Highlights From the June 2025 Steam Next Fest

Hot on the heels of the major summer gaming showcases, Steam has launched the June 2025 Steam Next Fest with hundreds of demos to check out. As is typically the case, there's more available than any one person could ever hope to play in the week that the Steam Next Fest is running, so we've gone through and cherry picked just over 60 demos to try, 20 of which we've highlighted here as games that are must-play during the event. Some of these titles have new demos after appearing in a previous Steam Next Fest, while others are making their debut ahead of their launches either later in the year or at a date yet to be determined. First-person shooters, survival horror, Metroidvanias, Soulslikes, and more, there's just about something for everyone, and these 20 demos represent the most promising games to try out until June 16.

• Release Date — July 15, 2025
• Developer — River End Games
• Publisher — Nordcurrent Labs
• Genre — Action-Adventure, Stealth

An isometric stealth game backed up by a compelling mystery and some great writing, Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream came completely out of left field to be one of the best demos we played at the June Steam Next Fest. Its gameplay is similar to the Mimimi Games titles like Shadow Tactics or Shadow Gambit, but Eriksholm ditches the coordination and combat of controlling an entire squad for an experience that is purely focused on stealth in a gorgeous setting rendered in Unreal Engine 5. The progress from the demo also carries over to the full game, which is set to release in just a month on July 15.

• Release Date — October 31, 2025
• Developer — Yacht Club Games
• Publisher — Yacht Club Games
• Genre — Action-Adventure

We've waited for years for Yacht Club Games to deliver its first real follow-up to the incredible and award-winning Shovel Knight, and that day is finally upon us when Mina the Hollower releases this October. To commemorate the game's release date announcement, Yacht Club has released a playable demo as part of Steam Next Fest, and it's every bit the loving homage to the Game Boy Color that the initial images led it to be. If Shovel Knight is Mega Man meets Ducktales, Mina the Hollower is definitely Castlevania meets The Legend of Zelda, and it's already proving to be a follow-up worth the wait.

• Release Date — TBA
• Developer — White Owls, Inc.
• Publisher — Cult Games
• Genre — Action, Roguelike

In terms of the weirdest demo available during Steam Next Fest, Hotel Barcelona has to take the cake. A collaboration between Suda51 and Swery, Hotel Barcelona is every bit as off-the-wall and strange as you'd expect, given its creators, and the small slice of gameplay on offer in the demo is enough to sell us on its interactive horror film premise. Hotel Barcelona is a side-scrolling action roguelike that's bursting with references to classic horror films like The Shining, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street, and its writing and bizarre characters add to the game's otherworldly, almost psychedelic charm. Combat is, admittedly, a little janky, but that's almost a trademark of a Swery title.

• Release Date — 2025
• Developer — Sam C
• Publisher — Oro Interactive
• Genre — Driving, Cozy

If you've ever wanted to play a cozy delivery driver simulator with PS1-style graphics, then boy, do I have the game for you. Easy Delivery Co. is a charming little game where you play as a feline delivery driver for the titular delivery company, hustling packages back and forth between the businesses and residents of a sleepy mountainside town. The driving physics are actually pretty impressive, and there's something so relaxing about taking in the low-poly scenery as you casually drive from one location to the next. Easy Deliver Co. is a game that leans hard on its vibes, and it's all the better for it.

• Release Date — TBA
• Developer — The Outer Zone
• Publisher — 11 Bit Studios
• Genre — Deckbuilder, Roguelike, Tactics

A surprisingly dark and heart-wrenching tale about a mother trying to grieve over her lost son is not exactly what you'd expect as the backdrop for a roguelike deckbuilder, but that's precisely what Death Howl delivers. This turn-based tactics and deckbuilding hybrid also features a decent amount of Dark Souls influence in its enemy design and atmosphere, and the tactics are satisfyingly deep and challenging, enough to where you never truly feel like you have a leg up in any encounter.

• Release Date — July 10, 2025
• Developer — Signal Space Lab
• Publisher — Hooded Horse
• Genre — Tactics, Strategy

Mixing sci-fi and military realism, real-time aiming and tactical turn-based combat, Every Day We Fight is a game of contrasts that all meld together into something almost impossible to put down. Easily my favorite tactics-adjacent game that's available to try as part of Steam Next Fest, Every Day We Fight sees you using real-time controls to explore environments and avoid detection from enemies, switching to a turn-based tactical style of gameplay not different from XCOM when encounters begin. The most exciting aspect of Every Day We Fight's combat is the real-time aiming, which switches the camera perspective to first-person and gives you a greater locus of control over how successful your shots are than the occasionally brutal RNG of the XCOM games.

