I went digging through Steam to proffer my official summer sale game recommendations! Most everything is at its lowest price yet and I have used the best parts of my brain to locate the games at the perfect point between affordable and noteworthiness. Gonna thread it up like the greats do!

You could spend $13.49 to get 2 of the best Metroidvania/Search Action games of the last few years in Lone Fungus and Ghost Song, and still have one game left to choose from!

Iron Nest: Heavy Turret Simulator (Next Fest demo), PC/Steam - This game might have been made just for me. I spent two hours in this dieselpunk bunker calculating bearing and elevation and triangulating targets and I couldn’t be more thrilled. This game really trusts the player. Highly recommended!

And with that I've played a whopping 18 demos this Next Fest! Honestly, this might be one of the best Next Fests yet, I've played quite a lot and there's been some incredible ones. The highlights: Silver Pines, Well Dweller, Sprawl Zero, Welcome to Elderfield.

Hello Bluesky! I’m your new favorite hookup for cool indie games and here is a thread of 21 game demos I played and can recommend from Steam Next Fest! Linking them all together in this thread to make things easier, along with Steam links. #NextFest

About Fishing (Next Fest demo), PC/Steam - What an apt title, because this game features a lot of fishing, but is also About Fishing in a ponderous way. Lo-fi dithered visuals in a way I’ve never seen before add to this game’s unsettling vibe. The fishing gameplay is surprisingly meticulous?

Hyper Bun Buster: Rocker Hammer Action (Next Fest demo), PC/Steam Deck - I don’t think I’m familiar with the inspiration, but this game easily won me over with its classic arcade action. Beautifully animated spritework and jazzy music seal the deal. I love whacking things into other things!

Arcane Eats (Next Fest demo), PC/Steam Deck - if you’re a certain type of person (say, exactly like my partner), then a roguelike deckbuilder where you run a fantasy tavern cooking meals for customers is laser-focused on being exactly What You Crave. This is going to be so many people’s obsession.

Blood Dungeon (Next Fest demo), PC/Steam Deck - Yes, yet another Survivors-like game, but a very, very good one! Messhof are masters of their uglycute visual style and the hoppy honkin’ soundtrack and DIY audio have an easy charm to them. Nothing you haven’t played before, but highly engaging!

Fruitbearer (Next Fest demo), PC/Steam - Instant wishlist here! What a clever blend of Suika/merging gameplay, card-based mechanics, and roguelike progression. The developers have clearly studied the greats in the genre and crafted something really special. I didn’t want to stop playing this one.

Truck-kun is Supporting Me from Another World?! (Next Fest demo), PC/Steam - Genuinely funny and fun to play, this Isekai-inspired driving/action game has more character than you can fit in a kei truck. Smooth to play, easy on the eyes, and filled with things (and people) to hit with your vehicle.

Future? No Thanks! (Next Fest demo), PC/Steam - Stalwart indie developer Molleindustria shows exactly how you can do the making-fun-of-everyone thing while still being hilarious. This is an open-world chat-em-up that unexpectedly never stopped making me laugh. This confident satire is a good’un.

Normal Golf Game (Demo), PC/Steam - I had a feeling this would be good, but what a fascinating, deep thing this is. Funny, but also ponderous. Silly, but also totally precise. I had so much fun and my brain was working overtime making sense of the intricate gameplay. Could be an all-timer!

Funeral for the Sun (demo), PC/Steam - Wow, this is a truly special deduction/mystery game. Steeped in Latin American culture, touching on personal trauma, family bonds, and colonial oppression, and managing to weave grounded deduction with magic realism into a potent watercolor gem.

Desktop Explorer (Next Fest demo), PC/Steam - Sidestepping some of the other Interface Mystery games, this ingenious work has a series of bespoke puzzles requiring a lot of lateral thinking to complete. Plenty of “Aha!” moments in this tight demo, even with the obligatory dark twists.

Order of the Sinking Star (Next Fest demo), PC/Steam - The director of this game has some abhorrent views, but I have to admit this is a very polished and enjoyable take on Sokoban, based on other licensed titles. There’s lots of polish and overlapping mechanics in this very generous slice.

