Next Fest June 25 Roundup #5

Build! Fight! Solve!

[If you enjoy these roundups and want to throw cash at us, please visit AIIG’s Ko-Fi]

We’re in the final stretch of our Steam Next Fest roundups, bringing upcoming games to your attention. Be sure to wishlist good finds—they help those games reach more people.

Next Fest continues this weekend until Monday. Get in some times with games that pique your interest. Some of the demos might be removed (it can take valuable resources to keep maintaining a demo), so don’t wait!

NOTE: if you don’t want to receive the Steam Next Fest newsletters, you can disable them at indiegames.substack.com/account.

Happy gaming!*

*AIIG's impressions are based on gameplay footage and descriptions, not playing the demos, and actual experiences may vary.

---

DuneCrawl (Steam link)

Jump into a desert world with villages perched on mesas, travelling around on a giant platform with crab legs and cannons! DuneCrawl has nice style, a fun arcade-accessible combat and movement system, plenty of exploration in a vast map, and space for up to four players to pilot a giant sand crawler.

---

NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound (Steam link)

Ninja Gaiden might be a name from the highest echelons of game development, but NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound is a love letter straight from the indie world. Made by the Blasphemous developers, it's a thrilling and stunning-looking side-scrolling adventure bound to practise your shinobi reflexes.

---

Bytebond (Steam link)

Clean an infected computer the right way: with two tiny robots working in unison to overcome byte-sized puzzles and obstacles. Bytebond is a fun-looking co-op puzzle game where lateral thinking will get you ahead. There's a solo mode too if you don't know a player you'd trust with antivirus duties.

---

HeatWave (Steam link)

Versus fighting games are a rarity in the indie world because they demand a lot of resources for their fine-tuned mechanics and detailed animations. But HeatWave shows that the genre works just as well with retro pixel art, delivering a fast-paced combat experience for button bashers and VS veterans alike.

---

Herdling (Steam link)

Protect and herd a group of animals called Calicorns, guiding them across eerie industrial settings and vast alpine vistas. Herdling is a mesmerising experience where you bond with your creatures and help them move forward. If you like getting lost in games, this journey is for you.

---

STARIO: Haven Tower (Steam link)

Building a tower to heaven is such an old idea it’s literally biblical, so about time we get a game! STARIO: Haven Tower is a vertical city builder where each level is self-contained but also interlinks with the needs and ambitions of other levels. Keep the people happy, defend from enemies, and make sure it doesn’t come tumbling down.

---

CLIMB IT! (Steam link)

CLIMB IT! needs little introduction—the name says it all. Play in first person and scale up unnerving heights, traverse sideways obstacles, run along wooden beams, and discover multiple routes along sheer crags and inside caves. But one mistake can send you plummeting. Don’t look down!

---

Morbid Metal (Steam link)

There are so many arena combat games that the concept has become quite stale. But then there's Morbid Metal, which lets you switch in real-time between characters, chaining crazy combos to crush your enemies in brutal and fast-paced combat. It looks like a classic case of easy to play, hard to master.

---

Cleared Hot (Steam link)

Cleared Hot is a vintage arcade-action helicopter game with several new ideas. You dodge and swerve from above, laying down fire. But you can also deploy soldiers in some circumstances and give them support. Oh, and you have rope with a magnet that can pick up and throw nearly any object. This is not your dad’s gunship.

---

The Whims of the Gods (Steam link)

Create your civilisation and please the gods before they decide to crush you. There are a few city-builders that dabble in exotic Mesoamerican civilisations. Yet, The Whims of the Gods stands out because of its visual design, its religion and battle mechanics, and that two people can play it cooperatively.

---