Video Gamers Podcast - Indie [TWIG] Next Fest Demos – Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan and Ace dive into the latest demos from Steam Next Fest, spotlighting indie gems like Witchspire, Paperhead and more. From creative mechanics to surprise standouts, this episod...e is all about discovering the future of gaming in the indie world. The crew breaks down what makes these video games worth watching and which demos impressed them most. If you love finding hidden indie treasures and keeping up with the freshest ideas in gaming, this episode is for you. Join the guys as they celebrate the creativity that keeps video games exciting.   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps and NorwegianGreaser, and Dettmarp   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, PeopleWonder, Bobby S.   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/h2cHKAvSmu Follow us on Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠  Follow us on X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1⁠    Visit us on the web:⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠     Esoteric Ebb https://youtu.be/xayOde6o8J0?si=PFiHyQzk24Dv9PzQ Withering Realms https://youtu.be/985f76uxiLA?si=tNNfhaW7ewAf43xD   Paperhead https://youtu.be/XbQBUMcaktk?si=xCp1PCErDX8gdnEG Witchspire https://youtu.be/I60g50ndLdI?si=DU_VIaVNJc7lX8WH Raccoin https://youtu.be/W7nHkZQuGMA?si=_g5ZIY1rWEgcLwOH How Many Dudes https://youtu.be/GvCrbow9Yy4?si=dFNkuVNsOInJ-bei Protagonist Complex ONE https://youtu.be/WaHIHwoWAbg? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:28 Oh, fellow gamers. And welcome to the video game. gamers podcast. It's that magical time again. Steam Next Fest, the week where our hard drives suffer, our wish lists explode, and indie developers put their best foot forward with brand new, playable
Starting point is 00:00:56 indie game demos. I am your host Ace. And joining me, it's a man who treats every demo like a game's final exam so he can be a grouchy professor and fail them when they use pixelated graphics. It's Josh. Okay, all right, listen, I've
Starting point is 00:01:12 come a long way on the pixel graphics, thing. Like, replaced is one of my most anticipated games, and that's pixel graphics. Here's the other thing. If Replace can do pixel graphics as good as they did, why do other people make their pixel graphics look so trashy? Because other people have different styles. Not everything wants to replace.
Starting point is 00:01:33 So when you go to an artist, do you say your style is trash? Like, oh, I didn't realize, like, you're working like your style is like terrible graphics. Like, I don't, like, it's just, dude, like pixel graphic. Like, Dave the diver, pixel graphics, wonderful, wonderful, like, great. Games that I won't mention because we have respect for the people in the studio now, not so great. Oh, now. Not so great.
Starting point is 00:02:00 And I'm just saying, you can't tell me that, like, you know, the one guy is a savant at pixel graphics and the other guy is not, you know? I guess that's fair. That's subjective, Josh. Anyway, the whole point is. objectiveness. I have come a long way when it comes to pixel graphics people. So there's no games in this list you're going to make fun of for having pixelated
Starting point is 00:02:21 graphics? Actually, there is not. Not for the graphics. There is one game. I'm shocked. I'm just going to prep you right now. There is one game that I am going to mercilessly troll. I have a feeling. And joining us is a guy who can be sold on a game
Starting point is 00:02:39 in five seconds if the vibes are right and the trailer looks pretty sick. It's Ryan. Just give me those vibes, man. Give me some good music and some like nice scenes. That's all it takes for you, bud. It's a good trailer. That's all it takes. Yeah. I'm easily excitable.
Starting point is 00:02:54 Like, people know that. Yeah, that's true. Hence Redfall. Yeah, I was saying hence Redfall. That's amazing trailer. That's classic, the trailer got me. The trailer got me. And it only, it was like my third week or something. That trailer did look pretty sweet, dude.
Starting point is 00:03:09 The vampires, co-op shooter, all that stuff, boss fights. It's like Redfall looked like it was going to be a good game. Is Redfall even around anymore? No. No. No, definitely not, right? Either will Highguard be either?
