A Jaunt Through Demoland
Ulysses and the Sirens; John William Waterhouse, 1891
Wading through this absurd historical moment, and the absurdity of playing videogames in it, I have found myself increasingly drawn to demos. Beyond being gentle on my time (and my wallet), demos for games that are still in development are works in compelling states of flux. They often reflect visions that have yet to fully bloom: They're rough and unrefined, rife with the thorns that tend to get stripped over the course of production. Grab these roses; let art bleed you.
With Steam Next Fest February 2026 concluded, I've written brief thoughts on some demos from it, curated after 4-38 minutes with each demo, under the limitations of an aging laptop, my lack of desire to plug a controller into it, and my cursed penchant for roguelikes.
*****
Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors
A first-person, deck-building, dungeon-crawling spin-off of one of the more surprisingly influential games of the past decade. Less a demo than an apocalyptic text. A warning: This is but a taste of the work that will utterly consume you.
*****
Slaughter Void
I had been feeling old. Blizzards, parenthood, viruses, a broken oven, the world. Seeing this — its Conan the Barbarian meets Mandy atmosphere, its mesmerizing art — made me feel young. Then playing it — its zoomed-in perspective, its one-hit kills, the Hotline Miami of it all — made me feel old again.
*****
STARDUST: Wish of Witch
A gorgeously animated tactical RPG that makes you click too much. Click to choose to move. Then click to choose which space to move to. Then click to confirm the move. Then click to choose which direction to face. Then click to choose to use a skill. Then click to choose which skill to use. Then click to choose a target. Then click to confirm the target. Come on!
*****
Legionbound
Sometimes the universe does listen. You're thinking that you want a roguelite that feels like oldschool party-based RPGs. Then you're thinking that more party-based RPGs should be management-intensive autobattlers. Now you're realizing that you've reinvented Final Fantasy XIII — but what about the roguelite part? Then this comes along, putting high-fantasy adventurers — skilled but in need of supervision — on an abundantly charming treadmill.
*****
Australia Did It
An immediately capacious tower-defense roguelite in which trains cross the crater that used to be the Atlantic Ocean. The game's transportive world evokes Fallout, Mad Max, and other works set in the post-disaster barrens. Desert we are and to desert we will return.
*****
Cursed Words
A competent word-search riff on Balatro that mostly made me miss the cozy surreality of that poker fever dream.
*****
Rune Dice
You know that video where a guy in a restaurant shouts, "Who made this chicken!?" — there's menace there — but it turns out that he wants to compliment the chef? In that spirit I wondered to myself, as soon as the first battle in this dice-rolling roguelite loaded up: Who put D&D in my Puzzle Bobble?
*****
Lootbound
A turn-based roguelite with a focus on inventory Tetris. While the backpack's cramped and the combat's dry, you can feel something stirring beneath the surface, right under the earthy, subtly somber pixel art, scratching upward. It just needs time to hatch.
