# Phonopolis
This is the first game I played, and it's the main reason why I got so invested in the Next Fest, it showed me what was the potential I could find. It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. As a big fan of stop-motion and hand-crafted (especially Eastern European) animation, it just hits the right spot. Not only visually, but with the entire vibe, exceptional voice acting, and tropes. It felt like I was neither playing the game, nor watching it, but something third and mysterious. I immediately bough other game from the company, which conveniently went on a sale day before. Studio knows what they have on their hands.

# Super Meat Boy 3D
I have not played the 2D games, but I saw the trailer at Game Awards and was intrigued. I am a big fan of Crash Bandicoot and have been craving a game that can scratch that itch for a long time. Few recent 3D platformers I've tried have been going in the "Nintendo-way", with more open environments, story elements, and RPG systems. This game is exactly what I wanted - No bullshit, short maps, painful precision platforming. Besides some graphical issues I've had, it was perfect and on point.

# Truckful
I had this game wishlisted, but I was very skeptical, partially because of some weird communication from devs on Steams. But when I played it I immediately went into a Zen state. I am not big on cozy and relaxing games, but if I had to choose one it would be this. Driving is just very relaxing, and developers really nailed the automatic camera movements, and the whole control system. Environment is just breathtaking (something the mediocre capsule art does not show), and it feels like game has some meaningful gameplay and progression to offer alongside as well. I simply HATED the automatic squeaky voice of characters, and writing was bad in my opinion, but I really hope everything is polished. Reading some more dev content, I am still skeptical... but hopeful.

# Hark the Ghoul
I was also aware of this game from the Iron Pineapple video, and wishlisted then. Playing it myself confirmed that this was "my" game. I have noticed many patterns in indie gaming this Next Fest, and one of them is that most indie games nowadays are either rogue-lite in some shape or form, with overwhelming skill trees and other RPG elements, or very linear where you just go along for a ride. This game is one of the few outliers with it's Immersive-Sim-like design. It has been described as a metroidvania, and there are certainly a lot of those around, but Hark manages to find the perfect balance in RPG elements, level design, and progression to hit "just" the right spot for me. It's a game you can follow without becoming overwhelmed, or bored. Very rare balance these days.

# The Eternal Life of Goldman
I saw many videos of this on Instagram in the past, and I was of the impression that this game was a scam. It felt too good to be true, too beautiful, there had to be a catch. It is beautiful, even more than videos showed, but my god it is a great GAME! Perfect, even. This game should be an example of level design in linear platforming games. I have not seen this amount of talent in game for a long time. After a while game hits you with the most gut-wrenching framing device for the story with one of the best voice acting I've ever seen. This game will be the "next thing", and lot will be said, so there's no point wasting my time on it anymore.

# Nutmeg
I am a football fan, and I have played with football cards when I was a kid, so the premise of the game was just too enticing to pass, even for a day. I never really understood what the game actually was from the promotion materials and decided to take a tutorial. The worst tutorial I've ever seen. I was forced to read a short novella, had to endure the worst controls I've ever seen (exclusive for the tutorial only, don't worry), and didn't understand a thing. But after maybe 20-25 minutes game had the decency to actually let me play the "broadcast" match, where you decide the fate of the match event-by-event with deckbuilding, and then it hit me. I'm still not sure if the whole training and coaching thing this game has is any good, but I know the actual matches are so enjoyable that I will endure even if it's bad.

# Minos
Tower defense is one of the genres I actively dislike, but I wanted to extend my palette and try some anyway. I'm glad because Minos is definitely an exception to the genre that I will tolerate. I don't even know if it can be considered a tower defense in classic sense, it's more of a puzzle game, but a very fun one. I has no time constraints, no hordes, just you peacefully placing traps and constructing a maze. Framing story also seems very nice. Greek mythology is very overplayed in gaming, but this one does not seem to bother me. You discover a note from someone who describes Asterius the Bull as a "kid", and it gives you a nice emotional punch. Voice acting for Daedalus was good too.

# Nightmare Circus
This game is definitely nothing "special". Unlike almost every indie game nowadays it does not try to reinvent some genre, deconstruct something, or whatever. It just follows the action-adventure format very closely, just simple fun and very cute aesthetics, and I really missed those.

# Enter the Chronosphere
I am little bit undecided if I really like this game, but I know I will try it more. It is very intriguing, and the premise of time moving when you do is really nice. I think gameplay and controls are on point, story seems forgettable, but not annoying at least. Actually playing it I was either really entertained, and feeling really smart with my tactical decisions, or really stressed with the amount of chaos around me. I think the game, especially in later stages, will go for more chaotic, bullet hell levels, and I think it's a shame, because in my opinion hand-crafted levels with stealth elements would be where this concept would hit its peak.

# Black Jacket
I did not know how to play blackjack before this game, but now I know thanks to the amazing tutorial of the game. I have not played Balatro, but I am intrigued by these Balatro-likes that add deckbuilding elements to existing popular games. This was probably my introduction to the genre, and it did an excellent job with it. Concept is very good, execution very solid, art is good, music is good, etc. etc. It seems more conservative in tone than Balatro and others, and that's what I like the most about it.

# Lootbound
This game is also very simple - it's a turn-based roguelike, that's it. But the execution is sublime. The game is proud of its simplicity and you can see that with in its minimal UI. It's very calming, especially after experiencing the excel sheets of some games I played. It's very beautiful, everything you read is short and on the point. Your screen is always clean and readable, and companions system is very nice. Just a lotta fun.

# Hozy
I can't say too much about this game, it's what it shows it is, you can just look at the trailer and you'll see all it has to offer. It's just that those physics-based interactions are so god damn satisfying. It's the ASMR of the Next Fest games.

# Rune Dice
Welcoming text warns you that merging dice is addictive, and it sure is. This game does not seem original on the surface, it's roguelike, it's Balatro-like, it's kind of a deckbuilder, but it is somewhat interesting combination still. Actual gameplay of throwing dice is lot of fun, and requires little bit more skill than other deckbuilders do, which are always more about using your brain than hands. The concept of having a little guy who kills weird guys is also nice framing device, it's not just playing on a table like lot of the games. I'll gladly get addicted to this.