Starting point is 00:03:22 No, yeah. We just got the news. Highguard's going to be going like, what, March 13th? Yep. Yeah, March 12th. That lasted like a summer fling, man. Just done and one and done and one month. We had our fun.
Starting point is 00:03:33 Yeah. It made it about a week more than Concord. We'll always have our memories. But yeah, guys, it's time. My favorite time in the day. years here. Steam Next Fest. Oh, I almost hit.
Starting point is 00:03:47 Settle down. That's when we get all. We're a serious. I know. I'm excited. I'm excited. I can't help it. I have to attack my microphone like a wild animal.
Starting point is 00:03:57 But, you know, Steam Next Fest is when all the indie developers come out and they put their best foot forward by putting out demos for all the games we're looking forward to. I had some help with this list from our community. I asked for, you know, suggestions and what to play. So not all of these come from them, but a lot of them do. and of course I had to throw my own picks in there as well but what better place to start than with the game
Starting point is 00:04:19 we've probably mentioned the most on this list which is esoteric up in essentiality this is uh disco elysium meets balder's gate three and uh the demo was was quite fun I'll say it captures that perfect spirit of discom I need more info on this game ace because I remember being very interested in this game the first time that we ever talked about it
Starting point is 00:04:41 and then I watched the trailer again because, you know, I remember it's like, I think you're right. Like, Baldur's Gate 3 is a little weird because I, maybe I don't see enough in the trailer on that, but it definitely has the vibe of like Disco Elysium with the dialogue options and then rolling the dice and stuff like that. I remember the humor in this game because the game comes out and's like, yeah, you're the world's worst cleric. You're really, really bad at your job, but your party needs you and stuff like that, which I'm a big fan of D&D. So, like, the D&D references like really resonate with me as well. but like give me the deets on this
Starting point is 00:05:13 because you played this demo and I played the demo very curious about this game because it looks like it checks a lot of boxes for me but like how does it actually play? It plays exactly like Disco Elysium, all right? So instead of your
Starting point is 00:05:29 that's such a good... Instead of like your inner thoughts, your stats are what are talking to you so you have your strength that talks to you, your charisma, your intelligence, your wisdom, your constitution and depending on like how you set your self up before you went in. It's like you chose like a preset build for Mad Mage or whatever.
Starting point is 00:05:46 So you've got high charisma, high wisdom and low intelligence or something. You're dumb as a board. Yeah. Oh, see, this is my kind of game, man. I freaking loved on you. It was a lot of fun. And I love Disco Elysium and I like this like this gameplay style, man. I mean, the game starts the exact same way Disco Elysium does too with you in a void just
Starting point is 00:06:06 listening to your voices. We got to see Kujo again. No, you're not going to see Kuno I can't call him Kuno now How long is the demo on this? Oh, this demo I think was like four or five hours It is a long demo I didn't play the whole thing
Starting point is 00:06:23 I had to make sure How long is the game? I'd say like 45 minutes or something I could probably say that I can probably No, it's so open-ended dudes You can get hours and hours and hours of content Just out of the demo alone Yeah, it was quite good
Starting point is 00:06:38 You wake up in a morgue filled with Apple and one of the first things you do is you feel your face is like, oh, I feel a helmet there. Should I remove it? And all of your senses go, no, do not. That's a terrible idea. We could die. And then if you try to go into the menu and pull his helmet off, he's like, uh-uh.
Starting point is 00:06:57 Oh, he just won't do it. That's amazing. He won't do it. I love this kind of stuff. 40-50 hours. My biggest issue with it. Yeah, 40-50 hours. Play-thirt for a full game.
Starting point is 00:07:08 That's what it says. Yeah. Continuous play. time it's over 40 hours. What's the release date on this? Do you, do you know? Oh, it came out today when we're recording this. Dude, I'm not in March. Come on, man. There's too many. The whole game is out now. I am actually going to do that. I'm doing it right now. I need to add this to my wish list, dude. I'm actually really curious about this game, dude. Like, like really curious about this one. Also on sale for 2249. 2249. Usually at full price, 25.
