10 Games From The 2025 Steam Next Fest You Should Check Out – Part 1
You know what time it is? That’s right, it’s me, getting avalanched with a deluge of awesome indie games for the Steam Next Fest 2025! The gaming Christmas extravaganza is back for its latest onslaught of all things demos, and where better to start than with a list of 10 stellar entries? Join me, won’t you dear reader, in discovering these upcoming gems for 2025 and beyond. Plus, these 10 are just the tip of the iceberg for what’s to come.
Anoxia Station
How do you like your looming sense of impending doom and dread levels to be in your base building? Exceptionally moody, dark and filled with Eldritch horror vibes? Excellent, you’ll feel right at home in Anoxia Station. What starts out as a simple grid-based, day cycle colony sim very quickly descends into a mad dash for the escape, managing precious resources and assigning science heroes to fire grenades at alien life.
The demo provides but a snippet of the campaign, which has already demonstrated a depth that matches the drilling for petroleum you do in this hostile land. The vibes and atmosphere are utterly captivating, unnerving and unsettling, while the gameplay is both challenging yet rewarding. As I made my last second dash for the escape, I realised just how entranced I was with Anoxia Station, and that you should be just as nervously excited as me for it.
Anoxia Station’s release date is still as alien as the life you’ll fend off in the demo, but it is coming to Steam in the future. It’s being developed by Yakov Butuzoff and published by Abylight Studios.
Breathedge 2
Ever wanted to lose yourself to the outer atmosphere and to the addictive crafting survival loop of games like Subnautica? Boy, do I have a treat for you in Breathedge 2. First and foremost, you have a pet chicken you look after. What else need I say? Once you’re over your poultry caring duties, Breathedge 2 has an entire stratosphere of content to feast upon.
In my time with the demo, I crafted a variety of tools, hoovered up a plethora of materials, explored some equally wacky and disconcerting locations, attempted to communicate with outer space robots… and ran out of air. Many, many times. Even within just the demo, there’s a huge amount to absorb. Light-hearted humour lends it a chilled out vibe, but much like the subterranean ocean of Subnautica, surviving outer space will be anything but.
Breathedge 2 will be ready for launch on Steam in the future, though the release date still eludes us amongst the cosmos. It’s being developed by RedRuins Softworks and published by HypeTrain Digital.
Dino Path Trail
There are precious few games that can provide the thrill of shooting an Ankylosaurus with a western revolver, before promptly mining some stone and serving up a dino steak. More games need pet-able Triceratops and that’s really the only thing I need to tell you about Dino Path Trail. Well, I should also mention it’s an action rogue-like where you’ll fight dinosaurs and Wild West cowpoke alike.
The action in this gunslinging twin-stick shooter is all about precision, with that eternally satisfying focus on pinpoint timings for firing, dodging and reloading being king. It even has the Gears of War instant reload for hitting that sweet spot reload bar – excellent. Did I forget to tell you it also has camp upgrading, crafting, a bounty system and a boon mechanic where placing dino eggs on altars grants bonus powers? Yeah, Dino Path Trail was a blast.
Dino Path Trail will be rootin’ and tootin’ its way onto Steam at an as yet unannounced date but it is promised to be coming soon. It’s being developed and published by Void Pointer.
Empyreal
The first thing that struck me about Empyreal was the fact that my gaming laptop could barely run this bad boy without overheating to desert proportions. Empyreal is quite the looker of a game, set in a mysterious Monolith filled with the remains of a lost civilisation. If dungeon crawling action is your jam, you’ll find a veritable bucket of the good stuff to layer up on your gaming toast.
My time with the demo had me trying out three different builds, a couple of different runs in unique locations, and a host of intense battles. Regular and boss enemies can fell you in the sweep of a couple of strikes, while the mix of abilities, deflections, dodges and combos felt engaging. Provided you have a decent rig to handle its graphical shininess, Empyreal is well worth keeping on your radar.
Empyreal is dropping on Steam in future, but no release date as of yet. It’s being developed by Silent Games and published by Secret Mode.
Hyper Empire
Hyper Empire is described as a 4X game that can be played in 40 minutes or less and it certainly lives up to that premise. I played the maximum 30 turns the demo allowed and was finished within 15 minutes, what a joy! In terms of gameplay, Hyper Empire, despite its initial confusing menu, is a super fun streamlined strategy title. A bit like FTL: Faster Than Light, but a bit quicker to get going.
Mixing base building decision making with which station upgrades to invest in and having real-time space battles that auto-play, Hyper Empire ends up an addicting and fast-paced time. I built up a huge station, had a whole fleet of ships and a population of over 35. If you love the idea of grand strategy games but don’t have the time nor inclination to commit to their hours long campaigns, this’ll be the perfect space race game for you.
Hyper Empire is setting course for Steam in Q1 of 2025. It’s being developed and published by Fair Weather Studios.