# Modulus
I have not played the automation in many years, and wanted to get into it again lately. Modulus seems like a very solid choice for someone who's basically starting out and does not want to get overwhelmed all at once. Tutorial was very good, I always appreciate when games teach you how to play incrementally, rather than info dumping the entire games Wiki on you, like it was the case with most games. Visuals are very nice, UI is very clean and readable, and I especially liked how you can get inside the machines to configure them. In other strategy games most things would be just text on the screen, in weirdly shaped rectangle, but this game goes extra mile by making every step beautiful, immersive, and like an actual god damn VIDEO game.

# Gambonanza
Another Balatro-like, similar to Black Jacket, and I liked this one as well. I'm not a big fan of chess for some reason, so I decided to skip this at first, but then I picked it up anyways and I enjoyed it. Each run in this game seems quite short, but very fun. It's more like those "chess move of the day" challenges rather than stressful competitive game, and it's very nice. Short, but punishing.

# Map Map
The concept of the game just says it all, really. I pride myself of having great sense of direction and I was very happy that I confirmed that in a game. Art is cute, dialogues little too much maybe, but the actual gameplay part is lot of fun. I hope in the full game there will be more complexity. In the demo it felt like you were given one task, you complete it, read the dialogue, and then next. I would like a game where I have whole shit ton of tasks thrown at me. Let me map the entire island. I also think this is the kind of game that would really benefit from having the "endless" mode, where islands are procedurally generated. Because the mechanic of mapping is not something that requires precision level design, it will not run out of steam, so it will be nice to have endless challenges where you can just open the game and map an island or two every so often.

# Alabaster Dawn
This game just does everything very well. It's a very polished experience in all aspects (except the UI, which is very disappointing). It just throws you in the middle of the story, inside the strange world and does not give you a minute long introduction about what people worship and who's their enemy and all the tired introductions. You're learning about the world as the story goes, and characters just mention something in the passing. In that sense I felt that the storytelling was similar to Clair Obscur. It has a millennial "he's right behind me isn't it" type of writing, but it's forgivable and immersive. Characters also look weirdly 3D, and weirdly good, I don't think I've seen actual pixel art things polished before. But the combat is where it shines the most. The game embraces the modern combat system with telegraphed attacks, smooth controls, dodges, parries, etc. and combines it with a classic action-adventure in, again, very polished game.

# Bounce Castle
Another roguelike with a silly premise, but this one hits too. It reminds me of the simple games I used to play as a kid, so it's weirdly nostalgic for some reason. This game definitely struggles to stand out from other turn-based roguelikes, even with it's concept (which is not actually that bouncy to be honest, it could be lot more chaotic), but it's just very cute and fun to play. I also definitely had to strategize more in this game than most others.

# FFFF You Machine
This game is a weird find. It looks like a shitpost, but it is actual a well made game. You have 10 seconds until you die, and you need to kill everything to add time to your life. Because of that premise this game can't offer any real progression, it would be stupid, but it finds a way to be entertaining by introducing you to list of challenges you can complete on each map, whenever you want, in what order you want, and not necessarily in one run. It's a game you play when you want to pass time and not necessarily think about something. Good background game.

# Wardrum
Another tactical rogue-like that will also struggle to stand out, but I do like it's premise. In order to execute the strikes you have to repeat the specific pattern that each attack has. Better you do more damage you do. It's not particularly challenging, but it's an easy reward generator. I had two issues with the game, one is that characters are so extremely pixelated, and you see them cover the entire screen, it looks weird on large monitor. I imagine this game is better played on handheld device. The other one is that when it's your time to repeat the rhythm, when you press buttons characters do grunting sounds and hitting sounds, which immediately throws you off, because you can't hear music anymore and it's jarring. I hope devs don't see this as a challenging thing, because it's not, it's just annoying and makes attacks lot less satisfying.

# Croak
Like Super Meat Boy 3D this is a precision platform with short and sweet levels. You're just given platforms and a goal and you should just do it. Simple as that, repeat as many times as you want. And the platforming is lotta fun too. I think the "frog games where tongue is the game mechanic" is it's own genre now, but I'm willing to forgive this one, because level design is actually really solid. I am either platforming God or level designers pulled some Valve level shit, it's probably latter.

# Photomaly
I didn't really play this game enough to get to it's most "horror" parts, I played the cozy photo studio job simulator, got jumpscared three times and called it a day. I'd rather get scared in the full game if I have to, I've seen enough to be convinced. Visual style is really nice. Most of the games that go for this "PSX" style usually fumble the characters, they look weird and too funny to ever be scarry. This game embraces the stylized, cartoony look for the characters, which somehow makes them more unsettling and scary. The environment of the game is what I like the most. You're stuck in a small three-room studio with a small back alley, going out feels horrifying, but you're continually forced to. And yet returning to your cozy studio is somehow equally scary.

# Voidling Bound
I am not fully sure about this game, but I think I will buy it when I'm into mood for something easy and relaxing. It reminded me mostly of "High Life", a game which had very similar art style, cool concept, but actual gameplay felt so dull that I couldn't finish. This game has a cool premise, but the actual time you spend in it is weird. You have no player agency whatsoever, maps only have only thing you can pick up, nothing moves (everything is like glued plastic, just like in "High Life"), and goo-y enemies spawn and you kill them in the most basic combat. I felt like this was kind of a game that you can never fail it, no matter what you choose in the skill tree, and how you play your combat it will always dumb down to your level and let you get the win. I hope I'm wrong about that, I'm willing to give it another go.

