Well, whaddya know, there were so many more games in the old tank than even yours truly knew about. Having covered my own host of veritable gems in the October Steam Next Fest, fellow Finger Gunners Sean and now Kat have rolled on in to deliver onto us yet more gaming greatness. Thankfully, Kat’s entries are much more uplifting and charming than giant Huntsman spider horror games. Peruse below for a bonus edition of the Steam Next Fest, with entries featured from Kat.
Oh hey, bet you didn’t expect to see me here! No, me neither, but after seeing Miles and Sean play so many cool games, one after another, after another. I thought I needed to check this bad boy out. So please enjoy some ‘cosy corner’ delights with a couple of wild cards that caught my eye from the Steam Next Fest.
Miles has done the first twenty, Sean comes in with a big 10, and here I am finishing up the series for the next few months. I hope you enjoy this corner of the taste that whets your whistle!
Hello again – future me who totally zoned out and missed that the demo was ENDING on the 20th October, and I had no idea. I had hoped to do 5-10 but got cut short by the menace of my own time. It’s a bonus part, so I mean, kind of fits?
Enjoy the fab four demos I played at the October 2025 Steam NextFest.
Cats and Cups
A cute cat cafe where you make coffee, croissants and JOY!? I can’t not cover this absolutely delightful cosy coffee shop simulator. You steam the milk, boil the water, grind the beans and pour on that syrup baby, ’cause you are in business. Cats and Cups had me matcha foaming at the mouth at how CUTE this whole game is. I actually really enjoyed the attention to detail. The cafe bell is a collar bell, the sounds are just ASMR delightful, and the art style is so fun. You do everything, from barista to business queen. You will need to keep your counter clean and your croissants rolled.
I had so much fun that each step is a minigame in and of itself. I can see the challenge and stress already, but like… fun stress? Is that a thing? Yeah. I think so. Anyway, it’s 11 pm here in the UK, and now I am starving because I just rolled out and buttered 5 croissants for my wonderful cafe in the morning. From shop upgrades to stock take, I can see this being a must-play for the cosy corner of the world.
Cats and Cups will be ready to brew your beans on Steam from November 1st. Developed and Published by Rogue Duck Interactive.
With Me: Aquatic Time
With someone like me, who is a keen advocate for the Pomodoro method and has nearly 250 hours in various other focus-like games. With Me: Aquatic Time may be my next adventure into the focus field.
If you’re not sure what the Pomodoro method is, don’t worry, I got you, and no, it isn’t to do with delicious tomato pasta sauce. The Pomodoro technique is used by students all around the world, where you put a timer on for a specific (traditionally 25 minutes) timeframe and focus solely on that task until the timer goes off. When the timer pings, you can set a 5-minute break to do anything you like. After 3 or so ‘sessions’, you would usually set a longer break. This is a GREAT hack if you, like me, are procrastination Polly and need to get things done.
With Me: Aquatic Time puts such a fun twist on this, where you have your own fish tank where you can design an aquarium, listen to soothing music or flowing water, and raise fish. As YOU focus, the fish thrive and grow. With every focus session, you can earn money to get more fish, food, and lots of different decorations. It actually looks like there is so many fish to buy and so many different ways to decorate your aquarium. This is a sensory cuddle if you need one, and great if you need a hack that comes with some dopamine and a fun reward after you’ve finished your focus session.
There is currently no release date yet for this, but it does come out this year, swimming onto Steam in 2025. I think I shall be investing to get me through the rest of my doctorate, for I am a dopa-miner and a sucker for gamifying anything, even adulting! Developed and Published Sensory Patch Games.
Walk of Life
Walk of Life is the spiritual successor to No Time to Relax. I vividly remember playing it on console and having a lot of fun. It is certainly reminiscent of a board game my friends and I always used to play as kids called ‘PayDay’.
This is that same chaos all over again, you only have so much time in the day (don’t we all), and you have to do EVERYTHING somehow (again, don’t we all). You’re late for work, you live in a puddle of pee, you are an unhealthy slug, and it ALL needs to be fixed. Walk of Life is an interactive party game that you can play on your own or with friends. At first, the art style felt overwhelming, but I guess that is just a clever metaphor for life, right? This looks like another blast from Porcelain Fortress and I am looking forward to ‘life-ing’ better than I currently do.
Walk of Life is soon to release for Early Access on the 24th October on Steam. It’s being developed and published by Porcelain Fortress.
Dancing With Ghosts
Dancing with Ghosts is a wholesome-looking game about a girl that appears to be grieving her mum. The heaviness of this has left her with complex feelings she needs to make sense of, and you the player, will help her through this difficult time.
This game appears like a lovely side-scroller packed with minigames that make for a lovely few hours of gameplay. One of the main mechanics is the dancing element, which gets you conversation points and almost feels like the PC version of a dance mat. You can talk to many characters and uncover conversations that help shape the narrative. The art style is charming as hell, with hand-drawn goodness. It looks as if it may tug on your heartstrings, so give it a look.
Dancing with Ghosts is TBA, but you can wishlist this today on Steam. It’s being developed and published by HumaNature Studios.
How delightful. I must admit, seeing Kat actually have a nice time playing games that are whimsical and lovely made me slightly jealous, owing to my racing heart rate and ghastly tension from defending so many towers and navigating so many horrors. In total, we’ve brought you 34 indie diamonds to check out at your leisure, and hopefully spur on some intrigued input.
We hope you’ve had a wonderful time with October’s iteration of the Steam Next Fest. It simply never fails to deliver a rip-roaring time of fantastic demos to feast upon in never-ending gluttony. We’ve had the best time covering these entries (as well as others that sadly didn’t make it into these features), and we avidly await the next behemoth event from glorious Gabe.
For the umpteenth time, please do wishlist any games that have pickled your onion, shout your praise from the rooftops, write dramatic video essays for YouTube, or you know, just leave a cheeky little comment for your favourites. Game development is excruciating and gruelling, alongside the fulfilling and rewarding part, and your input may make all the difference to a passionate developer.
For now though, that’s it from us. We’re all going to collectively cry at our ever-expanding backlogs and sobbing bank accounts, as we await the avalanche of games we’ve discovered this week, hitting full tide into releases.
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