I love Steam Next Fest; I genuinely look forward to the thrice-yearly celebration of upcoming games and can’t wait to dive into all the demos that the event offers up on a shiny silver platter. Some of my favorite games ever have been discovered during past events, and the October 2025 one has only managed to continue that trend. 

Over the last week, I’ve dedicated a huge chunk of my time to playing demos, writing about them (or planning to), and generally having an amazing time. There were a lot of demos featured in the event this time around (over 3,000, apparently), so while I’ve not managed to play all of them because I’m not superhuman, I have picked out some favorites. 

Here are the 10 games from October’s Steam Fest that have me the most excited for their general release. 

Pancito Merge

This adorable game by Fáyer and Sketchy Caviche is all about Mexican sweet treats and pastries, and all you need to do is drop them from above to merge them together, forming bigger and more interesting baked goods. Pancito Merge is one of those meditative gaming experiences that doesn’t require too much thinking, but is capable of sucking you in for hours at a time as you try to work your way towards the biggest pastry of the lot. 

Full disclosure, I haven’t managed to merge my way to the final pastry yet. I spend most of my time trying to juggle space and aim my dropped pastries just right to produce a successful merge. Every so often, someone stops by the window with a request for a pastry that you can give them from those you currently have, boosting your points, and I can’t wait to see what else the full game has to offer once it releases soon. 

Winter Witch

There’s something about a monochromatic color scheme that never fails to grab my attention, and Winter Witch is as monochromatic as they come, at least in the foreground, and it’s also utterly adorable. This cozy, magical, woodland survival game is currently under development by SolarVagrant, and the Next Fest demo has me desperate for more witchy vibes. 

As you explore the woodland, you’ll be able to pick up various resources that can then be used back in your little hut to create useful items or food items that help you in further exploration. Each day, you manage to venture a little further from the hut, finding new items and discovering new locations. Oh, and there’s a cat called Merlin, which is a win in my book. 

Final Sentence

I’ve not made a secret of the fact that I love a good typing game, and Final Sentence by Button Mash is an excellent example of just how much fun they can actually be. Rather than endlessly typing just for the satisfaction provided by a high average WPM or accuracy, you’re competing against a bunch of other people to survive this typing race. 

Each round of the word-based stand-off, you’re allowed to make three mistakes, but the third will have you staring down the barrel of a gun in a game of russian roulette with the guard who stands over you as you type. If the bullet hits right, you’re out of the race. Final Sentence is all about speed and accuracy, and it’s honestly jarring how unsettling the atmosphere can become as you start hearing gunshots go off.

Good Boy

Good Boy is a co-op horror comedy game by Terrible Posture Games in which you have to steal everything that isn’t glued down (and even some of the stuff that is) while avoiding death at the jaws of mutated pets that guard the neighborhood. Alone or with friends, you pick a head (literally) and then set out to burgle houses, earning money for the crew and slowly working your way up through the ranks. 

In Good Boy, friendly fire is always a possibility, and getting injured or left behind by your crewmates will always leave you feeling betrayed, despite being hilarious at the same time. This co-op manages to be fun solo, and lucrative as you get to keep all of the funds to yourself, but there’s definitely more fun to be had with friends along for the ride.

DODORI

As someone whose childhood was filled with Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution, it’s safe to say that I’ve got a nostalgic soft spot for rhythm games, and DODORI, by BridgeMusic, is one that has me excited to tap my toes to the beat. Played entirely on controller, this adorable rhythmic experience is focused on rotating squares, and it’s more challenging than you might think. 

Along with the basic one-button notes, there are also double notes and prolonged ones. You’ll also be asked to shift the whole stage left or right with the left stick. All of this is accompanied by the type of musical tracks that you’ll end up humming long after you close the game down, and the art of DODORI is absolutely adorable. 

Restore Your Island

I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again many more times: There’s something really satisfying about taking a space that’s incredibly messy and making it look good again. Restore Your Island is that, except things are taken up a notch because you have an entire island to clear of trash, slowly regenerating it and turning it into a wildlife-filled sanctuary in the middle of the ocean. 

In this island clean-up experience by PaiBand, you’re entirely on your own aside from a dog who mysteriously either came with you or has lived its entire life on the island, and you take this dot of land from trash heap to sanctuary over time. There are multiple types of weather, different tools to upgrade through selling trash, and even some treasures (including Wilson from Castaway) to find.

Pictective

Pictective by Noobzilla is a strange little puzzle game that feels like a cross between Where’s Wally (I’m British, so he will always be Wally to me, even if he’s Waldo to you!) and i-Spy. You are given some photos of real-life places and have to find certain tiny parts of them, working up to finding a cartoon cat at the end of each level. It’s a little hard to explain, but a good brain exercise and playing with my daughter was a great time. 

Pictective manages to scratch all of those completionist itches while being challenging enough to keep you focused on the task at hand, with photos from all around the world to dissect and find the details. 

BloomKeeper

BloomKeeper is an adorable nature-based game in which you need to control little creatures called Pouics to bring life back to a desolate landscape and calm the natural world. You play as a small fantasy creature with the power to send the Pouics running in whatever direction you choose, or just throw them when their strange choices end up with the drowning or falling off a cliff (it happens a lot). 

If you’ve ever played a Pikmin game, BloomKeeper will feel familiar in a lot of ways. As someone who has never really fallen into the Nintendo bubble, Pikmin was never my favorite, but BloomKeeper feels like it has taken inspiration and exceeded the joy of the original. The graphics are gorgeous, the sounds are adorable, and the gameplay experience feels almost meditative. Oh, and it’s online co-op, which makes it even better. 

Dead Format

This love letter to horror cinema through the eras is an absolute masterpiece by Katanalevy, and I’m super excited to finally experience the whole game once it releases. In Dead Format, you watch horror movies on VHS and then set off to explore the universe in which that horror movie is set, using clues from the movie to survive the experience long enough to hopefully find clues as to where your missing brother has gone. 

The demo features two levels, one of which is a black and white 1920s creep-tastic experience, and the other is a 50s-inspired B-movie adventure through the sewers. Everything about Dead Format is creepy, and you’ll be left wanting more once the demo is over. 

Tingus Goose

There is no demo that I played during October’s Steam Fest that even comes close to being as bizarre as Tingus Goose, and it wins the award for most memorable as well. This strange and at times grotesque experience by Master Tingus is a clicker in which you need to birth babies (thrown up by a goose, obviously) and then earn money by flinging them down an ever-elongating neck filled with other mutated geese. 

Yes, I know that sounds weird. Tingus Goose is an incredibly difficult game to explain in words without the visuals to explain the words I’m trying to put down. It’s like a fever dream that you’re both freaked out by but also don’t want to leave because it’s oddly fun, and then you wake up and life is never the same again.