# Iron Blight
I am not a fan of "Resident Evil" and it's genre. I find the gameplay too art-directed, so I avoid horror games of that genre. This one stood out to me because of it's style, which I really liked (I'm a PSX style lover, sue me). It's definitely not revolutionizing anything, but it felt nicer to me than lot of things in this genre, including it's own inspirations. This is, I think, mostly because of it's simplicity (and amazing atmosphere). It doesn't bore you with 3D animation of hand reaching out every time you pick up something. It does not take the camera away from you to show you the monster in just the way the director wants you to see. Things like that, it's straightforward, respectful of your time, and kind of decent overall. It's an atmospheric game rather than horror, and I like that more.

# Darwin's Paradox
I don't think Konami game should've been allowed on the Next Fest, but here we are. Unfortunately, the game lotta fun. It is probably the most immersive out of all games I played. The story and the style is very similar to early 2000s 3D animated feature films I grew up with, like "Monsters, Inc.", "Open Season", "Over the Hedge" and such. It's very funny, very smooth and actually interesting. Game does not have loading screens or map jumps, the entire game seems to be just one weird guy (with extremely smooth animations) following the road, similar to Half-Life. It's probably the least replayable game here, but I feel like that one playthrough will be very nice and nostalgic (for a right price).

# DownSouth
This game is very weird and trippy. It's really difficult to say what genre it is even after I played it, because I don't know what I was doing, really. It's like '90s arcade games on early consoles, where we didn't really bother to follow the story, we just went right and did whatever the map had in it. Each area is packed with visuals and alternative routs and secrets. Unfortunately, the performance in this was horrible, and I will judge the final game with that metric, but if it's fixed I'll gladly play it more.

# Mole
This is a horror game in the Lung-like genre, I guess, but I think it has more to offer. Similar to the second game of this genre I played ("Crabmeat"), this game takes place in a closed environment in which you have quite a lot of things to do. Things to fix, things to maintain, things to deliver, and all of this while you're fighting something sinister and secret. I seem to like this chore-horror games in they're in the atmosphere that just clicks with me. I particularly enjoy the diegetic parts of those chores, like actually having to transcribe mail on the cassette, having to actually boot up stuff before you engage with them. And there seems to be lot of things you can interact with. That forces you to actually become good at the job your character is doing, to get good with machines, and it's like a weirdly compelling job simulator.

# Barkour
This is spiritually a 7th-gen action-adventure game, one of those that got inspired by "Arkham", "Uncharted", and similar franchises, didn't really reach that level, but was still fun. It does not really innovate in any way, it has all the fun and flaws of the genre. Those games tend to have little bit of everything - little stealth, little combat, little puzzle, little platforming, little collectathon, and don't really excel at any of them, but they're decent fun when combined. Those games have a place and time as well. I did not however like the "Assassins Creed" type tutorial. I think it's imperative for good games to be able to teach you how to play as you play them, step by step. The game also likes to physically abuse CPU whenever it's loading something. This one also has some sort of smoothing applied when you move your camera with mouse, and I hate it.

# Zero Parades
My thoughts on this game are more complex compared to others, but I don't want to discuss them too much yet. I also want to tread lightly because of the context of this game. I don't want to undermine very talented and hard-working artists who worked on "Disco Elysium" because of actions of suits, and I want to give this game a fair chance. Lot of things work in this game, art is very good, even without the old art director, and the concept and the setting seem intriguing. But something is off. It does not click yet. Without going into details about what I disliked I can probably say that it lacks the "soul". I am also very disappointed that the studio decided to straight up not improve on the genre at all, nothing is added, nothing is rethought, no new gameplay elements that were removed from "Disco" because of budget constraints. It's just more of the same, but less satisfying.

# Replaced
This is a weird game. It seems to have very large following already, and some alarms are going in my mind. I liked what I played, in very short demo it offered some varying gameplay elements, "Arkham" style combat, and decent atmosphere. If the game can deliver I would be very happy. But I have a feeling that this is all the game has to offer. I get this sensation that devs just showed all, and the final game will not have any more tricks up the sleeve. I really hope I'm wrong.

# Far Far West
Probably the most covered game of this Next Fest. It comes out at a time where multiplayer and co-op games are seemingly in a transitional period and figuring themselves out anymore. This will scratch a new itch for many people. Extraction shooter where you fight way too many NPCs, complete couple of objectives and get out, grind some numbers to buy better guns, etc. Classic loop, but with nice style and environment. But that's where I'm struggling. It's too classic, it lacks that X factor in gameplay component. I am not a fan of multiplayer games, and even though this game has single player as well it just feels like playing multiplayer game alone. It lacks any real goals, any reason to go out and extract, except maybe you want some mindless shooting and bomb throwing. I am also afraid that this is the kind of game that will add skins and I will just skip it then.

# Deified
Another turn-based tactical roguelike. Stay with me. Compared to the others I played, which are simpler and more casual, this is very complex, which is the contrast I thought I would enjoy sometimes. There's a lot in this game to wrap your head around. You are more limited in your moves and you have to plan better, there's also gazillion stats you have to keep track of. Sometimes man just needs to keep track of gazillion stats. It also has one innovative mechanic, before each encounter you're in a room preparing, picking up "boons", but more you take more noise you make and alert the enemies, so you're always incentivized to pick less and get the stealth bonus. I really disliked how the game looks during combat, however. Outside it if's this beautiful 2D (or 2D-like) art, but during combat you see the most basic, most default toon shaders world has ever seen, with lot of noise and grain that just do not fit the complexity and detail of the models. It was painful to look at, and I hope game abandons this and actually develops some shaders that look like rest of the game.

# Cargo Hunters
This is an extraction shooter, but actually single-player. It's not a co-op game you can play alone, it's actually balanced for a single-player experience. Very unique in that sense, and something I imagine lot of people crave. It is also very complex and detailed. It is for the survival junkies who like games where you can do virtually anything and you have to think about every aspect of your life. I had two issues with the game. The first is the complete absence of any introduction, the game just starts and you have to play it, and figure out all of its million mechanics on your own, without even single tooltip. I don't think demos should be released without this, especially so close to (early access) release date, which is an issue on it's own. The other one was the size of the starting backpack. You can fit maybe 5 items in it, and you're going to loot in the area with seemingly endless supplies. It feels so pointless because you fill it up after killing one enemy and then you either have to go back and abandon the map, or keep going but not take anything with you. Very weird choice and balancing issue that I hope will be fixed.