Starting point is 00:07:40 Sitting at 96% rating out of, I mean, it's low, it's only 108 reviews, but 96% is freaking good, dude. That's really good. Everyone who's played this game loves it. If you love Disco Elysium, you'll love this. If you love Dungeons and Dragons,
Starting point is 00:07:55 you'll love the elements that are thrown into this where you can prepare spells and cantrips, and you can use those to give yourself better roles and things like that. Guys, this one actually kind of looks cool to me. I know, dude. It's very cool. Is there, like, equipment and stuff too?
Starting point is 00:08:09 Yep, there's gear. and equipment. There's all sorts of stuff. You can loot people. You can literally like pickpocket people just like it's Dungeons and Dragons. Is there voiceover work for the characters? This is where the issue is. It does not have voices. You've got to read everything.
Starting point is 00:08:26 That is where it's going to lose some people. And on wish listing now. I was getting to it. Oh, come on. Guys, look, will we we maybe
Starting point is 00:08:42 semi professional voice actors maybe maybe not you know maybe we can't say anything you know
Starting point is 00:08:50 but we may be we're not allowed to say anything we may be semi professional voice actors and we we will voice
Starting point is 00:08:58 your game you have to like it's too late the game's out no they're they're gonna they'll launch it
Starting point is 00:09:06 like esoteric ab director's cut in coming yeah we'll get one I'll play it when they when they do the voice
Starting point is 00:09:11 silver work. Look, we'll try it really hard. It's a super impressive game. Give us the script. It's a super impressive game. Give us the, right. Ryan, you ready to do a like a, like a, ready? Like, let's just do a line from the game.
Starting point is 00:09:22 Ace, give us a line. Oh, you just want me to know, okay. You play the demo. Want to you be a cobald that delivers milk and you just have to try to convince him that you don't like milk. Okay, I'll be the cobald. Because you probably don't know what a cobald is, Ryan. So, okay.
Starting point is 00:09:38 All right, I'm going to start. Ready? Hey, master, here's your milk's for you. This is what you wanted. I'm allergic to milk. You know this? But master, you told me milk is what you like. Not anymore.
Starting point is 00:09:52 I changed my mind. Be gone with you. Master always such a butt face. What did you say? Come here. See, there you go, people. There you go. It's that easy.
Starting point is 00:10:03 Look, and we didn't even charge for that one, guys. That one's for free. On the house. Yeah. I want to tell you what I was. seeing there. I was seeing the horn king and that like goblin from the black caldron. Yeah. See.
Starting point is 00:10:17 And Ace had, look at, dude, it was so good that Ace instantly had flashbacks of like actual movies. We painted a picture, bro. We painted a picture for the audience right there. Yeah. I mean, it was that or it was Homer and Bart with a cold. Okay. Very famous as well.
Starting point is 00:10:33 Like, Ace is just complimenting us left and right. I know, right? So this, all I'm hearing is that we should probably try this. The theater of the mind is a powerful thing. But this game will, if you love disco elisium and you can get past the no voice acting, this will scratch your disco itch. All right. Yeah, I like it when somebody scratches my
Starting point is 00:10:49 disco it. I regretted saying that as soon as I did and it was too late to take it back. I think we were going to let you get away with that? Come on, man. Oh. The disco witch. All right. The old disco itch. I got that in the
Starting point is 00:11:05 70s. My wife's got to be like, she can always hear her. She's going to be like, what's itching? What? Are you talking about. All right. Moving on to our next game, which is Withering Realms, which is a sequel that takes place in the same, I guess, universe as another game called Withering Rooms.
