Indie devs say Steam Next Fest is a massive win for finding early success: "Wishlists go brrrr"
Feb. 8, 2024Everyone wins in Steam Next Fest
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Indie developers are enjoying a surge of early success this week, all thanks to this year’sSteam Next Fest, which offers a ton of free demos for upcoming indie games.
I’ve long said that covering indie games is my favorite part of the job here at GamesRadar+, and so it’s been a delightful week shining a light on games that aren’t getting nearly enough attention. Personally, this brutally difficultDark Souls and Princess Mononoke-inspired boss rush horror gameand thisunimaginably dark narrative-driven space spookfestare my favorite demos so far, but GamesRadar’s Hope Bellingham is finding oodles of warmth indecidedly more cozy demos, while Hirun Cryer is chilling out with thisStudio Ghibli and Wind Waker-influenced sandbox adventure.
Point is, we’re all finding new indie obsessions we might’ve never come across without Steam Next Fest, and naturally, the studios involved are loving the exposure. In a lovely change of pace, my Twitter feed has been flooded with encouraging posts from indie developers celebrating the attention.
One very measurable metric of early enthusiasm for an indie game is the amount of people wishlisting it on Steam, and in some cases, results are far exceeding developers' “lofty” expectations.
Other indie developers are celebrating the event and its potential for outreach more generally. In fact, indie marketer and long-time enthusiast Ryan Brown called the showcase “probably the single most important pre-launch campaign beat for an indie title now.”
It’s genuinely hard to think of a single considerable downside to Steam Next Fest. We get free demos, developers get hands on their games,Valvenaturally benefits from the engagement, and even us journalists get to break up our daily routines with some fun indie action. Truly a win-win-win, at least until the event ends on Monday, February 12.
For more, here are someupcoming indie gameswe have on our games radar.
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After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar’s west coast Staff Writer, I’m responsible for managing the site’s western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I’m too afraid to finish.
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