Steam Next Fest is a chance to check out a ton of demos for upcoming games, including a wide range of indie titles. While it can be overwhelming to dig into the many, many demos available, we’ve got 10 great upcoming games with fun demos you can check out yourself, or that you can wish list if they sound appealing to you. From roguelikes to platformers and even typing games, we’ve put together a nice mix of games below, with links to their Steam pages. Some of these come out real soon, others slated for some time in 2025, and even a few undated games, but regardless of when these games are going to come out, you should add them to your wishlist.
Demon Tides
Steam | Release Date: 2025
Demon Tides is a colorful and goofy 3D platformer that feels like a speedy version of Mario 64. Aesthetically, it’s somewhere between the more off-beat Cartoon Network cartoons and anime, using color, silly characters, and funky music to create a chill open world. You explore the open seas, looking for small areas to platform through, finding treasure, and upgrading materials in them. The platforming is fast and there are a ton of movement abilities to use. You can compete for speedrunning times in the smaller obstacle courses or just complete at your own pace.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown
Steam | Release Date: To be announced
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown is an upcoming tactics game from Strange Scaffolding (El Paso Elsewhere, I Am Your Beast), using the TMNT Ninja Turtles. It plays out like a board game, moving pieces around a small play space, asking you to take down the Foot Clan using limited moves. The board expands and shrinks in between turns, giving you more options for knocking enemy pieces off the board, but also forcing you to consider your positioning as well. There have been a ton of TMNT licensed games recently, but pairing a beloved indie developer with small-scale tactics makes TMNT: Tactical Takedown an exciting upcoming release.
Asgard’s Fall – Viking Survivors
Steam | Release Date: To be announced
Asgard’s Fall – Viking Survivors is another take on the Vampire Survivors roguelike formula, but this one stands out thanks to a simplistic and also cute art style. On top of that, it has a fun node system for upgrades during runs, where the placement of the nodes can provide bonuses or unlock extra powers, giving some extra weight to not just the nodes you pick when leveling up, but where you put them. It also has a bunch of powers based on Norse mythology, like Loki’s power creating clones of himself and exploding, or a giant serpent leaping out of the ground and crashing down. There are plenty of in between round upgrades, including craftable equipment and skill points when you level up. If you like these games, Asgard’s Fall – Viking Survivors is looking like a solid entry in the genre.
Savara
Steam | Release Date: Coming soon
Savara is a hard-as-nails roguelike that takes the aspects of Monster Hunter and adapts it to an isometric, run-based game. You are the latest challenger for the warrior god’s tournament, where you prove your valor by doing dungeon runs, where you will face a handful of tough monsters on each floor, collecting their parts for upgrades. You can craft new weapons and upgrade them, with the added bonus of taking two weapons into each run, which you can swap between in combat. You can also craft fresh armor with the materials and increase your capabilities with a massive skill tree and badges that provide new abilities.
The combat is faster than Monster Hunter, but far more methodical than other roguelikes like this. You have slow attack animations and a dodge roll, forcing you to pick your moment to strike and wear down your opponent. It’s a ton of fun and it looks like it’s going to have a ton of depth, just based on the demo. Savara doesn’t have a release date just yet, but this has shot up my most anticipated list.
Nitro Gen Omega
Steam | Release Date: 2025
Nitro Gen Omega is a striking anime tactical turn-based mech game. You recruit a party of four pilots from a series of randomly generated characters, with each on operating a different aspect of the mech controls. You take on jobs that typically lead into combat, which operates on a timeline system. You get to give each of your pilots a command–moving around the battlefield, attacking, reloading, or scanning opponents’ attacks–which you can place on a timeline where enemies have moves. You need to consider where you are on the map, along with current bullets and missiles, leading to a lot of tactical decisions. In between missions your crew, assuming they lived, can do activities either together to increase their bonds, or individually to increase skills. It has a gorgeous art-style that feels inspired by Cowboy Bebop and FLCL.
Food Park Manager
Steam | Release Date: April 15
Food Park Manager is a simplistic but fun business management simulator, where you run a food park in a city. You will build different food stalls, hire staff, manage inventories, and perfect recipes to build the ultimate food park. There are plenty of decoration options and the overall space you are managing is relatively small, letting you focus on more of the details without getting overwhelmed. If you are looking for a fun business sim that isn’t a first-person game, Food Park Manager will scratch that itch.
Dark Deity 2
Steam | Release Date: March 24
Dark Deity 2 is a take on classic Fire Emblem games, offering turn-based tactical combat, a wide variety of units, and choices that will impact your game. The combat features a wide variety of units, along with special bonus objectives to give you more ways to challenge yourself in a given mission. The full game also includes a selection of campaign options, like randomized unit recruitment orders, to make sure that each run through feels unique. If an endlessly changing tactics game sounds appealing, Dark Deity 2 is set for a Q1 2025 release.
Ruffy and the Riverside
Steam | Release Date: Coming soon
Ruffy and the Riverside is a 3D platformer collectathon, in the vein of Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie, except it has the art-style of Paper Mario and a creative tool for puzzle solving. Ruffy can use a copy and paste like ability, which allows him to copy the material of most objects in the environment and use that to change another part of the environment. For example, you can copy a climbable vine, and paste that onto a rock, allowing you to climb to the top. You can swap out the water in a river for sand, making it a sand pit. It’s got plenty of charm and unique ideas, making Ruffy and the Riverside a great game to wishlist on Steam.
The Chef’s Shift
Steam | Release Date: Coming soon
The Chef’s Shift is a fast-paced typing game, where you have to run a restaurant, cooking meals and serving them to customers, by typing the words on screen. The demo gives a taste of the soap opera crime drama surrounding the game, as you take over running a pizza shop. Everything is done by typing, assembling ingredients, placing them in the oven, and serving them to customers all performed by typing whatever word appears over that task. It’s fast and requires some decent typing skills, but it’s also a unique and fun take on a restaurant sim, The Chef’s Shift doesn’t have a release date, but you can check out the demo on Steam.
Nitro Express
Steam | Release Date: 2025
Nitro Express is a 2D side-scrolling shooter, where you need to take down mechs rampaging in Tokyo as a member of the Nitro City police force. It’s got an old school anime pixel look, goofy main characters, and tons of fast-paced shooting. The arcade style 2D shooting is snappy and fun as hell, and there are a ton of weapons to unlock and use, even in just the demo. Nitro Express is releasing on Steam sometime in 2025.