Starting point is 00:11:22 This was brought to my attention by our good buddy, Morgow. I was going to give him the shout out. Yep, absolutely loves these games. This one's really cool. This is a survival horror soulslike, which is super cool. You play as this ghost girl Clover controlling this doll manually and use the doll to fight and take, you know,
Starting point is 00:11:43 take agro because you're a ghost. You can't do anything. I played the demo for this. It was actually incredible. Really? The combat looks good. It's incredibly unique. I've never seen anything like it.
Starting point is 00:11:55 I played the demo for Withering Rooms. Isn't that right? Withering Rooms, right? That was the roguelike. Right. The 2D Roguelike, yeah. Yeah. So, and it's a very interesting art style.
Starting point is 00:12:06 It's kind of a neat game. It's different than anything else I have played. I will say that this trailer looks a little weird. Like I don't know that the art style, because it's this weird, like, it's that PSX style. Yeah, it's just strange looking. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:21 But the combat looked good. There were puzzles. Like, there were vibes to this. Mm-hmm. I know Morgio absolutely loves these games, and, you know, Morgo has pretty good taste in games as well. So it's like, this one actually gets me pretty curious. I don't know that I'll actually ever play this game,
Starting point is 00:12:39 with all the other games coming out. But, like, I also know that there are a lot of people that are excited about this one. So I'm actually, it's, it makes me wonder because you're like, you seem to really have enjoyed this demo. This was really cool. Like, we play a lot of Soulslikes. Okay.
Starting point is 00:12:55 Like, that's, Solzlikes are a diamond dozen. This, like, fixed camera, Soulslike, where you're kind of balancing, doing damage with also using spells to protect the doll. Because if the doll's health falls to zero, you lose. That doll is creepy. too, man. Oh, the doll's creepy.
Starting point is 00:13:11 Oh, get out, dude, man. This one's real creepy. He's got a sword hand and he's got one eye. He's real creepy. But you'll pick up, like, gear that gives you different resistances, just like it's any kind of RPG. It was a really cool experience, and I hope to see them kind of expand upon it.
Starting point is 00:13:28 It's actually got slated for May of this year, too, so we should see this game. Okay. Relatively soon. So far, May looks like a fairly open month, other than double-off coming at the end of May. so maybe we'll get a chance to play some other games not named to Crimson Desert and Marathon
Starting point is 00:13:47 and Slay the Spire 2 and Replaced and Seros They're still playing marathon I think we're going to be in Crimson Desert for the remainder of the year I'll be real yeah maybe that's a big game Yeah I was going to say kind of there's that like hopefully thing in there too Yeah hopefully hopefully Moving on to this one,
Starting point is 00:14:09 which I can't tell you how many people linked me this game and how many people wanted me to look at this game but a game called paperhead. Yeah! Cardboard Doom! Hell of it linked to me this one.
Starting point is 00:14:21 Tetmart linked me this one. Like, so many people. It is exactly what you're saying, Ryan. It is cardboard doom with the fast-paced retro shooter aspects into this paper craft world. I was watching this trail. I'm just going to straight up tell you guys,
Starting point is 00:14:37 I started watching this trailer and it doesn't get to the gameplay part for like the first probably like 30 seconds or whatever. And my actual. That's funny because it's a demo trailer I sent you. Really? Yeah. So it's like, dude, like my initial response was what the bleep is this game? Dude. Like what on earth is this?
Starting point is 00:14:58 And then it gets to the gameplay and I had the exact same reaction as Ryan. It's cardboard doom. Like fast pace, brutal like your car. You're kicking. people like, is that actually what this is? Yeah, pretty much. I mean, it's Doom, but if you're familiar with a different game called Ultra Kill, it's got the speed of that game. Okay.
Starting point is 00:15:17 Yeah, it's a lot more jumpy and movement based than Doom. I don't feel like Doom is all that movement based, at least in the originals. It depends if it's eternal. It is. If it's Dark Ages. Yeah, if it's like Eternal. Yeah. You know, it was super cool, super unique.
