10 Games To Watch From Steam Next Fest Because They Were Big Hits

Steam Next Fest ends today, bringing another packed week of demos to a close. While hundreds of games fought for a place on the homepage, and some received a lot of backlash for obvious AI, a few games stood out from the rest, drawing in thousands of players and loads of positive reviews.

The best part? Many of these games are releasing sooner than you might think. Here are the biggest success stories from this week's event, along with their release dates.

Over The Hill

TBA 2026

Over The Hill is a beautiful game with a simple concept: you, an off-road vehicle from the 1960s, and large open vistas to explore. The demo is a Zen experience. I found myself entering a meditative state. I imagine there are aspects of the game that become more challenging the further you progress, like more environmental danger and tricky terrain to navigate, but for the most part, this game is just about taking it all in.

Developer Funselektor has taken its pedigree of minimalist driving games, like Art Of Rally, and built it into a more complete experience. Can't wait for the full version of this.

Empulse

24 June 2026

Empulse really caught my attention because its movement mechanics remind me a lot of Titanfall 2, but it kept me hooked throughout several hours of play because of its overall polish and gunplay. You can wall-run, jump, use a grappling hook and otherwise hurl yourself around the map.

However, Empulse isn't actually that fast-paced. It actually feels like a slightly slower Titanfall 2 multiplayer mode. That being said, I can see there being quite a wide gap between new and experienced players - which can always be difficult for a shooter to manage, particularly one that errs on the smaller side of development.

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The Mound: Omen Of Cthulhu

15 July 2026

The Mound: Omen Of Cthulhu is a fascinating game: it's a co-op FPS extraction survival game that sort of feels like if Sea of Thieves was full of Lovecraftian horror, but it's just about the parts where you explore the islands looking for treasure. I've also got to chuck Hunt Showdown in there as a comparison, too. You head onto tropical islands to collect loot, avoid horrible creatures, and eventually extract with your goods.

It's so dark and gritty, and pretty damn scary, particularly when I was playing on my own. I hope the solo experience gets fleshed out a little more than it currently is, because it does feel designed around co-op play largely. In general, I think the game needs a little more polish (I got a really annoying bug where all the audio just kept cutting out), but it's got another month or so before the early access release, so we'll see!

Casualties: Unknown

TBA 2026

Casualties: Unknown strikes me as a bizarre indie mix of Project Zomboid, Terraria, Spelunky, and Barotrauma. It seems to draw from all of these games in different ways, and in the end creates a totally unique package. You are a weird creature that is sent into the depths of a planet to recover some last cargo. You are expendable. Totally, totally expendable.

I fell to my death several times during the demo and spent just as much time slowly bandaging my broken bones, only to die moments later from a severe infection I failed to treat. Actually, I died a lot in Casualties: Unknown. The simulated broken bones had me cringing every time my weird little guy fell off a cliff. Removing glass shards from your feet is horrible, obviously. Everything about this game is bleak and morbid and, wow, I think it's just a really great time.

No Such Place

TBA 2026

No Such Place is a top-down extraction shooter that reminds me a lot of a game called Zero Sievert, if you've ever heard of it. I've also just finished reading the Strugatsky brothers' Roadside Picnic, a book that inspired the Stalker series and has obviously had an impact on the design of No Such Place. As a result, I went into ChillyRoom's demo for its extraction shooter with some contextual expectations.

No Such Place is a tense and often complicated experience, but I think it does a good overall job of capturing the hostile atmosphere of a place that you really shouldn't be in, regardless of how much valuable loot is scattered about. I'm not sure if I liked the way the game fills your screen with visual clutter - both environmental and UI/UX - but once I started to get into the rhythm of the game, I appreciated the flexibility of the playstyles. You don't need to go guns blazing. Go steady. Take your time.

Void Diver

TBA 2026

It seems like there's a bit of a theme emerging from this Next Fest. Void Diver is another extraction RPG type game where you manage an antique shop and send your 'Divers' out to collect loot from an anomalous zone. I'm not sure why we're seeing such a renaissance in this particular, somewhat niche genre, but the event has been full of demos that cover this exact type of gameplay and setting.

It's an isometric looter shooter that makes me think of Escape From Duckov if the duck was an anime girl and the monsters weren't bandits but absolute Stalker-like freaks. Void Diver is a bit clunky in places, but this is definitely one to watch for the future.

Echoes Of Aincrad

9 July 2026

Echoes of Aincrad is a sprawling game, even in its demo version. Fans are obviously excited about a new project in the Sword Art Online universe and the demo player numbers clearly show that, with the demo regularly holding above 10,000 players.

I'm not well-versed in SAO, but I do know that feedback has been extremely mixed in the community: some praise the scope and scale of the demo, while others are worried that it's quite underbaked. As someone who just went in to experience a game that lots of people were talking about, I had a decent time exploring, leveling my characters, and getting to grips with the combat. It clearly doesn't do anything groundbreaking, but maybe with a little more time after launch polishing it up, it might be the game the SAO fandom wants.

Iron Nest: Heavy Turret Simulator

TBA August 2026

Iron Nest is one of the highest-rated demos from Steam Next Fest and for good reason: it's a passion project built by a small team that hones in on one unique concept and executes it extremely well. In Iron Nest, you operate an enormous heavy turret.

You need to solve puzzle-like coordinate gameplay elements to hit your target, and then fiddle with various knobs and handles to get the missile to land in the correct place. I love the audio design, the tactileness of the controls, and the attention to detail.

Mistfall Hunter

30 July 2026

Mistall Hunter is the demo I played the most during the course of its week-long playtest, which has now ended. I think this game - which is essentially a Dark and Darker fantasy extraction PvPvE game with a Norse aesthetic - will go on to do some great things if the team at Bellring Games can listen to some of the important feedback from the test.

That includes a duo queue (I have no idea why more games don't include duo queues as standard, it always seems to be popular with the community), as well as balance changes for the Rogue (obviously), and a final pass over optimization, which definitely suffered in the playtest. Even on my top-end kit, I was getting all sorts of stutter and lag. Those need to be completely eliminated for Mistfall Hunter to be in with a chance of succeeding.

Bombanana!

TBA August 2026

Okay, like many others, I didn't discover Bombanana until right toward the end of Steam Next Fest, and I have to say this game is hilarious if you've got two other mates to play it with. You are three monkeys. One of you is blind, one of you is deaf, and one of you is mute. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. You have one job: defuse the bomb. This requires a level of interaction that causes some hilarious and frantic screaming/head shaking/and explaining.

This is just some good old-fashioned friendslop, another indie game that takes a relatively well-known concept (it went viral with Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes) and adds a unique element to refresh it. I can see this being a popular one when it launches.

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