# Future Knight
This is a delightful arcade game with very unique style and great wacky tracks. It has innovative gameplay mechanics while maintaining the simplicity of the old school '90s console game. It actually delivers that nostalgic experience, it doesn't try to subvert it in any way. The issue, however, is that whoever made the keyboard controls for this game should be tried for war crimes. I have never in my life seen anything this atrocious, and game does not give you any ability to change them, or tweak any settings actually (exiting the game itself is a battle, menu is so lacking). I hope this is not the case where some edgy developer decided that it was "authentic" to have shitty controls for a retro game, because my decision to buy this game depends on me remapping this piece of shit controls.

# Buddy Bug
I am not sure what to think of this game. It has a charm (in spite of extremely cringy dialogues), and I get where it tries to go, what it tries to be. I don't know if the game is there yet. It feels little slow, little small, little unsatisfying. I would say that nothing in the game was actually satisfying, no accomplishment gave me a rush. It wants to be a mix of puzzle and action game, where you utilize your gadgets to kill enemies, but the balancing is way way off. You never have to actually use them, killing them with guns is just so easy, including bosses. In fact I think I took damage just once the entire game, it's just so easy. Level design never really incentivizes you to use those gadgets either, you should be given points of interest, where you can place those gadgets to turn them into traps, but instead you're told "hey, 5 very tankie enemies ahead, do you wanna throw ball at them which will not do any real damage?".

# Lost Wiki: Kozlovka
I recently played a new game in this genre, "Heaven Does Not Respond", and it was decent enough to want more. This game also had a little twist on it, instead of searching internet pages and somebodies files, you're specifically browsing the Wiki, with it's interconnected embedded links. I am a big fan of Wikipedia and journalist, so it's an easy wishlist for me. Demo, however, did not leave too good of an impression on me. The articles on the wiki are extremely short, just 2 or 3 sentences, and very on point. You're given tasks to find, and finding them at this stage was so easy it feels like I was playing match-the-shape. You're asked to find the answer to "___ disappeared in 1992", you open the article called "Disappearances" and the first sentence says "Ibrahimovic disappeared in 1992", there you go, award for finding it. The last puzzle of the game is technically unsolvable, because available articles in the demo are exhausted, but I just guessed what it was. If the final game ends up being this easy I will have to skip it.

# Armatus
The only game with AAA graphics I played. It comes with a cost of course (and an Unreal Engine 5 shaped one, no less) that my PC can handle, but I still don't appreciate. The performance is the most commonly raised issue in the feedback thread, so I expect some improvements in this area, and I won't beat it for too long. The overall structure of the game is very satisfying, it is basically if Remnant was a roguelike with bite-sized maps, very smooth transitions, and of course boons. It works, even if it's flawed. Hopefully developers fix those flaws as well. Namely, the weapons are atrocious, gunplay is not good at all at the moment, and the character and weapon design is very bland, very ArtStation, very uninspired, just random "sci-fi" shit thrown together, without any meaningful art direction. I will probably be a sucker for it still if the price is right.

# Airframe Ultra
This game is the spiritual successor of playing weirdly implemented minigames in multiplayer games that didn't really fit them, like in "San Andreas" (SAMP), or "Counter-Strike". It's nostalgic for someone like me, and the game is somewhat fun, it's a mindless fun, just running around and hitting other players while waiting the lobby. The style also makes this game very trippy and nostalgic, I felt like I would enjoy this after right amount of beers, before going to sleep. However, I am not sure about the lifespan of this game. It's a multiplayer game, it needs certain amount of people to hit that nostalgia meter, and I am not sure if people will stick around this long enough. For how long can we play something like this before we get bored? It's obvious that this is the game that developer(s) made for themselves, it's something they miss and enjoy, and don't really care about other players. Even as the game start it tells you that keyboard is just accessibility feature and they don't care about it, get a controller (actually a pattern on this Next Fest, indie games deciding that their largest potential audience, PC gamers who play on keyboards, can be discarded because they themselves like consoles, and can't be arsed to optimize beyond it). It's an edgy middle finger to others, it's a "whatever" game, it will life for "whatever" long.

# Thank You for Your Application
This game is another Papers-Please-like, but unlike most of them you're not checking zombies for bite marks, which is already a plus. It's actually somewhat cozy, with interesting and timely message, sprinkle of depression and social isolation that only Japanese can convey, and somewhat decent puzzle gameplay (which was little too easy for my taste). It's a game set in the world like ours, in which jobs are becoming scarce, and people more desperate for them, a world in which depressed youth go to forums to share their thoughts in secret, and struggle to pay rent. This world is also communist, for some reason? \*Sight*, sure, why not.

# Weather Dragger
Very short and simple game in which you control the cloud(s) and sun(s), and you need to drag them around and rotate them between tiles in a Sisyphean attempt to maintain the perfect soil in all of them. It also starts to introduce surprising amount of complexity as it goes on, something I hope will continue in the full game. It's main strength is its very unique crayon (or watercolor?) drawings, everything hand-made. It feels like playing through a game child made on their table, and there's a charm in that.

# We, Junk Artists
This game is a Pictionary with anti-AI message in which you assemble the prompts with junk that you have at the hand. It has potential progression system, in which you acquire more junk as you go, and make your life easier. It's also exclusively a multiplayer game, which is an issue. Will enough people actually play it? Will there be even a single lobby you can go into when you have time to play? It's best bet is to market itself as a co-op game for 4+ friends. The game is also Chinese by default, and while it offers decent translation, it weirdly splits servers by languages. It means I cannot play with Chinese users (who will be the main player base, I imagine) because my language is English. Couldn't game just translate that? If the prompt is "Dog", can't the game just translate it into multiple languages for all users?