• Release Date — Q3 2025
• Developer — Pixel Reign
• Publisher — Super Rare Originals
• Genre — FPS, Roguelike

First-person shooter gameplay and roguelike structure go together like peanut butter and jelly, and Moros Protocol is a great example of how it should feel when done right. A big part of what makes Moros Protocol so enjoyable is its smooth and responsive controls, but it's also got some amazing voxel-style pixel art visuals that call to mind the art direction of the recent System Shock remake. Moros Protocol leverages a bunch of different influences into a strong mix that's already rife with promise to become one of the better FPS roguelikes.

• Release Date — September 3, 2025
• Developer — Bandai Namco Singapore
• Publisher — Kakehashi
• Genre — Action-Adventure, Puzzle Platformer

After having just been revealed at the PlayStation State of Play showcase last week, Hirogami already has a public demo available on Steam that's working overtime to sell me on its premise. Hirogami is part action-adventure game and part puzzle-platformer, and its unique, origami-inspired visuals give it an artistic identity that distinctly separates it from similar games. There's a charming, Super Mario World-inspired overworld map where you can navigate between the different levels, each of which has plenty of objectives to clear that give incentive to replay and achieve better results. Hirogami also features a surprising amount of abilities for traversal and combat that make great use of its origami theme, and it deserves to be played to see how cool they are in action.

• Release Date — TBA
• Developer — ITEM42
• Publisher — ITEM42
• Genre — FPS, Immersive Sim

One of the few first-person immersive sims that are playable as part of Steam Next Fest, Deficit ticks a lot of boxes for fans of games like Deus Ex or System Shock. On top of its awesome visuals and gameplay, Deficit has a killer soundtrack and a suitably dystopian sci-fi vibe that make it feel like a forgotten gem from the late '90s or early '00s.

• Release Date — July 10, 2025
• Developer — Pigeons at Play
• Publisher — Devolver Digital
• Genre — FPS

The best thing I can say about Mycopunk is that it's a first-person shooter as ridiculous as its name, blending some gorgeous comic book-style visuals with some tough-as-nails enemy encounters in a mission-based structure that practically begs to be played in co-op. There are four different character classes to choose from, each of which has its own special weaponry and abilities that switch up the feel of combat, and Mycopunk stands out as one of the few indie FPS titles available as part of Steam Next Fest that's not a roguelike.

• Release Date — TBA
• Developer — Heart Machine
• Publisher — Devolver Digital
• Genre — Action-Adventure, Platformer

Despite having just finally released Hyper Light Breaker into Early Access just a few months ago, Heart Machine is already back at it with a playable demo for its much-hyped next game, Possessor(s). Having now played it, I can safely say that Possessor(s) feels like the next major evolution for Heart Machine and a vastly different experience from either Hyper Light Drifter or Solar Ash, all to its benefit. This time around, there's a more direct emphasis on narrative and storytelling, accompanied by a compelling plot about making a pact with a demon, and the gameplay is as stylish and fluid as you'd expect from Heart Machine when making a side-scrolling action-platformer.

• Release Date — 2025
• Developer — Crowbar Collective
• Publisher — Team17
• Genre — FPS, Tactical Shooter

Tactical shooters can have a bit of a high skill barrier to entry, which is what makes Rogue Point so much fun as one of the few accessible ones I can think of. A co-op-focused, mission-based tactical shooter that straddles the line between the realism of Ready or Not and a more arcade-style shooter, Rogue Point is fun when playing in single-player but only becomes better when playing with a team. Get in, take out the bad guys, retrieve the targets, and extract; it's the same formula that most tactical shooters are built on, but Rogue Point finds a way to level the playing field and make the genre more simplistic and great for quick bursts of fun.

• Release Date — TBA
• Developer — Guard Crush, Supamonks, Dotemu
• Publisher — Dotemu, Gamirror Games
• Genre — Beat 'em Up, RPG, Roguelike

One of the best games on the Sega Saturn is the classic Treasure beat 'em up Guardian Heroes, and for whatever reason, few other developers have ever attempted a similar hybrid between RPG and beat 'em up. That is, until Streets of Rage 4 co-developer Guard Crush decided to make Absolum, an action roguelike beat 'em up that sticks closely to the Guardian Heroes playbook. Absolum is a gorgeous hand-drawn beat 'em up roguelike that features branching paths, different RPG-style classes, and a high fantasy setting pulled straight from Capcom classic Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara, and its playable demo has me fully sold on picking it up as soon as it drops.