Starting point is 00:15:32 It kind of has that same weird, like, aesthetic you get when you play one of Edmund McMillan's games. Yeah. Like you get that weird like, oh, this is different. This is weird. Which is what we're looking for. We want something unique, you know, unique games, unique styles. So it definitely has it. It's just if that aesthetic can carry a boomer shooter for a full-length game is kind of the real question.
Starting point is 00:15:51 Yeah. But I have hope for it. And it's slated for quarter two of 2026. So that's pretty cool. We'll do one more here and then we'll take our break. Looking at Rekoin. I have a really you guys walk about for this one. We've seen roguikes that are for poker.
Starting point is 00:16:08 We've seen roguelikes that are for, what is it? slot machines. Blackjack now? You guys ready for, you guys are ready for the roguelike for a coin pushing? This is the David Buster special? Yeah. We're just making games about anything now.
Starting point is 00:16:26 Just anything. You know what, Ryan, Ace, let's make a go fish, roglyke. Oh, yeah, go fish, roglyke. All we got to do is have some kind of creepy music and a little bit of an edgy. graphics and somebody's going to die, you know, if they don't get old made next. You know, like that's old made. Perfect. Perfect.
Starting point is 00:16:43 Like, what are we doing, people? What are, like, what are we doing? This game looks so dumb to me. This is, like, I want my brain back. It's a deck builder coin pusher game. What are you mean? This is the dumbest thing ever, dude. Like, number one.
Starting point is 00:16:58 It took them 12 years, dude. I'm not a fan of the coin push. You thought that about slots and daggers. Dude, no, I played slots and daggers. I think it was jiggle puff. I know. You've thought that about it until you play it. Okay. And that's fair. I don't like when you make valid points.
Starting point is 00:17:12 A, so stop. Okay. But number two, it's a freaking coin pusher game, dude. These are the dumbest games ever. Like, they're so satisfying. And then somebody is like, you know what I need to do? Bellotra was so popular. And then, and then slots and daggers. So we've got this. A coin pusher machine. Like, come on. Your game are boring in real life. Like the real game is tough. Yes, exactly. Ryan, exactly.
Starting point is 00:17:38 All right, here we out. It's actually incredibly satisfying to do a coin pusher for free. Like, you're just doing it not having to put any money into it. The whole point of a coin pusher
Starting point is 00:17:48 is that you hope that the pile of coins falls and that you're the one person that like that didn't just lose money for no reason. They still fall. You just get to invest them back into the machine again to make more things fall. Oh my goodness.
Starting point is 00:18:01 This is a perfect example of just because you can, doesn't always mean you should. Thank you, Ryan. Plus it's got a silly little raccoon motif. Who suggested this game to you, Ace? Yeah. Oh, I think this is Jiggle Puff.
Starting point is 00:18:13 Straight to Jell. Jiggle. Straight to Jail. You're grounded. Jiggle Puffs is just a long time ago. What did Ace do to you, man? We're going to set them up this way. Uh, well, it is going to go.
Starting point is 00:18:30 Okay, while we're on it, the other, the name is stupid. It's the dumbest. name ever. It's a raccoon motif of a coin pushing game. The name is stupid. The game is stupid. Stop it, people. Stop it. All I'm hearing is Josh hates raccoons. No, I actually love raccoons, dude. I think raccoons are awesome. But this game is stupid. Fair enough. All right. Well, it's coming out at the end of March, March 31st. Oh, darn. So many games to play in March 10. So many games. No raccoons. What? Dang it.
Starting point is 00:19:05 Shame, we're missing out on Recoyne, boys. Gosh, darn it. It's the terrible luck sometimes. Oh, shucks. But yeah, we'll get right back to these Steam Devos after this little break. All right. We are back. I'm terrified to say this one's name, but here we go.
