From the ghostly Shutter Story to road trip adventure Outbound and strategy puzzler Titanium Court, here are the titles we enjoyed the most from this year’s Steam Next Fest showcase
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hese days, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that every new indie game is either a co-op extraction shooter or a roguelike deck-builder – fortunately that’s not quite the case. Each February, the week-long Steam Next Fest is a vast and varied showcase of forthcoming titles, all with downloadable demos, and only a minority of them adhere to those dominant genres. It’s a lovely chance to dig into the sometimes bewildering Steam store and pick out interesting treats – and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. Here are five of my favourites.
This one is already nominated for four awards at this year’s Independent Games festival and is picking up a lot of interest for its surreal humour and stylised pixel art visuals. It’s kind of a strategy match-three puzzler, in which you need to move tiles around to protect your castle from rival armies. Water tiles cannot be crossed by enemy soldiers, while hills slow them down. As you match tiles you also gather resources such as stone and food, and acquire military units. Once the landscape is complete, a battle sequence begins in which your troops invade any nearby strongholds. It’s a ridiculous but incredibly clever mashup that could well become this year’s Balatro.