• Release Date — TBA
• Developer — Meteor Magic Games
• Publisher — Meteor Magic Games
• Genre — Metroidvania

We don't get too many 3D Metroidvania games, and Aeromachina is a great example of why we need more. While it does have some resemblance to titles like Pseudoregalia, Aeromachina is surprisingly reminiscent of GameCube classic Star Fox Adventure, and the current playable demo does a great job of dropping you right into the action and letting you see what its gameplay loop is all about.

• Release Date — August 20, 2025
• Developer — Screen Juice
• Publisher — Ubisoft
• Genre — Action Roguelike

Ubisoft's occasional foray into supporting indie titles is giving us a very compelling action roguelike in Morbid Metal, which features some incredibly satisfying movement and traversal mechanics that tie in nicely with its weighty, intentional combat. Morbid Metal plays great and looks even better, and we already can't wait to get our hands on the full game in just a couple of months.

• Release Date — August 20, 2025
• Developer — Stubby Games
• Publisher — Playstack
• Genre — FPS, Roguelike

Stubby Games' VOID/BREAKER is super impressive for a game made by a solo developer, boasting some incredibly slick visuals and gameplay that see it already standing toe-to-toe with some of the best FPS roguelikes. The game's weapon variety and progression arrive via the different upgrades that players can pick up and use to modify their armaments, and the press-forward, momentum-heavy flow to combat makes each run feel satisfyingly fast and frenetic in a way befitting its sci-fi aesthetic and atmosphere.

• Release Date — 2025
• Developer — Digital Sun
• Publisher — 11 Bit Studios
• Genre — Roguelike, Action-Adventure

The original Moonlighter was a hugely important game in helping to establish the current popularity of the action roguelike, and its upcoming sequel is already off to a great start to follow in its footsteps. Moonlighter 2 takes everything great about the Legend of Zelda-meets-shopkeeper simulation gameplay of its predecessor and translates it into 3D, and it's just as addictive a second time around as the first. The demo is pretty tough, owing to the limited amount of upgrades you have available, but Moonlighter 2's premise and gameplay are strong enough to indicate that this one will be another special game when it releases later in the year.

• Release Date — July 31, 2025
• Developer — The Game Kitchen
• Publisher — Dotemu, Joystick
• Genre — Action-Platformer

Hearing that Blasphemous developer The Game Kitchen would be working on a 2D Ninja Gaiden game should have been enough to get any longtime fan of the franchise to take notice, and the Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound demo only serves to underscore that it was the right studio to tackle the project. Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound isn't a Metroidvania like the Blasphemous games and is instead a traditional action-platformer like the old-school NES Ninja Gaiden trilogy, but it does still maintain The Game Kitchen's signature gorgeous pixel art and fluid animations. Best of all, the full game release is just a month away.

• Release Date — TBA
• Developer — Sonka
• Publisher — Sonka
• Genre — Survival Horror

Having previously played Holstin as part of a Steam Next Fest event back in 2023, I was excited to see that the title was coming out of hiding with a brand-new demo to showcase the work that's gone into it since then. It's paid off wholesale, as Holstin's new vertical slice is far and away better than the initial demo, which was already a great showcase of the game's unique premise. The perspective-shifting camera that's used in both exploration and combat makes Holstin a game where it feels like you continually have to be looking over your shoulder, and its suitably creepy atmosphere and gorgeous visuals solidify it as one of the most promising upcoming survival horror games.

• Release Date — September 4, 2025
• Developer — Rogue Factor
• Publisher — Nacon
• Genre — Action RPG, Soulslike

Every so often, you'll play a demo for a game you know next to nothing about, and it'll hook you so hard that you can't stop thinking about it. For the June 2025 Steam Next Fest, that demo is the one for Hell Is Us. This esoteric sci-fi Soulslike has a similar atmosphere and vibe to what I initially expected Death Stranding to be like before ever playing it, and it merges that aesthetic with some fantastic soulslike combat that feels weighty and precise. What I did not expect was that Hell Is Us uses an "investigation" style of questing similar to the recent Atomfall, and the sizable chunk of gameplay on offer in the demo was enough to sell me on that approach wholeheartedly and push me into pre-ordering the game.