Moadra
A sci-fi Metroidvania that has you looking like a Yautja, Moadra is both gloomy in atmosphere and dense in lore. Having crash landed on a hostile planet overrun with a corrupting blight, your Predator-sounding beastie must traverse the run-down futuristic hallways and eliminate the hostile fauna. I spent about 50 minutes with the demo completing its full mission. I say completed – there are about 100 secret passageways, hidden rooms and secrets to uncover in the demo level alone.
Moadra is a dense experience, both in terms of exploration and combat. Your reactions need to be twitch rapid, while your wits need to be on their hind legs too. For exploration enthusiasts, it’s looking like there’ll be a whole lot to scour over. Plus, who doesn’t want to be a Yautja boasting a spinning jump that could cross chasms? With a thick, smoggy atmosphere and an environmental style that evokes plenty of Scorn influence, this is one to keep an eye on.
Moadra will be crash landing on Steam sometime in the future, though the release date is as mysterious as this hostile planet. It’s being developed and published by Gloomsoft.
Neo Junk City
An ’80s-inspired pixel-art, Robocop-esque point-and-click with old school arcade racing and shooting gauntlets? Yeah, Neo Junk City is pretty cool, even for someone who’s not hugely into pixel art stuff. Just during my time with the demo, I helpfully doused an on-fire robot with petrol, attached an octopus to a surveillance camera, and got told to jog on by a homeless veteran.
Neo Junk City has a cool vibe, if this early impression snippet is anything to go off of. It’s like an indie version of the original Metal Gear games (the MSX ones, not the Solid varieties), and that’s a pretty decent bar to be compared to. Worth checking out if you’re hankering for a brightly lit, neon-beamed, retro Cyberpunk adventure.
Neo Junk City is planned to step out from the Neon-soaked shadows in Q4 of 2025 on Steam. It’s being developed and published by Starblade Games.
Roots Devour
One I’ve already written up a whole preview for, Roots Devour is a classic combination of… card game deckbuilder, puzzler and Eldritch horror? Yeesh. It might as well be the spaghetti bolognese of the indie game genre. I obviously jest, as the only thing Roots Devour has to do with spag bol is turning various creatures, cult members and innocent people into minced meat. See what I did there?
Aside from my terrible analogies, Roots Devour is genuinely, unnervingly delightful. It’s a creative spin on the card game genre, with a darker, more brooding aesthetic and evil roots. I enjoyed my time with the demo a great deal, and it’s one to keep on your radar if you’re into any of the genres it mashes together so well. Just please, for the love of all that’s holy, DON’T consume the owl. Okay? Good.
Roots Devour will be spreading its way onto Steam some time in 2025. It’s being developed by Rewinding Games and published by GCORES PUBLISHING.
Static Dread
If you were a fan of 2023’s Dredge, Static Dread will be right up your madness-inducing street. In this first-person unnerving title, you must simply manage a lighthouse. Ships come and go requiring your navigational skills to reach their required ports. Only, some may need quarantining, searching or directing elsewhere than their supposedly chosen harbours. Both a bit of a management game and a bit of a deduction title, Static Dread is addicting.
Of course, dealing with nefarious seafarers is only part of the job, as lighthouses are… you know… notoriously isolated. You’ll receive creepy and threatening calls, be constantly accosted by the dark, and the lighthouse beam has a mysterious issue of constantly turning off. A bit like Papers, Please but with more shadowy consumption and fear of the dark. Wonderful.
Static Dread is still out at sea with only a “coming soon”, but it will be anchoring into Steam. It’s being developed by Solarsuit Games and published by Polden Publishing.
Wandering Monolith: Rogue TD
I love me a good tower defence. Something about the thrill of witnessing my strategically placed handiwork blasting through waves upon waves of enemies just hits the dopamine complex. Unlike most other tower defence titles, Wandering Monolith: Rogue TD has you taking on the role of an invading alien force instead of the paragon defenders. Like Arrival, only you are actually a force of evil domination.
It took me over four attempts just to get past wave 10 (the first boss wave), so this one has a good learning curve to overcome. There are three decks available to use, with different varieties of towers and between wave upgrades. I had a blast watching my towers have a blast, and that’s of the utmost importance in any tower defence game. The demo has me invested, and I’m keen to see what the full package will deliver.
Wandering Monolith: Rogue TD will be invading Steam sometime in 2025. It’s being developed and published by Progress_Check.
Annnnnnnnnnnnd breathe. From existential horror in Static Dread to soaring through the atmosphere in survival crafter Breathedge 2, Steam Next Fest 2025 quite literally has it all. If you’ve enjoyed the look of any of the games you’ve seen here, or on the Steam Next Fest itself, please do wishlist and share the love for them. It makes a substantial difference to the games, the small developers and the people behind the creative sparks that give us so much joy (or evil lustre, in Roots Devour’s case…).
Fear not, however, as this is just the start of our coverage for great indie games strutting their stuff this week. Keep your eyes peeled for a Part 2 and very likely a Part 3. It’s not like I have 49 more demos installed and ready to play or anything… Anyway, have an awesome time jumping into some great games this week and I’ll see you in the next feature! Indie games eh? What a time.
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