Steam Next Fest: the demos to try before it ends on Monday, October 26

October's Steam Next Fest ends on Monday, October 26 at 10 AM PDT (5 PM GMT). Since it opened on Monday, October 19, many upcoming games have been offering free demos on Steam, so you still have a few days to try the ones you're curious about. Here are the games from our calendar that have announced a demo.

How it works

Valve runs Steam Next Fest three times a year. To take part, a game must release after the festival ends and offer a playable demo, and each game can only take part once. The next edition is planned for February 2027. Once the festival is over, some demos stay up and others are taken down: it's up to each studio.

Hope in the City

This narrative investigation game follows Hope Song, a 17-year-old artist searching for her missing parents by turning her sketches into clues. Lofty Sky has an updated demo for the festival, which adds Traditional Chinese and Japanese, among other changes. The game launches on Wednesday, November 11 on PC and Xbox Series, one day later than planned.

Aeterna Lucis

The sequel to Aeterna Noctis is a hand-drawn metroidvania following the Queen of Light across a large interconnected world. Aeternum Game Studios calls its new demo the closest thing to the final game it has ever shown. It launches on Thursday, December 3.

Where the Seeds Fall

The debut title of CygamesEdge, Cygames' new label, is a short adventure about a soldier escorting a child down the World Tree. The demo, live since October 16, takes 15 to 30 minutes: it is a descent sequence with no story and every action unlocked from the start. The full game, which focuses on the narrative, has a main story of about three hours and costs $9.99 / €9.99. It launches on Thursday, November 5 on PC, PS5 and Switch 2.

Moomin: Midsummer Madness

In this hand-drawn adventure, the Moomins are swept away by a midsummer flood and end up aboard a mysterious floating theatre. The demo covers the whole opening chapter, one of the game's six, and goes away on Monday, October 26 at 17:00 UTC, when the festival closes. The game launches on Thursday, November 12 on PC, Switch and Switch 2.