# The Last Gas Station
This is a shop management sim, there's not much to say. This is not the genre I'm into, but I picked it up because it was very beautiful and felt like I would enjoy spending time in this atmosphere, and I certainly will at some points. I suspect it might have some story to offer along the way, probably the same amount that the "Stardew Valley" does, except the dating stuff.

# Crabmeat
I have to say about this the same as I said about "Mole", I will add that this game has a weird feature, it's movement and navigation is exactly the same as Google Maps street view. It's a strange sentence to say, and I was weirded out at first, but I think it grows on you? It does certainly add a challenge. It also has more unique atmosphere than others in this genre, it's less scary and more depressing. It makes you want to resign and just chop whatever the sea spits out.

# Rhell: Warped Worlds & Troubled Times
This is a very charming game that below the cuteness and "teen" story hides an interesting puzzle mechanic as well, in which you combine spells to get new ones, and accomplish tasks and "clear out" areas. This is a handheld device game, no matter how you look at it. In fact, game actually draws curtains on sides of the screen to make it 4:3 resolution, it just wants to be a retro handheld game so much. That's forgivable I think, but I think it still needs to figure itself out a little more. Crafting spells is little too slow, and some of the puzzles require you to just keep shooting and shooting, it gets very boring. There's a desperate need of some guiding magnets in this sea of player agency, to balance things out.

# Paperhead
A boomer shooter, but unlike other indie games in this genre, this seems to go somewhere. You're not just completely maps one by one, you're also exploring some sort of facility and uncovering its secrets along the way. Sure, it's a boom-boom game, who cares, but I want this in my games. The gimmick of this game is that everything and everyone is either paper or cardboard, but the gimmick just kind of ends there. It's just a boomer shooter but people are cardboards. I mean that's it. The concept isn't really taken anywhere besides some smaller gimmicks. You can replace those cardboard people with regular people and the game will be exactly the same. It feels weird to fumble a concept like that. Performance is also dogshit.

# Memo to the Underlord
I am naturally drawn to anything that satirizes and critics the corporate. That's my jam, and I'm willing to forgive lot of things for that. This game is thematically very similar to "Going Under", this is also a roguelike, but I think this is a game with which the developers are learning the development. It just does not feel that good, starting weapon feels horrible, it's slow, you can shoot once per eternity, kills are not satisfying, and "boons" you get are really weird, most of the time you get no benefit because they're for the stuff that you don't have. I hope this will see some more progress along the way so that gameplay matches the vibe in quality.

# Blood Vial
Just like "Toad-with-a-sticky-tongue" games, "Blood-is-spilling-kill-enemies-refill" games are becoming a separate genre. I'm all for it, I admit, even if the comparisons to "Bloodthief" are probably going to hurt this game. However, this is the only game I played less then 20 minutes (EDIT: not true anymore), because it is an absolute mess. It's kind of a game which is targeting the hardcore players, who want the maximum challenge, but what this game has is unbalanced dogshit, sorry to the devs. The amount of precision and perfection you need to pass levels in this game means that you can only play one way, and execute it perfectly, and that's it. Unlike "Bloodthief", there is no real variety here, no player agency, no large map where you can plan your moves. It's a linear dungeon-crawler. It would be absolutely fine, if that lack of freedom was replaced with something enjoyable, but it's just linear suffer, nothing more. The game has a mechanic that you need to soak the blood of slain enemies to re-heal yourself, but it decides that you can only do that once in eternity, rather than whenever there's a fucking blood on the floor. I find this so incredibly stupid, it breaks my heart. I want to support this game so much, the Godot logo at the start wins me over, but I pray that this game will get some actual playtest, and devs will listen to feedback and balance it, because if they stay in the closed loop of few dedicated players who are just 'tism enough to love this and demand this difficulty, this game will simply fail at market.

# Pro Jank Footy
I am someone who probably spent close to 10k hours in FIFA 15 over the 10 years, and finally got bored of it. I am now looking for new sports game with new twists, that will give me the same experience, but more. This game obviously appealed to me. The concept if very fun, and playing it I actually laughed quite a bit. I am unsure about what state the game is in, however. Steam tag says it's a roguelike, so I expected some sort of career mode, but in the demo there is just one match you can play. It also promises to have PvP. At first I played no-jank match to get the hang of the controls, and unfortunately this is what put this in lower priority for me, the base game, without the jank is not very fun. The "algorithm" that decides how AI acts, where your players position, when they run towards ball/player, etc. are very wacky, and the match ends up being kind of randomly decided by your luck. There's also no ability to remap keys, which is a dealbreaker for me. I will wait for further updates on this one.

# Scriptorium
I thought this game would be just a sandbox, basically a coloring book software packaged as a game, but it surprised me with it's (basically) shop simulator elements. You take orders and make manuscripts, you have progression, and story as well. Everything is very nice. In this particular demo I wanted to play the sandbox mode, and I had a blast making a manuscript of me and my cat. It's not the kind of game you can play for a long time, but when you get a feeling for it you can get it and have a wonderful time. The game could use keyboard controls, though. Mouse only is little limiting.

# Raccoin
Another Balatro-like, yes. I admit I like this idea of making every game that ever existed Balatro-like, so I like checking them out. This one, unlike "Black Jacket" and "Gambonanza", is lower priority for me. It is not as pretty, I did not like it's music, and at it's core it's much more relaxed, and more idle. It requires less tactical thinking than the other two, although I can imagine this being addictive as well. This can be a fun "half-idling" game, if that means something.

# Red Tape Rampage
This is an idler game, which I remembered I'm not really into. I picked it up because the concept is anti-corporate, and satirizes the job market (another smaller pattern of the Next Fest). However, I realized that in order to enjoy something in this genre I need more pizzazz. I would like this if it had great character and environment art, beautiful UI, some story elements and humor thrown around. This one just feels too bare-bones, it feels like demonstration of a concept rather than a full game.