Starting point is 00:19:24 We're looking at a game called How Many Dudes, which I've been relentlessly bullied over the name. The answer should be zero. Okay. Whatever the question is, the answer should be zero. It is a high-energy combat rogue-leg style game where you basically you pick through a bunch of decks to pick dudes and you put them into fights. Like you can choose a fight that will get you a certain amount of money
Starting point is 00:19:53 if you fight 172 toddlers versus another one that gives you more money if you fight 20 toddlers, two ducks, and a horse-sized duck or something. It is just a silly auto-battelor rogue-like. Don't we have this already in totally accurate battle simulator? Tabs? Yeah. Tabs? Is Tabs a roguelike?
Starting point is 00:20:13 I don't know. But it's just make things fight. You know, one Jedi versus, you know, 10 Mandalorian or whatever or like, I mean, I've seen tabs a hundred different ways.
Starting point is 00:20:23 And it's like, is that not what this is, really? My son loves tabs a lot. That's what it is very, I would say it's very similar to that. Just the difference being, obviously,
Starting point is 00:20:31 it's a roguelike. And also it's 100% based off of that. How many guys does it take to? beat a gorilla. It's dudes. That's the difference, bro. You don't got dudes in the other game. We got soldiers and warriors and stuff.
Starting point is 00:20:43 This has dudes. We got dudes. If this is like a $4 game, I actually think this game's kind of stupid enough to like look a little bit fun. Oh, it was fun. It was fun to just play the demo and see how far you could get because you get like items that change, you know, how your dudes interact. Like you get vampire dudes.
Starting point is 00:21:02 You get 30% lifestyle in every attack. you've got gladiator dudes who can block attacks or rally and it was it was interesting it was a very interesting little rogue like if it's cheap i could see people like right i like tabs so i kind of i kind of like this a little bit like the name's ridiculous it is ridiculous but how many dudes there is something stupid enough about it that it actually kind of makes me a little bit curious and i could see being kind of fun and i hate to that but i i'd throw like six seven bucks on it yeah kids in their car right now are going oh yeah you cause so many car crashes just now right
Starting point is 00:21:41 I hope you know that you're responsible for by the way real quick you ended we just went to charity bingo for my son's school and whenever they call a number like like n six seven the whole place would explode because it's an elementary school dude it would it was crazy it was cracking it up terrible that's awful why how does that meme not dead yet
Starting point is 00:22:02 I don't know. It's 10 years. It'll never die, Ace. It's immortalized in human history. It won't. We literally had a soldier 76 in our game do the e-boat yesterday. Oh, no. It never dies.
Starting point is 00:22:12 It just never goes away. But yeah, how many dudes is not, it's to be announced. We don't actually have a release date for it just yet. The amount of development that has to go into this is just astronomical. Hey, you don't want things to get like, you know, too easy or too hard. You got to balance things. You got to find the balance. I wonder how many dudes it took to make it.
Starting point is 00:22:30 one probably one I was gonna sound pretty sure it's just one guy one dude you failed all right we're looking at this one I actually saw this one
Starting point is 00:22:40 an X last night before I went to bed and I added it to the list just because I found it so interesting it's a game called protagonist complex one terrible name by the way
Starting point is 00:22:48 awful name he basically the way he versed it is what if Batman Arkham Asylum had swords and that's basically what this is
Starting point is 00:22:59 what it looks like You are a soldier whose entire platoon has been either kidnapped or killed. You are in an army where it explains like both sides are very low on ammunition. It's going to be close combat no matter what you do. And they have billy clubs and you got a sword and you just go to work on them. That's what I'm talking about. It was quite cool and it was quite fun. You posted a screenshot of this even and you were like, this game's neat.
Starting point is 00:23:25 And then I was like, what game is this? And then you just didn't answer me. And I'm like, is he's trying to be mysterious? or like what's going on here, you know, but then... You said what game is this like at 7 a.m. in the morning for me. I mean, don't post random screenshots, A's. You're fake posting, you know? Like, I would never post a screenshot of a game and go,
Starting point is 00:23:43 this looks interesting and then not mention the game to you. So you're sitting there wondering for hours while the other person is sleeping, who knows what game is. If only there was a Google Doc with the name in it or something. Ace, would I tell you about making valid points? Okay? I thought we talked about this. He's two for two today.
