Steam’s Game Demo Festivals over the past year have been one of the better additions to Steam in the past few years, by giving smaller developers a chance to showcase their games and generate interest. It also means a lot of cool free games to try out! As such, let me take you through Omar’s Curated Steam Game Fest preview for February 2021, where I will share some awesome demos I have played and games I am now hyped for (plus a few duds that need some work).
Of this list, Distant Kingdoms1 may be the game I am most anticipated for (I stress on this list, don’t forget Distant Worlds 2 is coming out this year as well!). Following in the footsteps of Banished, the game that made survival city-builders a unique genre unto its own, Distant Kingdoms brings that formula to a Tolkien-esque swords and sorcery setting. Towns will feature a variety of inhabitants, from humans to dwarves and elves (and even orcs!) creating a true fantasy utopia.
While the demo was limited to only the humans, and it ended after I had upgraded five houses (the developers ended up extending the demo length after players in the discord server said it was a bit too short), I am certainly excited for what is coming next. The Steam store page teases “a new world filled with secrets, sending out adventuring parties into the unexplored mists” and “deal[ing] with troublesome creatures, from Dragons to Imps, Wraiths and Trolls.” This one is high on my list, and I cannot wait to get to play more of Distant Kingdoms!
Timberborn is certainly not a game with a premise I expected – but then again anything is possible. It is another survival city-builder and self-described “lumberpunk” game. However, instead of playing as humans, you control a small band of beavers that survived an apocalypse that wiped out all of humanity (yes that really is the premise, and not even the craziest one here).
As with Distant Kingdoms, you must collect enough resources to ensure your burgeoning beaver kingdom can survive and thrive… and avoid those harsh dry seasons. In that sense it is like Banished with its winter seasons, however Timberborn aims to offer unique mechanics such as stackable buildings, terraforming, irrigation mechanics, and more. I’m excited for new takes in this genre and looking forward to seeing how Timberborn comes along!
Things take a slight turn here with Dream Engines: Nomad Cities, while it is still a survival city-builder, we are adding elements of logistics and wave defense games. This is a unique game that I had a lot of fun demoing and has a bit more action compared to the previous entries. Dream Engines has you controlling a weaponized mech that also constructs buildings for your central city. The twist is that your city can actually fly – but the only buildings that come with you are the buildings on the ship platform.
Most of the resources needed to construct buildings are outside of the main city, and you bring those resources back with Factorio-like belts that carry resources. The game aims to have a balance between building important and expensive buildings on the platform, and leaving disposable buildings outside of your city that you will leave behind as you move. It is also a wave defense game as you battle hordes of creatures called the Dream Plague that threaten to overrun your city, using your mech and towers you build around to defend yourself.
Dream Engines’s light Tim Burton-esque aesthetic is unique in gaming, which I am always happy to see. Keep an eye out for this gem!
Sphere: Flying Cities will be the third flying survival city-building game, following Airborne Kingdom and the aforementioned Dream Engines: Nomad Cities, that I have played since the end of 2020. That is certainly not something I ever expected to say as a gamer, let alone on a site for 4X games (told you I’m bringing you along for my Winter of City Builders, if you haven’t noticed already).
In this game however, rather than a flying city built by humans, your city is on a floating chunk of earth lifted by an anti-gravity machine. I know what you are thinking; indie game designers are racing to the bottom with wacky stories and need to lay off the peyote for a minute. Well dear reader you aren’t wrong, and there’s certainly a lot of that to go around this Steam Game Fest.
However, while Sphere: Flying Cities certainly has an interesting premise, I was not convinced it is going to bring something new or interesting to the genre. The game felt a lot like Frostpunk, albeit with a shield that expands out around a central anti-gravity tower in the middle of your city that protects buildings from the elements. Amazingly, I have seen enough flying city games that it is starting to feel like a tired cliché.
While the roadmap details a lot of unique features, like traveling over an overworld map and more status effects, the demo felt rougher among its peers which certainly did not help – despite the understanding that all these games have yet to even hit Early Access. I remain cautiously optimistic of Sphere: Flying Cities, and I certainly hope it can stay fresh among the crowd.
Stellar Warfare was unfortunately one of my disappointments this Steam Game Fest. One of my most anticipated games of 2021, a term I admit I do not use lightly due to the caliber of releases set to launch this year, is Falling Frontier. It is a slow burn 4X/RTS hybrid game with a mix of unique mechanics. However, Stellar Warfare is a game that came to my attention on our Discord server as another space RTS game (albeit faster paced) inspired by Homeworld to satiate my taste for a new space RTS game.
Like Bernie Sanders, I was unimpressed, if not downright disappointed, with what I played. Stellar Warfare felt like a poorly thought out gimmick that wants to capitalize on Homeworld’s success and thinks by bringing a space RTS to a 3D map it’ll accomplish that. What I found is the maps make it extremely difficult to discern where buildings are being placed, and there is not really a reason to have z-levels as big as they are in the game. A base ends up looking like a random pile of floating stations, and combat is as dynamic as ships flying to each other, standing still, and shooting at each other. It makes Stellaris’ combat feel extremely satisfying by comparison.
In a way, Stellar Warfare feels like it aspires to be a competitive RTS set in space, however it is like Icarus flying towards the sun. My suggestion for the developers of Stellar Warfare is to take a step back and decide on what they want the game to really be – Homeworld’s success was not just it’s unique mechanics, but also the story. While I do not think Stellar Warfare needs a DMT-inspired backstory like some other games here, it needs to decide what its core mechanics are and how that creates interesting gameplay.
I am not hopeful for this title and foresee Falling Frontier overtaking it by a longshot – but only time will tell.
Drawing the Curtains
And that is all I have from my curated list of Steam Game Fest Demos! While I did try out a few more games, I did not finish playing through anything I felt was noteworthy. However, speaking of crazy premises, check out a game called Bravers, which I, unfortunately, did not have time to play through for this article – its story revolves around magic mushrooms, that are used by a society of humans living underground due to a cataclysm, to construct anti-gravity airships that fly around in giant caverns (yeah I’m not making that up myself).
Are there any demos you tried during the Game Fest that caught your interest? Or are there other games that you are excited for this year? Let us know in the comments below and join us over at Discord and the Steam forums to chat about it!
1Author’s Note: As of 9/8/2021, publisher Kasedo Games has stated that their development partner for Distant Kingdoms, Orthrus Studios, has ceased trading (i.e. no longer has employees) and they are searching for other partners to continue development. While we hope for the best, this may, unfortunately, be a dead game so buyer beware. Read more about the announcement here.