# Junkster
This is a type of platformer game that I do not particularly enjoy, one with large open areas and inventories and RPG elements, and that's why I picked it up. I am always looking for games that challenge me in the genres that I dislike and make me enjoy them, make it click for me. Even though I am not a fan of this default toon shader look that this game has, I thought I would pick it still. It unfortunately didn't really click for me, I went so far but I thought I would enjoy other things more. I also didn't have the best performance, and at one point game told me to press Spacebar to do something, and pressing it didn't do nothing, hardlocking me in the level, and I just quit.

# Crimson Banner: War of Liberation
At a glance this looked like a turn-based grand strategy game that was more palatable than most, with smaller maps, more doable challenges, I am looking for something like that, because managing something of the scope of "Civilization" is too time-consuming for me nowadays. And maybe this is that kind of game, I just didn't get to try it fully. This is a Chinese game and those tend to ignore English language translation, or do it badly. It's their right of course, not everyone has to ponder to the international audience, they can make games for themselves, but that means I don't get to play this. It also has some graphical issues and very weird combat system that I didn't enjoy too much.

# Drill and Delve
I thought this game would be similar to "Crabmeat" and "Mole", one where you're stuck alone on a weird remote worksite, and weird things happen to you. And I think game promises that they will happen? But I played this game for 25 minutes, and literally nothing happened. You wake up with voiced protagonist (ew), you're stuck in the mine, and you have to dig out. At least I assume that's the goal, because game just doesn't tell you anything after that. You're given some health bars to take care of with the materials you dig out, and that's it. I dug for the entire time and literally nothing happened. I didn't even discover a cave or something. Imagine a "Minecraft" session in which you're just digging dirt and nothing happens. That's the game.

# Tombwater
This game has a very enticing concept, a western souls-like with Eldritch enemies. It also opens very strongly, in a middle of a failed train robbery (I hope that's the actual opening of the game and not the middle part that was moved for the demo). Unfortunately, game just isn't there yet. It feels like it was too early for this to have a demo. Combat, movement, gameplay, it all feels unsatisfying now. I'm also not entirely sold on the style yet. Also, the demo suddenly jumps you in the middle of the story in order to let you experience all it has to offer, which is a terrible choice. I am not prepared for this level, I have not learned how tools at my disposal work, I haven't familiarized myself with the enemies and the environment, how on earth am I expected to enjoy the game without any of that gradual introduction?

# Blood Reaver
This game is the indie version of the "Black Ops Zombies". I don't think it has any spin on it. I am just not a fan of this genre, although I do feel like there is a potential there for someone to innovate it and make it appealing for me. This game is not that, unfortunately. Also, I learned at this Next Fest that 1-4 player game means 4 player game that you can play alone if you want to, it will just feel like being the only player online in an eerie abandoned deathmatch game.

# Cursed Blood
I can't pinpoint exactly what didn't work for me in this game, it has makings of a great game, concept is good, but it doesn't click. It feels like every aspect of the game needs some polishing. Graphics are too basic, so is combat, boons are not really adding much to your game most of the time, game also has very bad introduction in my opinion, and throws way too much stuff right away, rather than introducing them incrementally, like "Hades", for example. It also has very annoying screen effects that can't be fully turned off. Many things like that. It needs more time in the oven.

# Wanderburg
This game didn't click for me. It's just a basic itch.io game except instead of colorful circles you have castles. I don't think the hype around this game will last long, because the gimmick will exhaust itself, and players will be left with very basic gameplay for this genre that simply does not bring anything new to the table. I was also shocked to see how undercooked the UI was for a game this hyped, and this well presented in promotional materials.

# Deadline Delivery
Another game that gained a following with short content game dev videos on social media. This one felt little to flat. Besides the issue that the controls are too wacky, which can probably be ascribed to "skill issue" by hardcore speedrunners that this game can target (and probably should), it just feels like there's not much to the game. You just drive from point A to point B very quickly, avoid obstacles and press F three times to deliver mail. It feels like after an introductory level games has to offer more. It says that full game will have a multiplayer mode, which I can't imagine at the moment, but I would be very interested to see what that means.

# Esoteric Ebb
One of the last demos I picked up. I just wanted to skip this altogether, because I had a bad gut feeling about it, and I didn't want to get disappointed, or have a bad attitude towards a noble project. I decided I'd do it when Argo Tuulik recommended it (one of the writers of "Disco Elysium"), and I regret it. It's just... ugh, not good? Writing is so disappointing, the system is so weird. You have very few speech skills, and the writers decided that the structure of the game is that all of them talk all the time, debate within each other, and you're just a listener (and you're just a dumb dumb listener, badly written dumb character you are, it's either that, or game decided that I should be dumb without any choice based on my character creation, both of those options are extremally disappointing). It just doesn't work as a system, because it makes everything extremely simplistic and frankly dumb. Strength being the conservative, for example, shits on the idea of strong people being able to have equally developed compassion, and follow other political doctrines. It's also not executed well either, sentences you get from your skills (sentences, not dialogues, you get just sentences) might as well be thumbs up or thumbs down icons. There's also a Wiki thing going on here. Your character simultaneously knows everything perceivable about the universe, and also does not remember anything. It kind of feels like writers of this game did not understand that the skills in "Disco Elysium" where fragments of Harry's personalities, and they represented things he knew, felt, and experienced, but instead they confused it as separate characters. This game will be successful on it's own terms, because it's like sunflower seeds for someone quitting the smoking. In fact, reason why I didn't want to play this in the first place was that I thought game was hyped out of desperation of Disco-fans, and not out of it's quality. If you go to subreddits you see most recommendations being "I didn't play it but I recommend". People just really want to like this game, and they will, and I'm happy for them. It also, by very fortunate coincidence for developers, happened to release at the same time as "Zero Parades" of AZ/UM, creating this "scabs vs. honest passionate fans" narrative around the game. What I learned from this game is that dear Argo is still as impressionable as he always was (by his own admission).

