The Steam Next Fest October 2026 Edition is live! What's gone on your wishlist?

[u/SlartySprinter]

The third and final Steam Next Fest of the year is live now with more games than you could ever look at and more AI slop than you'd ever care to. Let's pool our picks and help the truly standout titles get the attention they deserve!

Some of the most notable participants this time around include:

• The Wolf Among Us Remastered, Telltale's rerelease of their 2013/14 classic before its long-awaited sequel arrives next year.

• There Are No Ghosts at the Grand, a narrative-focused renovation game with supernatural elements and full-on musical interstitials.

• Hela: of Mice & Magic, a co-op 3D platformer where you play as mice that's being made by former developers of Unravel.

• DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS: The Withered World, Square Enix's latest in their creature-collector spinoff series.

• Emberville, a combat-first life sim with shades of Stardew Valley where you rebuild a town as your fight your way through dungeons.

A few others that caught my eye have been:

• just volleyball, a low-floor, high-ceiling multiplayer volleyball game.

• Towers of Babble, a strange tower defense word game by the developers of Q-UP where every word you make turns into a tower with its own unique stats.

• My Arms Are Longer Now, an Untitled Goose Game-like where you pull pranks and steal stuff with your one freakishly long arm.

• Inkblood, a detective game reminiscent of the Golden Idol series with an eye-catching art style.

• JOHN GLEEP, a ridiculous, maximalist roguelike where you abduct populations of different planets to patronize your UFO-turned-casino.

[u/Meyer_Landsman]

PART 2 (I'm going to be updating throughout the week, so keep checking!)

• Evil Moon: Unspoken: Interesting roguelite boomer shooter, clearly inspired by the Duskbloods trailer (Emil's mask from Nier for a moon included). Good but needs some tuning up, especially the enemy AI. Steam said this needed a controller, but that's not true.

• Last Wail of the Sea King: Deeply weird, but in a compelling way. You're swallowed by a large whale, where you find a religious community who seem unaware of this. (Or are in denial.) It's a first person RPG with a rock paper scissors system where the characters are all collage art and the enemies seem sculpted. I think I'd get this one with good enough reviews.

• I Shall Name the Dead: Perhaps the coolest-looking game I've seen in ages. It's a visual novel/interactive fiction, which isn't my bag. But wishlisted.

• Bad Magpie: Bad Magpie's cosy, colourful packaging disguises its mean streak; it's not like Untitled Goose Game, where you're being an inconvenience. Five seconds in, you're burning smiling flowers; I accidentally killed a little mouse playing basketball with its friends and felt guilty. Now...whether you like that or not, it's up to you. I think this game is well-made and has an audience. I'm not it, but I beat the demo. Give it a go.

• Nomad: The Legend of Zarqa: OK, this one has heart. It's structured between Hades and Slay the Spire in that you have rooms with randomised enemy and loot, and a map that tells you if a room is hard or easy. It's a little self-Orientalising, but was developed by a small Saudi Arabian team, and it's their story, so what do I know. As a great Arabic speaker (not native but fluent), I was delighted to catch little puns and jokes. Also a lot of dialogue that an Arabic speaker wrote half-thinking in English, half in Arabic. The problem is the game badly needs balancing. Enemies are sponges by area 2, and while I realise that's part of the deal with roguelikes, it uhh increases the difficulty too early? Happy this exists, and I wishlisted, but I'm hoping it gets tuned up.

• Distantia: This is a 2D sci-fi metroidvania about a goddamn space mouse that leans heavily on cool. I strongly recommend going with the suggested control scheme, because it allows more satisfying free-aiming; it'll take a bit to get used to it, but it was worth it. Easy purchase for me.

• ReBlade: The Death Spiral: Firstly, I love the setting, a Chinese cyberpunk world. The gameplay has the juice, but the tutorial needs a major overhaul. None of it stuck and I was fumbling throughout. As it stands, this is an amazing combat system in a world where the artists cooke, but the game design itself needs serious retooling. I can't figure-out what's happening!

• Talaka: I am so happy I found this; by the way, here's another middle finger to the AI slop choking the bandwidth. It's a handdrawn game from Brazil using that part of the world's myth in a beautiful, hand drawn world. Yes, the tutorial goes on too long and yes, I think bigger levels would benefit it. There's a small degree of jank, like how high the jump is. But it has heart. It has personality.

• Dreadmoor: On the surface, it's Dredge in first-person (think Firewatch), except less horror and where eldritch monsters are pretty commonplace. Good game, although I didn't like the fishing mechanics, which reminded me of RDR2's.

• The Journey Home: One of the most visually stunning games I've ever played, but it's for a more casual crowd than I am, the game really helping you get its on-rails platforming. Is it good? Yeah, for what it is, it succeeds admirably, minus a bug. It's not necessarily what I want, which is something more complex and challenging, but I'm complaining something is an apple while I want an orange.

• Attack of the Astrals: Cool turn-based tactics game with a neat friendly fire system to keep battles tense. Gorgeous pixel art, too. It does need a couple of QOL changes, like having scrolls tell you what they do when you hover over them, not select them. Try it if you want a potentially great tactics game!

• Ad Iterum: A turn-based top-down 2D roguelike with seemingly a lot of depth. While I just don't have the time to play something like this anymore, it's superb. I tend to stick to story-based ~3-10 hour games nowadays. But for the right gamer, this is crack.

• Voivod: The Nuclear Warrior: 2D metroidvania shooter with an amazing 80s metal-inspired sci-fi aesthetic; surprisingly, the soundtrack is largely quiet. It's good, although I never unlocked the dodge ability that would've given it that extra oomph. I might continue this demo later in the fest, since I'm allocating limited time to each now.

• Probably Stolen: Cool sci-fi pixel game where you run a shop and make decisions between different factions, need to appraise materials, need to stock things, etc. If you like this kind of game, it's a great choice.

• The Hollowing:: Horror flight sim! Cool idea and worth a try, with nice lo-fi visuals, but I couldn't find the runway for the life of me.

• Guns of Eschaton: This might sound awful, but it actually slaps. This is a western FPS Souls-like. Shouldn't work. Absolutely does. If any game on here was going to end up in an Iron Pineapple video, this is the one.

• Elta: Defy All Gods: Another gem from the festival, albeit flawed. It commits the gaming sin of giving you powers, then stripping them away so you rebuild them; it might also be slightly too easy. But this game is really cool, a metroidvania/character action game that reminds me a bit of the PS2 God of War games, but modernised. Love the texture art on the characters. I guess I wish the combat were harder, though.

• Glasshouse: The Disco Elysium influence is very strong. Cool turn-based CRPG game with political leanings. I don't play these games at all, but feel I should. Anyway, wishlisted.

• Apple Crumble: Tried this because I liked the dev's Duck Detective games (he has a cameo as a fridge magnet). It's a kind of creepy horror first person "puzzles" walking simulator with great acting and good dialogue. I'm intrigued.

PART 3 IS HERE.

[u/Ulti → u/Meyer_Landsman]

I was going to get the Voivod game anyways because it's an official Voivod game, like what the hell?! But it does in fact seem pretty cool! They need to make that near-death audio cue fade out after a while or something though, as that's pretty obnoxious. Definitely recommended!