Kaido Genkai: An Anime Racing RPG (Next Fest demo), PC/Steam Deck - Lots of charisma and style in this story-based driving game set in the nostalgic countryside of 90s Japan. Great use of cel-shaded visuals and some of the best darn J-Rock music I’ve heard anywhere to set the perfect tone.

World’s Greatest Author (Next Fest demo), PC/Steam - I am such a sucker for an incremental Cookie Clicker-alike, and this one sets it apart from lesser games with its unique setting and whimsical satire of the publishing business. Number go up is good, but the moment-to-moment gameplay is engaging!

Restory: Chill Electronics Repair (Next Fest demo), PC/Steam - a surprising standout for me, I was engrossed and couldn’t stop playing. Cozy and chill vibes, just enough depth to sink one’s teeth into, and lots of nostalgic gadgets to repair. Charming characters and satisfying progression to boot!

Moldrise (Next Fest demo), PC/Steam - My foot? Fungal. My foot fungus? Inexplicably drawing me towards the roof. My apartment building? Pixelated and rancid. My neighbors? Also rancid. My unease? Palpable. My curiosity? Thoroughly piqued.

Pixel Washer (Next Fest demo), PC/Steam Deck - I’m a sucker for anything powerwashing-adjacent and this certainly scratches the itch. Featuring cute and intricate pixel art, satisfying washing, and some surprising mechanics to add an extra wrinkle and some personality to the proceedings.

Fallosophy (Next Fest demo) PC/Steam Deck - Hard to believe a concept such as pinball meets punishing masochism à la Getting Over It hasn’t been done before, but this is such a brilliant idea. This nails the physics and has some surprises up its sleeve. The philosophic monologuing adds flavor!

Well Dweller (Next Fest demo) PC/Steam - Kyle Thompson continues to plumb the depths of the Metroidvania subgenre to tremendous success. After Islets/Crypt Custodian, don’t need more than a few minutes to know this clever new setting will consume your brain until you’ve finished. Easy recommend!

lily’s world XD (Next Fest demo), PC/Steam - This interface/Fake OS game has you digging through the digital footprint of a (potentially) missing girl named Lily. Like most of these, it seems like it gets dark. Really good angle and generous characterization that makes you want to keep snooping!

Hyper Detonator (Next Fest demo), PC/Steam - Following up their masterful Hyper Meteor, this is a hectic score-chasing twin-stick shooter with an explosion chaining mechanic reminiscent of Every Extend Extra and Splode. Great lo-fi visuals with lots of juice. Vertex Pop does it again!

Virtue and a Sledgehammer (Next Fest demo), PC/Steam - Deconstructeam is one of my favorite developers and this is shaping up to be another unmissable game. Their typical blend of deep storytelling and peerless style meets some intriguing worldbuilding and entertaining physics.

Grunn (demo), PC/Steam - You’re going to give me solid-enough menial tasks to do while creepy stuff lurks at the corners of my peripheral vision and I fall deeper into the shadows of this eerily idyllic setting? Please, say less. Some impressive lo-fi filters make profoundly unsettling visuals.

The Alters (demo), PC/Steam - Very pleasantly surprised with this. Felt like Death Stranding-lite, but the main conceit of the game hit my brain like lightning and hasn’t left go since. 2d-cutaway base building, 3rd-person planet exploration, and a truly heady sci-fi story (high PC requirements tho)

Uncle Chop's Rocket Shop by Beard Envy, on Steam. Clever and engaging rogue-lite interface game about reading manuals and repairing rockets. Fantastic tactile gameplay and job-like progression. Mercifully features a clock-free mode as a companion to its crushing and frantic real-time mode.

The Last Exterminator (demo), by Ironworks Games on Steam. Takes all the best bits from Duke Nukem 3D and tosses a female protag into a familiar-seeming, interconnected urban environment. Clever environmental interactions and juicy, fast-paced combat with unique weapons (i.e. exploding frisbee).