Friday Follow-UP #24 | Steam Next Fest Summer 2025 Edition

This Friday’s Follow-Up #24: Your Ultimate Recap of Steam Next Fest Honorable Mentions & Summer Showcases—with Top Indie Games to Wishlist, Demos to Try, Honorable Mentions and More!

Jun 13, 2025

Hey everyone, and welcome to the Friday Follow-UP #24 | Steam Next Fest Summer 2025 Edition. I played a few more demos I wanted to share and to recap the summer showcases. Make sure to subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss out on indie game reviews, the weekly newsletter, and the new series Play Dates.

Cast n Chill

I played Cast n Chill before Steam Next Fest and loved what I experienced, but they just updated the demo with a ton of new things to check out, so I gave it a second go-through, and all I can say is that they took something fantastic and made it perfect. You have to play this game not just for the chilling and relaxing gameplay, but it's visually stunning. Fun fact: it's an idle game, so when it releases, you’ll be able to keep it on your desktop relaxing as you work or browse, and we won’t have to wait long since it’s releasing in 3 days on June 16th, 2025.

🎮 Cast n Chill | Steam
🧑‍💻 Developer | Wombat Traveller
📢 Publisher | Wombat Traveller
🗓️ Release Date | June 16th, 2025

Wander Stars

Right from the moment you see Wander Stars, it has the design of early 2000s animes—reminding me a lot of Dragon Ball, to be exact. What’s hiding behind that is a turn-based RPG filled with a ton of great inventive gameplay mechanics. The narrative is entertaining, playing out like a Saturday morning cartoon. You use phrases to create attacks for example a Super, Fast, Fire, Punch will multiple damage, add hit points and then give certain enemies burn for continued fire damage. This made each fight fun to experiment with different combinations. I can’t wait to see where the story takes us when it releases August 1st, 2025.

🎮 Wander Stars | Steam
🧑‍💻 Developer | Paper Castle Games
📢 Publisher | Fellow Traveller
🗓️ Release Date | August 1st, 2025

Misc. A Tiny Tale

When I first saw Misc. A Tiny Tale, I jumped with joy. I am a huge fan of Nintendo’s Chibi-Robo, and we haven’t seen a new game since the 3DS Zip Lash. Seeing this Chibi-Robo-inspired game about a little character recycling and bringing life back to the world was all I needed to wishlist. It’s when the team at Tinyware Games reached out with an exclusive demo that it grounded itself as a must-play game. Its cute, charming characters and fun platforming are everything we have been waiting for. They have captured the essence of early 2000s GameCube-era games perfectly. We won’t have to wait much longer, with the release date coming on July 22nd, 2025.

🎮 Misc. A Tiny Tale | Steam
🧑‍💻 Developer | Tinyware
📢 Publisher | Tinyware
🗓️ Release Date | Coming Soon

Everdeep Aurora

Oh, 2D pixel games—will I ever tire of your lovely designs? Nope, never will. Everdeep Aurora caught my interest from the Wholesome Direct 2025, and since then I’ve wanted to try out the demo and see if the beautiful colors and design were matched by great gameplay—and they certainly were. The demo is a small taste of what you get in the main game, and my favorite part is it’s all separate and a complete little experience on its own that won’t be in the game. Roughly 20 minutes of gameplay where you are thrown in with little to no handholding—you meet interesting characters, learn a bit of backstory, figure out the drilling mechanics, and platform around looking for secrets. Just look at the trailer or the GIF above the game looks fantastic. I cannot wait to dive back in and won’t have to wait too long, with a release date set for July 10th, 2025.

🎮 Everdeep Aurora | Steam
🧑‍💻 Developer | Nautilus Games
📢 Publisher | Ysbyrd Games
🗓️ Release Date | July 10th, 2025

MIO: Memories in Orbit

I only learned about MIO from Bassicfun, who, by the way, has a fantastic YouTube channel you should check out (link here). He is doing a weekly series right now for every single game in UFO 50. Go hit him with a subscribe!

Okay, back to MIO—I saw Bassicfun excited about the demo release, so I decided to give it a shot, and I was not disappointed. A metroidvania that takes place in an industrial world where machines have gone rogue. The game begins almost in a flat style, barely scratching the surface of the visuals, and it’s only when you emerge in the Vessel that you see the true potential of the gameplay and visuals. It looks gorgeous, the gameplay is smooth, and the backtracking makes me feel like we have plenty more secrets to explore. No set release date yet, but it’s slated for a 2025 release.

🎮 MIO: Memories in Orbit | Steam
🧑‍💻 Developer | Douze Dixièmes
📢 Publisher | Focus Entertainment
🗓️ Release Date | 2025

Beyond The Board

This was one that crept up on me while scrolling through TikTok, and the visual stylings of the chess board being an adventure-puzzle game hooked me. I have eagerly been waiting for a demo release of Beyond The Board and finally had a chance to check it out this week. The gameplay and puzzle solving is right on point, and visually they have something great on their hands. The only issues I experienced were a few where outer elements would come into view when rotating the camera, making it difficult to see around the area to solve a puzzle. Right now it looks like others are experiencing the same issues through the reviews on Steam, so hopefully, if they can take a few of the feedback points, this will be a hit. No date announced yet, but you should try out the demo yourself—it’s live right now.

🎮 Beyond The Board | Steam
🧑‍💻 Developer | Fragile Shapes Studio
📢 Publisher | Beyond The Board
🗓️ Release Date | To be announced

OFF

I never played OFF, only played Earthbound in my 30s, and was late to Undertale, but this style of game has become a staple to me. Originally released in 2008, OFF—the original inspiration for Undertale—is an RPG that has been remastered with new content and a stellar cast of composers from James Roach, Toby Fox, Morusque, Nightmargin, and more. The pixel style, though over 15 years old, can look slightly outdated but still stands strong with the games inspired by it releasing almost monthly now. The OFF Prologue demo was a great tease of the puzzle-solving, character narrative-driven world, combat systems, and how you play a role in the game as the player. I am excited to become The Batter when OFF releases August 15th, 2025.

🎮 OFF | Steam
🧑‍💻 Developer | Mortis Ghost, Fangamer
📢 Publisher | Fangamer
🗓️ Release Date |August 15th, 2025

Summer Showcase and Steam Next Fest Recap

Check out my first post on the demo reviews and my recap of the summer showcases below. What have you played, what games are you interested in, or what caught your eye this week? Let me know in the comments! Next week we will be back to the standard Friday Follow-UP.