Starting point is 00:24:01 He's two for two. Now, this looks pretty sweet. Last night, I didn't know you added this to the dog. Oh, that's true. Yeah. Take your valid this one. Shove it, Ace.
Starting point is 00:24:12 Also, this game actually kind of looks kind of neat. Like, how is the combat in this? Is it, is it fun? It's a little floaty. I'm not going to say it's perfect by any means. And I think the enemies need some kind of like notification when they're getting ready to attack you because it's very counter-based. Like, you have a pari.
Starting point is 00:24:28 and you have a heavy attack, you have a light attack. But the enemies don't really have a windup or anything. It's just, we're hitting you now. And it's like, oh, God. Perry, Perry. Get good. And the level does not need some work as well. But I see the bones of something very good and very interesting here.
Starting point is 00:24:47 If this person can get, you know, the support and the desire to see it improve. Like the screenshot I sent you last night was me standing in this basically military graveyard. And off in the distance and the fog, you just see a sign that says, hell is real. It's like, whoa, this is cool as heck. Yeah, this game has a good atmosphere to it. The combat looked like fairly decent. But the weird thing that like my brain is like this dude's a soldier. He's wearing like body armor, like modern body armor and stuff.
Starting point is 00:25:15 Oh, yeah, no, he's like an American soldier. He's like a tactical ninja. And it's like, what happened to your gun, dude? I just, yeah, now the gun thing comes into play later. you find notes and radio things like saying that both sides of this war are out of ammunition essentially but then as soon as I found that note there was a guy with a shotgun around the corner I was like oh god straight lied to you liars you lied you said that it never any weapons it's war baby and finally this is our I'll say also obviously protagonist complex one it says it'll release this year
Starting point is 00:25:48 I'm not sure if it will or not because very little on this game it needs some time a little more time in the But it's one I think people should keep their eye on if they're interested in what I've just mentioned. And the final game here is a game called Witch Spire, which is also supposed to release this year. It is basically, if you took Powell World and Genshin Impact and made it all about the world of Harry Potter and magic, essentially. I kind of like this. It's kind of sick. It's a survival game where you're using the wand for everything. I hate that I liked it, too.
Starting point is 00:26:22 Ah, yeah! It's kind of sick. You'll be fighting these magical creatures, and if you beat enough of them, you can claim them as your own familiar. Like, it's cool. It's a super cool thing. I was going to say, it looks good.
Starting point is 00:26:35 It's got decent combat. It's got like base building. It's like everything. I'm watching this trailer, and I kind of kept waiting for like the, okay, well, what's the issue? You know, like what's the problem? And then none of it.
Starting point is 00:26:46 And it was like, this actually looks pretty neat, man. Like you see the lady casting a variety of spells. She's growing trees with magic. and then she has some like magic spell where she walks through them and it chops all the trees down. That's what got me the most excited. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:27:00 And she's building her house. I like chopping trees, guys. We like chopping trees, man. I know how to win with you, huh? Yeah, I don't know. Man, this game actually looked pretty cool. The demo was really cool. Obviously, I didn't spend a ton of time in it because I wanted to get through all these demos as fast as possible.
Starting point is 00:27:16 I play like an hour or something. It was a very cool demo. It gave me very heavy power world vibes, very heavy and shrouded vibes. what it looked like. Which is all really good. You're talking my language, Ace. So is this actually more like survival crafting than anything else? Yeah, it's more like survival crafting.
