Steam Next Fest returns from Monday 19 to Monday 26 October 2026, according to the events calendar Valve publishes for developers. For a week, the store puts free demos of upcoming games in the spotlight. Several indie games we keep a close eye on already have a demo live, from psychological horror to a climb up Tokyo Tower by way of a vinyl record shop. We have picked nine of them, and eight can already be played for free on Steam.
At a glance
Steam Next Fest runs from 19 to 26 October 2026, according to Valve’s calendar.
Eight indie games in our selection already have a free demo on Steam, from Arctic Drive to MR. RECORDS.
Eternal Tombs, an MMO built almost single-handedly over nine years, has announced its demo for the festival.
When Steam Next Fest October 2026 takes place
Valve lists it in its calendar of Steam events for developers: the autumn edition of Steam Next Fest runs from 19 to 26 October 2026. As with every edition, demos of upcoming games get pride of place on the store, and anyone can download them from each game’s Steam page.
Our selection comes from the list of indie games the newsroom follows week by week. We kept the ones whose demo is already available, so you can try them now, before the Steam Next Fest rush. The ninth, Eternal Tombs, has announced its demo for the festival itself. Over the past few weeks, we have also covered the demos of Deadpact, the horror game where every wound stays with you and of Haunted Paws, which lets you play a kitten dressed as a puppy. Every demo mentioned here is free to play.
Three horror demos to try before Steam Next Fest
BECROWNED, developed by 13th Street Studio and published by Top Hat Studios, is a surreal survival horror game set somewhere between reality and dreams, in a world where fire no longer burns, according to its Steam page. Its demo has been reworked several times this year. In April, the team added a difficulty selection, then in May it rebuilt the melee attacks of Richard, the main character, and lowered enemy damage on the more forgiving difficulty settings. Back in April, during its publisher’s spring showcase, the studio was still talking about an autumn release; the Steam page now says the first quarter of 2027. Steam Next Fest is a timely reminder that the game is still on its way.
Two streamers climb Tokyo Tower and come face to face with a nightmare: that is the premise of BrokenLore: ASCEND, from Serafini Productions. The game blends climbing with psychological horror, and it is made under an official licence from Tokyo Tower, as the studio pointed out when it opened the demo on 20 May. BrokenLore: ASCEND launches on 6 January 2027, which leaves plenty of time to try the demo. The same publisher, Serafini Productions, is also behind The Hambagu Shop, a cosy horror game in which you run a Japanese hamburg steak shop, and its 20 to 30-minute demo is available too.
Prospice: Anomalous Logistics, from Code Wakers and published by Forklift Interactive, has you hauling cursed cargo across a haunted island where the terrain itself can kill you. Its demo went live on 8 October during the Triple-i Initiative, with no sign-up or key needed. The studio patched it on 10 October: rain now degrades triangulation further, and the truck climbs slopes a little better. The same patch fixes a rare bug that made the truck vanish and raises the XP needed to reach level 2. The game is due in 2027, and its demo has arrived just in time for Steam Next Fest.
Music and snow, the calmer side of Steam Next Fest
In MR. RECORDS, Glee-Cheese Studio has you running a vinyl shop by day and taking surreal musical journeys by night, alongside George and his loyal dog Buzz. Published by Wired Productions and Gamersky Games, the game opened its demo on 22 September “ahead of the Steam Next Fest”, according to the studio’s announcement on the MR. RECORDS Steam page.
According to the studio, the demo covers the start of George’s story as he makes his dream come true by opening his own shop: by day, every sale introduces him to a colourful cast of customers, and by night the records become rhythm levels. A week later, the studio shared a first round-up of the feedback, quoting Rock Paper Shotgun, which was pleased to find the game brings out the head-nodding, foot-tapping response a rhythm game should. According to Gematsu, MR. RECORDS is also coming to PS5 and Xbox Series alongside PC and Switch 2, with release pencilled in for the first quarter of 2027. Since then, the demo has passed 25,000 players according to the studio, and it now features a level editor that lets you import your own music. It’s the ideal demo to unwind with between two horror games.
The Vast White, from the small studio Horizon Games, has you snowboarding down a snowy mountain. You uncover memories buried in the snow, meet the locals and bring a ski resort back to life. Its demo got an update in August after several quiet months, and an earlier version had already added new quests and a day and night cycle. The Vast White launches on 11 November, according to its Steam page, so Steam Next Fest falls three weeks before release.
Survival and strategy: Arctic Drive and Fool King
Arctic Drive, from Pebbles Games and PlayTogether Studio and published by Bonus Stage Publishing, is a co-op survival game for one to four players in a procedurally generated frozen world, where your car is your only defence against the Arctic. As the studio’s demo announcement on Steam explains, the version released on 8 October offers a scenario in which you scavenge to survive while upgrading your vehicle, across several biomes.
On 10 October, a patch added a frost effect on the windscreen in third-person view, which adapts to how much frost the player has scraped off. Early access is planned for 25 November. Arctic Drive is best played with friends, so round up your crew for the demo.
Fool King, from Loot Donkey, is co-published by Firefly Studios, the studio behind the Stronghold series, and WuselFaktory. In this tactical autobattler, you gather your troops, set up your formations, and the battle then plays out on its own against armies left behind by other players. According to Turn Based Lovers, the winner becomes the Fool King, and therefore the final boss of the following runs. On 21 September, the studio announced an early access release on 16 November and passed 10,000 wishlists. The Fool King demo is already live and has had several balance patches. In September, the studio added extra cheat protection and tweaked several units, including the mages, knights and arbalesters, which makes it a good candidate for Steam Next Fest.
Malice in Wonderland, a roguelike for Steam Next Fest
Malice in Wonderland, from Slyglass Games, is published by the DigiPen Institute of Technology. This fast-paced action roguelike has you tearing through Wonderland to break free of the Hatter’s control before you run out of time. Its demo, released on 9 July, includes the first section of the game, six abilities, more than twenty upgrades and more than twenty items.
At the end of July, a major demo update added controller support and reworked the final stand of each run, which the studio felt had become too passive: teacups now fall from the sky during that phase. The studio has been reshaping its demo by listening directly to its community. No release date has been set yet, and the studio has opened a public Discord server where players can share their favourite builds and suggestions. The demo update also tweaked the Final Stand, which the team said had drifted into slow kiting instead of the fast, chaotic action the rest of the game promises, so the version you will find during Steam Next Fest plays quite differently from July’s. If you’re after another roguelite, Geometry Rift: Apocalypse, a father and son’s neon shooter, also has a free demo during the festival.
Eternal Tombs, the MMO heading to Steam Next Fest
Last on this list, and the only one whose demo is still to come, is Eternal Tombs. According to the French site JeuxOnLine, its creator has just revealed that he built this MMORPG almost entirely on his own over nearly nine years, handling the programming, the environments, the servers and every system in the game, with the help of bought-in art assets. He also announced an imminent playable demo, a spot in the October Steam Next Fest and a release window of March 2027.
The site Massively OP describes Eternal Tombs as a demanding MMO built around group play, with Tomb Masters, members of the team who run live events and reshape the world. During Steam Next Fest, its demo will show what a single developer can get out of an MMO.
To keep track of what is coming next, check the release calendar.