Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
The games industry feels broken at the moment, especially if all you're looking at is the AAA side of things. Indie showcases like Steam Next Fest, however, give me hope for the future of the medium. Let's talk about the demos I played during Next Fest that you need to pay attention to, and why they're decidedly not in the AAA sphere.
Support the show on Patreon - patreon.com/writingongames
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The industry is bad, but the games are superb. Recently Steam Next Fest came along and provided its yearly selection of free demos from hundreds of indie developers, showcasing the good in a medium so often mired in the bad.
The games industry, as it stands, has a lot of problems. People are being laid off left, right and centre regardless of if their game was a hit or not, for the sake of unsustainable growth to enrich a few supremely myopic CEOs.
This is as much a problem of indie games as the bigger AAA sphere (the answer is far more complicated than for devs to simply "go indie"), but at the very least when it comes to indies there is currently so much innovation and creativity that it's hard to keep up with all the amazing new and upcoming releases.
In this analysis then, let's talk about the games I played during Steam Next Fest that you need to be paying attention to (including Skin Deep, Despelote, Haste: Broken Worlds and many others), and why they're decidedly not in the AAA sphere. Steam Next Fest gives me hope—let's discuss why.
Games discussed (wishlist them, it helps!):
Despelote - store.steampowered.com/app/2367820/despelote
FUMES - store.steampowered.com/app/1920430/FUMES
qualia - store.steampowered.com/app/3351080/qualia
HASTE: Broken Worlds - store.steampowered.com/app/1796470/HASTE_Broken_Worlds
AVENGE MYSELF - store.steampowered.com/app/3267460/AVENGE_MYSELF
Demon Tides - store.steampowered.com/app/2585890/Demon_Tides
Skin Deep (seriously, check this one out) - store.steampowered.com/app/301280/Skin_Deep
0:00 - Intro
2:30 - Despelote
5:54 - FUMES
7:44 - qualia
10:54 - Haste Broken Worlds
13:06 - AVENGE MYSELF
15:56 - Demon Tides
17:47 - The game I'm most excited for
24:01 - Reject AAA slop and find your favourite game instead
25:36 - Outro
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Text intro animation by Isaac Holland - twitter.com/drazgames
The games industry feels broken at the moment, especially if all you're looking at is the AAA side of things. Indie showcases like Steam Next Fest, however, give me hope for the future of the medium. Let's talk about the demos I played during Next Fest that you need to pay attention to, and why they're decidedly not in the AAA sphere.
Support the show on Patreon - patreon.com/writingongames
---
The industry is bad, but the games are superb. Recently Steam Next Fest came along and provided its yearly selection of free demos from hundreds of indie developers, showcasing the good in a medium so often mired in the bad.
The games industry, as it stands, has a lot of problems. People are being laid off left, right and centre regardless of if their game was a hit or not, for the sake of unsustainable growth to enrich a few supremely myopic CEOs.
This is as much a problem of indie games as the bigger AAA sphere (the answer is far more complicated than for devs to simply "go indie"), but at the very least when it comes to indies there is currently so much innovation and creativity that it's hard to keep up with all the amazing new and upcoming releases.
In this analysis then, let's talk about the games I played during Steam Next Fest that you need to be paying attention to (including Skin Deep, Despelote, Haste: Broken Worlds and many others), and why they're decidedly not in the AAA sphere. Steam Next Fest gives me hope—let's discuss why.
Games discussed (wishlist them, it helps!):
Despelote - store.steampowered.com/app/2367820/despelote
FUMES - store.steampowered.com/app/1920430/FUMES
qualia - store.steampowered.com/app/3351080/qualia
HASTE: Broken Worlds - store.steampowered.com/app/1796470/HASTE_Broken_Worlds
AVENGE MYSELF - store.steampowered.com/app/3267460/AVENGE_MYSELF
Demon Tides - store.steampowered.com/app/2585890/Demon_Tides
Skin Deep (seriously, check this one out) - store.steampowered.com/app/301280/Skin_Deep
0:00 - Intro
2:30 - Despelote
5:54 - FUMES
7:44 - qualia
10:54 - Haste Broken Worlds
13:06 - AVENGE MYSELF
15:56 - Demon Tides
17:47 - The game I'm most excited for
24:01 - Reject AAA slop and find your favourite game instead
25:36 - Outro
---
Text intro animation by Isaac Holland - twitter.com/drazgames
