Steam NextFest 2026: The Good, The Bad, and The Unfinished (Ep.70)

Описание: Timothy, Jack, and Adam sit down fresh off Steam NextFest to give their honest first impressions of the strategy demos available right now. The conversation covers everything from a promising god game and a card-based tower defense hybrid to a space survival sim that made Jack want to reinstall FTL, and an RTS sequel that had Tim questioning why he wasn't just playing Beyond All Reason instead.

But beyond the individual games, the episode turns into a broader conversation about what a demo should actually be in 2026. Are developers showing up to NextFest with investor pitches dressed up as playable content? Is Steam doing enough to help players find the good stuff? And what does a demo need to do to earn a wishlist?

Games discussed: Atre Dominance Wars, Twilight Imperium, Solar Wave, Battlestar Galactica, Irezumi Defenders, Demiurgos, City States Medieval, Spaceslog, Ashes of Singularity 2, Townsfolk, Port Authority.

00:02 Intro and first impressions of Steam NextFest
00:37 General feeling: lots of idle games, roguelikes, not many standouts
01:43 Atre Dominance Wars: promising on paper, no hook in the demo
02:46 Twilight Imperium Digital: one mechanic, not much else
05:34 Jack: nothing caught his eye, but demos are demos
06:10 Sound design and music across the demos
13:11 Solar Wave: idle space expansion with not enough depth
18:30 Battlestar Galactica: good atmosphere, simple gameplay
19:56 Tim's highlights: Irezumi Defenders and Demiurgos
23:35 City State Medieval: UI killed it immediately
24:42 Spaceslog: the FTL-adjacent survival sim with a resource problem
29:57 Townfolk: casual district-builder, browser game vibes
31:17 Ashes of Singularity 2: looks good, plays like 1994
37:27 What makes a demo? The real conversation from NextFest
39:50 Wishlists, investor pitches, and who demos are actually for
41:00 Old magazine demo discs vs what NextFest demos are now
43:27 The two types of demo that work
48:00 Should Steam provide guidelines for demo quality?
51:29 Should Steam filter or curate NextFest better?
52:26 Wrap up and outro

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