Author: Josh Bycer

Owner of Game Wisdom with more than a decade of experience writing and talking about game design and the industry. I'm also the author of the "Game Design Deep Dive" series and "20 Essential Games to Study"

Best Next Fest Demos Part 8

The latest part of my (Josh Bycer’s) coverage of Next Fest 2025 February edition. (Editor’s note: I’ve been working through a backlog of these review posts; this one was made three months ago!)

00:00 Intro
00:15 Vilde
1:08 Mountain Boy
1:55 Grand Shooter
3:14 Ghost Hand
4:18 Mecha Knights Legends
5:35 Kejora
7:03 Tilemancer Dungeon

Best of February Next Fest Part 7

This is part 7 of my (Josh Bycer‘s) look at Steam Next Fest February 2025 edition.

00:00 Intro
00:18 Leftovers KO
1:28 Once Upon a Puppet
3:19 Demon Dust
5:02 Nice Day for Fishing
6:23 Skin Deep
7:54 Electro Bop Boxing League
9:30 Is this Seat Taken?
10:50 Water Maid
12:03 Upstream
13:16 The Alpinist
14:51 Spellbrew Express
16:10 Red Rocket Defencism
17:15 Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3
18:48 Hypogea

Best Next Fest Demos Part 6

This is part 6 of my (Josh Bycer‘s) favorite demos from Steam Next Fest February 2025.

00:00 Intro
00:13 Liliac 0
01:07 Aethermancer
3:02 Doloc Town
4:35 Dungeon Warfare 3
5:47 Knightica
7:13 Star Fire
8:41 The Electrifying Incident
10:08 Faun Town
12:17 Tower Wizard

Best Next Fest Demos Part 5

This is part 5 of my (Josh Bycer’s) indie showcase of the best Next Fest demos from February 2025.

00:00 Intro
00:16 DeadWire
2:00 Gnomes
3:33 Nitro Gen Omega
4:57 Beyond the Ice Palace 2
6:35 Blightstone
8:02 Geargrit
9:50 Scarlet: City of Devils

The Best #steamnextfest Indie Game Demos (Part 4)

This is part 4 of our demo coverage of February 2025 Steam next fest.

0:00 Intro
00:14 Mashina
1:06 Roots Devour
2:57 Rift Riff
4:22 Kill the Music
5:29 Wild Growth
6:33 Conquest Dark
7:55 Machine Mind
9:01 Bad Cheese
9:52 Centum
11:03 Nordhold
12:17 Cauldron

Best Next Fest Demos Part 3

This is the third part of our February 2025 coverage of Steam Next Fest.

0:00 Intro
00:16 Flocking Hell
1:58 Total Chaos
4:00 Isle of Reveries
5:08 Reignbreaker
6:46 ZPF
7:34 City of Rampage
9:08 Paperklay
10:52 Haste: Broken Worlds
12:02 Coin Push RPG
13:23 Rogue Light Deck Builder

Next Fest Feb 2025 Showcase Part 2

Part 2 of my (Josh Bycer’s) favorite demos from the Steam Next Fest event.

0:00 Intro
00:18 Gentoo Rescue
1:37 Nitro Express
2:43 Mother Machine
4:01 The King is Watching
5:53 Repose
7:53 Demon Tides
10:02 Chromagun 2: Dye Hard
11:27 Sliding Hero
12:39 9 Kings
14:06 Twilight Monk
15:24 Squeakross: Home Squeak Home
16:22 Last Report
17:25 Deck of Haunts

Favorite Demos From Steam Nextfest Part 1

This is a collection of my favorite demos from our first nights of streaming next fest 2025 February edition.

0:00 Intro
00:17 Monster Train 2
1:50 Moadra
3:44 Chainstaff
5:33 Ruffy and the Riverside
7:02 Scaravan 66
8:16 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tactical Takedown
10:14 White Knuckle
11:35 Twisted Tower
13:34 Shotgun Cop Man
15:08 Empyreal

Indie Showcase For 4/14/25

The indie showcases highlight the many indie titles we play here on (Josh Bycer’s) channel. Games shown are either press keys, demos, or games from my collection.

0:00 Intro
0:14 Solar Raiders
1:30 Sol Cesto
2:47 Spider Fox
4:13 Preserve
5:43 Lightyear Frontier
7:17 Metal Mind

Adventure Game Design With Krunchy Fried Games

For this podcast, I spoke with Dominic O’ Reilly from Krunchy Fried Games who is working on the adventure game Five Day Detective. We spoke about adventure game design and writing along with the challenges of creating the story alongside the puzzles.

Team Ladybug’s Latest Metroidvania Review

This is a review of Blade Chimera played with a press key provided by the developer.

Magenta Horizon Review

This is a review of Magenta Horizon played with a press key. After I recorded this review, the developer updated the tutorial with a new version, but I have not had a chance to go back and play through it.