cute animal racers, drifting boosts, and item-based arcade mayhem.
- 💀 Graveyard Simulator – A strategy and management sim where you restore an abandoned cemetery into a prestigious memorial site while exploring humanity’s relationship with death.
- 🏀 Hoop Land – A retro-inspired basketball management sim where you build dynasties, customize leagues, and chase championships across endless seasons.
🎲 Dice of Kalma
Developer: Pepperbox Studios
🎮 Play the Demo →
Roll Against Death
Dice of Kalma is a deck-building roguelike where you play dice against Kalma, the grim guardian of the Underworld. Build a deck of powerful skulls, find wild synergies, and turn fate itself in your favor as you fight for a second chance at life.
The demo offers the first 10 levels of the full game. Consequently, it gives you room to experiment, test combinations, and push your luck as far as you dare.
Master the Game of Chance
Select and reroll unwanted dice to shape the perfect hand. Play it safe, or risk everything chasing that one perfect roll. Each decision brings you closer to victory — or back to the grave.
Every skull you collect offers unique bonuses, combo potential, or high-risk power plays. Therefore, building decks that reward patience or recklessness becomes a tense strategic puzzle. Fail, and the Underworld resets — but persistence is its own reward.
Why You Should Play It
Dice of Kalma is a clever blend of luck, logic, and design. It’s easy to learn yet endlessly replayable, with eerie atmosphere and tight mechanics that make every roll count.
If You Enjoy Dice of Kalma, Check Out:
- ⚔️ The Eldritch Ascent – A grimdark, narrative-driven turn-based RPG where you climb a twisted spire as a lost soul resurrected by a mysterious demon.
- 💀 Extinction Day –A doomsday simulator where you unleash disasters, diseases, and wars to wipe out humanity and orchestrate the ultimate apocalypse.
- 🔮 Soulfused – A modern reimagining of classic text adventures, set in a dystopian future where you play as a newly converted half-human, half-machine soldier serving a ruthless empire.
🌾 Closing Thoughts
Ultimately, these three games capture everything that makes Steam Next Fest 2025 special — creativity, heart, and bold ideas that only indies can deliver. If you’re exploring the festival this week, take time to play these demos and wishlist your favorites on Steam to support the developers shaping the future of indie games.
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