# The Dungeon Experience
I initially turned away from this game, but returned to it at the end, when I was exhausted from all the rule-learning of previous games and needed something lighthearted (and also when I learned this was an anti-capitalist humor, and not a DnD inside jokes, as I assumed). This is a comedic, narrative game, similar to "The Stanley Parable", but it can be compared more closely to "Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist" (from one of the developers), in fact, it can be a sequel they're so close in themes and humor. I found it quite funny, and even if it's a one time experience with no replayability I'll probably enjoy this down the line.

# Seth
This game really wants to be Hades. It's Egyptian mythology, instead of Greek, and the story is told by written and narrated text on black screen, until two white dudes (developers, I assume) start having the most laughably bad voice acted dialogue. The story is reminiscent of Hades, controls and combat is like Hades, progression and boons are like Hades (offered by Gods and all), music is so much like Hades I can honestly imagine the lawsuit. Maybe all would be forgivable, if it at least felt good, but it's probably one of the worst FPS experiences I've had. I could not understand if my mouse sensitivity was too high or too low. I am usually not this harsh on indie games, but this blatant copy of a concept riles me up a little bit. My honest advice to developers would be to abandon this project and take their experience from this to new places. My search for ("serious") FPS roguelike continues.

# Froggy Hates Snow
Another one of the "frog-with-the-sticking-tongue" game genre. I decided to forgive the developer for picking the worse capsule art and play this, and I was pleasantly surprised. This is a very unique game that is difficult to compare to others. It combines exploration and the thrill of "clearing the level" with roguelike elements, some survival elements, and roguelike progression system. It's a weird mix that ultimately works and pulls you for more. There are some things that need to be polished, like the screen effects and snow are so intense that it's difficult to see the screen, combat is slow and underwhelming, and music does not adapt, it's just one track. Hopefully they push this to the limit.

# Tides of Blazefall
Holy shit. This feels like a new type of RPG, a new mix from the familiar ingredients that no one has tried before. I thought I discovered some absolute hidden gem, but it turns out it's from the developers of "Tainted Grail", so I'm probably just early to the party. How to even describe this game. The main mechanics of the game are two: sailing the difficult-to-tame ship in water, and fight turn-based nautical battles with cards. Both work great, but the real meat and bones of this game is that it utilizes "Disco Elysium"-like storytelling. You're playing as a disgraced captain, who can't stop fucking up and making the lives of your crew members a nightmare. As you write your logs, voices of different emotions, different whims, different sins talk to you, they try to mock you, influence your decisions. There's no awkward humor here, no "dummy guy lost memory" plot rehashed, like in \*ahem*. It's serious, and it feels really good. You're given the change to be as suicidal, as rageful, as compassionate, or as egoistical you want. I know what to expect, and I can't wait.

# Don't Lose Aggro
I have never played MMOs seriously, so I knew from the premise of this game that it wouldn't be for me, but I decided to try, because I was interested what "aggro" meant. Now I know, but the game is basically a mix between tower defense and bullet hell auto-battler, two genres that I actively dislike, so obviously this isn't for me. However, quality seems to be pretty good.

# Cicadamata
I had a bad feeling about this game because it was described as "caffeinated", but it was actually alright. I am not a fan of this style, I think it's overused in indie games, but underneath that style the game hides that it's actually a pretty basic 3D platformer, kind that you would see custom made by fans in boomer shooter games, you just collect 4 yellow stuff in level and move on to the next. The movement and the shooting is exactly like boomer shooters, except that emphasis in on former rather than latter. I personally like this, I am a fan of this genre, and I can endure the whiteness for some good platforming.

# Gunboat God
I would love to play this game, it looks very beautiful, and from my very brief, and very limited interaction with it gameplay is good as well. But the developer shipped the demo to Next Fest with the bug that doesn't register mouse movement of wireless mouses. So... again with this pattern... I'm gonna pass on this for now, maybe if this ever gets the attention and I am reminded of it's existence I can try it again, but I will certainly not seek it out.

# Altered Alma
I can't say this is anything too original, I played couple like this just on this Next Fest. It's a cliche, unoriginal mechanics, but it seems like game is polished enough, and most importantly very beautiful. I'm usually not into this style, but this one stood out to me. Also, not gonna lie, description mentioned it had dating sim elements inside souls-like metroidvania and I'm very interested what that means, I've never played dating sim. Combat is also decent, although with some issues. However, following the pattern of developers not giving a shit on keyboard + mouse players, this game also has zero support for mouse, no ways to rebind keys, and no way to exit the game without jumping through hoops. Yes, another one of those. I will wishlist this for now, but will read reviews when it's out to see what state the game is in. If the game does not give a shit about it's primary audience on PC, I do not give a shit about that game. If this trend continues I might start doing negative reviews, little fed up with it.

# Vholume
This is probably the best parkour I've ever experienced in a video game. It's so good something in my ear whispers to buy it even if there's nothing else to the game besides this one map, but reason will prevail and I will wait before I make my judgement. It seems like game is quite seasoned already, I finished in 7000ths in leaderboard, so there is already a playerbase. Yet the game is very empty, nothing to do besides two runs, and promised multiplayer button. I think this game needs something else besides just movement and leaderboard, it needs some framing device, some story, some other mechanics, some goal. I think game hints at that, but also being this seasoned and this empty makes me feel like this might be the game that is stuck in development limbo.

# Walk the Frog
What can I say? Frogs are popular now. This is definitely a cute game, but it is clearly targeted towards younger audiences. I found it interesting once it introduced new mechanics that played with lights, but I'm not sure how often this game can do that. I feels quite repetitive. I also really disliked the squeaky sound effects and dramatic ambience music. It's not something I would want to play more than once, but it certainly has a charm.

