Top 14 Steam Next Fest October 2025 Demos

Taylor Rioux
2 days ago
4 min read

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This October’s Steam Next Fest has finally come to a close. With hundreds of demos available to try out, I was never going to be able to get through them all, or even talk about a fraction of the ones I played. That doesn’t mean I can’t talk about the ones that made an impression, however!

Here are my top 14 demos from October 2025’s Steam Next Fest:

Skate Story

What if Skate and Lumines had a baby? That’s the design philosophy seemingly behind this upcoming exciting skating title. The story follows a demon made of glass who has been given a skateboard. Your objective: skate to the moon and eat it. Somehow more "out there" than the premise suggests, this one is full of good tricks and great vibes.

Ember and Blade

Taking cues from titles like Vampire Survivors and Hades, Ember and Blade is an enticing mix of action and story. You battle hordes of enemies, collecting power along the way as you aim to fight a larger demon boss at the end of each zone. The art direction and story are pretty interesting from what little we saw in the demo, so here’s hoping the full release is just as interesting throughout.

MARVEL Cosmic Invasion

Another arcade beat-em-up brought to you by the team behind the tubular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, this one sees you control teams of Marvel super heroes prowling the streets to beat up some bad guys. Reminiscent of classic arcade titles like Streets of Rage, MARVEL Cosmic Invasion can be played with up to 3 other players.

Hell Maiden

Another bullet heaven and roguelite mix to make the list, Hell Maiden uses its 90’s anime aesthetic to tell a tale of Dante and Vergil (of Divine Comedy fame), but if they were young girls traveling through the hells themselves. While most of the game is rendered in a charming pixel-art style, there are special moves that wowed us with their presentation by featuring fully animated cutscenes in the midst of gameplay.

Dead Format

Dead Format is a survival horror game set in 1990s Scotland. The premise is simple: your brother has gone missing after becoming obsessed with a mysterious new VHS format. The player character must piece together and follow his trail through the tapes and uncover why the government wants to ban "Video Ghastlies". The atmosphere of Dead Format is top-notch. The videos have a The Ring-like quality to them, and the areas each VHS tape generates captures the feel of the videos perfectly.

Yunyun Syndrome!? Rhythm Psychosis

A rhythm adventure game about a hikikomori girl - also an avid anonymous poster - who corrupts the world while listening to denpa songs. The art is phenomenal, and the rhythm game portion is exciting as well. Helps that the music is straight gas, too.

Cairn

A rock-climbing simulation game, Cairn sees you scaling mountains as professional climber Aava. Using Aava’s stamina and posture as your resources, you must take hold of the terrain and climb as high as you can.

Homura Hime

One part bullet hell, and two parts character action game, Homura Hime has style in spades.

Bladesong

An impressively deep sword-making game with some interesting RPG elements mixed in. The crafting in this game is insane, frankly, and the amount of freedom you’re given to shape and design your blades lends itself to some truly goofy creations.

Lumines Arise

Speaking of Lumines, Lumines Arise is coming out soon and if the demo is any indication, we’ll be talking about it for a long, long time. This rhythm and puzzle game fusion is deserving of every bit of hype it has been getting.

Anthem#9

Anthem#9 features similar artstyle and music to Atlus’ Persona titles, but don’t let that give you pause — this title is its own unique thing. Using gems to craft your next move, you’ll have to battle through a series of stages before facing each boss.

Rubinite

A 2D pixel style boss rush game. The Demo has given us a taste of the combat, and a glimpse into the dark world this story takes place within, and I can’t wait to play more.

Alabaster Dawn

From CrossCode developer Radical Fish Games, Alabaster Dawn is a 2.5D action RPG brimming with charm. You’ll fight bosses, solve puzzles, and explore a finely crafted, lush world in this adventure.

Wizard Cats

In Wizard Cats you play as — you guessed it — a wizard cat. A silly premise, for sure, but this is an impossibly deep game full of spellcraft and danger. Using a nearly endless number of spells, you must sling your way through hordes of enemies and duel other spellcasters.

And that’s the list! I played over 40 demos during Steam Next Fest, and while these were not the only good titles I tried, they were the ones that stood out to me the most. I can’t wait to play these upon full release. If you’re interested, take the time to try out some excellent demos in the meantime!