Starting point is 00:27:32 Because they showcase the combat a lot and the combat looked pretty decent with the spells and all. Like, you know, she's dodging attacks. There's so many spells, too. I think they showed a boss fight at one point or at least fighting some larger kind of creature or something like that. But like, yeah, I mean, I was rather impressed by what I saw and then it got me curious. And now you're telling me it's kind of like a survival. crafting game and I'm kind of warring. It is a crafting game 100% yeah. It's got a skill tree where you can go down the skill tree. I already just added it to my crafting recipes. I'm going to go add
Starting point is 00:28:02 this to my wish list too. I just did it right now. It's too many games guys. Too many good games then too many good games and I believe it will also be multiplayer on release so it will be multiplayer? Yeah I believe so. Yeah better be guys we might we're gonna have some fun on full release yeah it looks incredible, it played incredible. I had no issues with this game whatsoever. I'm going to plant me an orchard. This says, this is similar to games you've played, Valheim and Powell World. There you go.
Starting point is 00:28:32 That's a good sign. That's a good sign. But yeah, those are the demos we are looking at. I'll go through them one more time for anyone who missed them. Obviously, I didn't say what other platforms these are on, because I only know these are going to be on PC. When they're this early in development, you have no idea where a game's going, like genuinely.
Starting point is 00:28:50 But that was esoteric Ebb, Withering Realms, paperhead, rec coin, how many dudes, protagonist complex one, and witch spire. Which I think, which of these stood out the most of you guys? Which of these are the most interesting? Well, the two I wish listed, Esoteric Ebb and Witch Spire for me. The only one that I, honestly, the only one that I am completely just out on is Reckoine, because I think that game looks really stupid to me. That's fair.
Starting point is 00:29:19 But like, Withering Realms, I could see being a really cool game, and we love morgo and he you know he like I said you know sometimes you trust people's taste you know he and I don't necessarily have the same taste in games all the time but like I like I value his opinion and so Withering Realms I think is actually going to wind up being a really good game how many dudes stupid fun if it's priced right I could actually see picking that up and just playing that to laugh a few times um protagonist complex one for me is the like could be a huge whiff or might actually wind up being developed into something pretty decent. Yeah, the demo is very early on.
Starting point is 00:29:55 What about you, Ryan? I was going to say, too, on that protagonist's game. For me, it falls into one of those categories where, like, we just said, there's so many games now to where, like, it's got to really knock my socks off or really coming at a really good price point or something to make me like, okay, I'll consider trying this, because it's just a wealth of riches we have right now with all these games. Oh, yeah. Other than that, I actually really like the look at Paperhead.
Starting point is 00:30:19 Obviously which Spire looks great, but the paperhead game looks like, again, kind of dumb fun. If it holds up through like a full gameplay, like it would be pretty cool. Yeah, I'd definitely recommend checking out the demo if you haven't. Yeah, yeah, I'm going to enjoy it quite a bit. But that is all we have for this one. Steam Next Fest is where our future favorites are born and sometimes the demo can really make or break a game for someone. So if any of these sounded interesting you, be sure to check out the demo. It'll either reaffirm your hopes in the game or it might crush you.
Starting point is 00:30:49 little bit. But I brought these forward because I think the demos are pretty solid. All right. And I'll get all the links to all these trailers and everything in the episode description. So be sure to look out for them. Yeah. Good on you, Ryan. And also, esoteric ad developers, we are, we are available for voice acting. We will voice acting. Apparently, we can do Colbold and Man Who Hates Milk. Yeah. So we're very affordable. Yeah. So if you enjoy this episode, be sure to rate us five stars. Leave us a little review if you would. If you're on Spotify, leave us a comment. We love to see the comments.
Starting point is 00:31:21 We read every single one, I promise. Just because we didn't reply, doesn't mean we didn't see it. We have an amazing Discord full of amazing gamers just like you. That's where you'll get the notifications when we go live on Twitch. That's where you'll see everyone chatting up the newest, hottest games coming out, obviously with Marathon and Crimson Desert coming. There's going to be a ton of people hyped for that. And I'm sure there's going to be people needing squads for Marathon. Like, I'm positive.
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Starting point is 00:32:12 You know a foamy latte gives me gas. All right, see you as everybody.

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