# Above the Snow
Lately I wanted to get into strategy/management genre little more, and have been trying some things to find the good entry point, something that wouldn't overwhelm me too much right away. This game looks like a good candidate. It is story-driven (although very unoriginal) so it has a slow pacing, reveals things step-by-step, and you can follow easily, but overall complexity does not seem to be little. It's also very beautiful, including the UI. I particularly like the two separate views you have, that come with separate gameplay elements - exterior view, which is classic management stuff, and interior view, in which you can play decorator like in Sims. I am also a sucker for winter and cold settings, so...

# Super Alloy Crush
Very confusing game. It is very '90s, vert "Contra", that's the type of gameplay they're going for, and the combat works. Style is also good, although the music is also in retro console style and I always hated those. Story is... anime. You play and suddenly a bunch of people talking about opening space-time and space pirates and all that that. Sure, man, whatever. First part of the game is metroidvania, but suddenly it switches to wave attack in one map, and I was very confused why that change happened, or when it would end. I played 4 waves and I quit. That's not the genre I enjoy, and it wasn't going back metroidvania aspect, and nothing helped me understand anything. In that sense, it is indeed very '90s. This game is also not supporting mouse input, or exiting the game in a single click, so I will skip this unless those are added. Fuck that.

# Pass the Fear
I dislike bullet hell games, and I wanted to pick this up to try and challenge that, because it seemed like instead of classic bullet hell, in which you're stuck in one map and just move around and somehow you're supposed to take pleasure from that, this one has more classic roguelike progression, where you move between levels, which makes everything more manageable, and allows more paced gameplay. I was right about that, and it looks somewhat nice too. It's definitely a good game, although quite overwhelming with the amount of upgrades it throws at you right away, you have to quickly understand a lot. This could benefit from more incremental introduction of things, like in "Hades". What draws me most towards this game however is boss battles, which are the best from what I played at Next Fest. Bosses having their own rooms also works better than in regular bullet hells, where you have to fight boss and also hordes of minions, which is annoying.

# Dread Fields
This game has Farming Sim tag on steam, and I picked it up because I thought combining this with horror would challenge my dislike for farming games. This is not farming sim, however, it just happens to be on a farm. Actual gameplay is closer to Iron-Lung-likes, like "Mole". Farming sim requires a gameplay loop where you follow the life cycle of food and animals, process them, profit, and repeat. In here, you're the sole worker in someplace and do chores and maintenance, there is no loop or progression. This chore-doing wasn't too bad because the visuals and color palette are very unique and beautiful, atmosphere is also Eastern European/Central Asian and close to me, and I thought the visual depiction of the farm life was very authentic and realistic here. The hook of the game is that something creepy is gonna happen, of course, and distract you from those chores, but unfortunately I didn't get to that point. I quit the game after 10 minutes, and when I returned I had to start from the scratch because there are no saves in the game... I will keep an eye out on that, but I am disappointed.

# Obstacle Overdrive
This is a game in which you drive toy car with a remote control in an obstacle course assembled with toys in child's room. At that, the game is very good. Controls feel very good, and aesthetic matches the description. It's a game for visual maximalists, or those who liked playing "Toy Story" games as a kid. The demo has 4 levels, and unfortunately, besides the complexity of the obstacles, no new gameplay elements were introduced. I think this is important for this game, because the driving and obstacles alone are not enough to keep you engaged more than an hour. It needs some puzzle mechanics, new physics systems, some new sort of unique obstacles, or maybe even new mini-games. I would recommend developers to have design sessions over this to make the game as fun as it can be.

# Wax Heads
I am not a fan of millennial-story games in perfect little towns with perfect residents and perfect shops and all that, but I had a hard time passing this because of it's art, and also the promise of lot of music (which is not that much yet to be honest, hopefully lot more tracks in the final game). I think I can learn to love this game, it's gameplay is actually fun, it's not overwhelming, and basically acts a social puzzle. What I liked the most is the mini games that are available, hopefully those will be plenty in the final game as well. Also, Godot!

# Akatori
This is apparently a game that has been long awaited in metroidvania circles, and have taken more time than people expected. It's also developed by studio who's working on a game I'm waiting for more, so perhaps split resources? It's beautiful, and it works as a metroidvania, but something is "off" and I can't put my finger to it yet. Combat isn't satisfying for some reason. Camera movement looks little jarring. I'm also unaware of what the hell is happening, why am I collecting yellow crystals? I just follow the flow, but there seems to be complete lack of purpose in this demo. I need to see more to make decision on this one.

# Celestial Return
Another Disco-like, but unfortunately another disappointment for me. Story is endurable, I guess. I assume it's somebody's attempt at Philip K. Dick story with overused '70s PI routine. But this game, unlike others, does not have any gameplay mechanics besides the dialogue, but it's better to be described as listening. There is no character you control and move around, no real choice in the demo, no world you actually see. Some paintings appear on the screen, and you just continually hit "Continue" to listen to the next line. In 20 minutes I had choice of dialogue I think 6 times, and in only one of those it seemed like I had multiple choices, others were just different wordings of the same thing. I also played dice 3 times, I like the dice system, but it still does not make this a game. I don't feel any connection to the character I'm supposed to be controlling, I feel like a spectator, not a player. It's a comic book, and I'm looking for games in this medium. Turns out I need to be waddling the fat little guy around to enjoy the Disco-like.

# Chop Shop
I didn't even gave this game 5 minutes of time. It's a mess. It's a screen shake simulator. Every time you interact with something the screen shakes as if it was thrown from a forth floor. I have no idea what the creator was trying to do with this, or why. The premise seemed good from the description, video seemed somewhat beautiful, but the beginning is just ugly white screen where you teleport around and have your screen shaken. Horrible.

# Ultrapool
I will not apologizing for playing another Balatro-like. Pool was actually something I wanted for a while, I had my MiniClip 8-Pool addiction as a kid, and kind of miss that. This game seems very bare for a moment, the core gameplay is there, but it's not enough, it feels like a mobile game. I think it needs lot more, like cue upgrades, table upgrades, pocket upgrades, and stuff like that. It needs to introduce lot more chaos, and lot more balls as well. I will keep an eye on this.