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The 2025 Steam Next Fest just wrapped up, and we just saw some of the most incredible indie and AA games that are on the horizon in the gaming landscape. There were more games in the Next Fest that you could shake a controller at, and I think it's pretty safe to say that the future of small indie games from all genres — those forgotten and those resurgent — is safe. Nothing sells you on a game better than a well-put-together demo, and the Next Fest had plenty. At this point, the only one unhappy with how diverse and promising this year's Steam Next Fest was, is my wallet. My wishlist, on the other hand, has expanded by a whopping number of games I simply can't wait to play by myself or with my friends, and they should be on yours, too. My Little Cafe Nightmare is a dark but cozy ride The only thing the spirits want is your soul... and some coffee Don't let My Little Cafe Nightmare's horror aesthetic fool you — it's one of the coziest games I've seen in the Next Fest. You've taken on a dilapidated coffee bar, and it's now up to you to renovate and customize it to breathe new life into it (pun intended). The customers you'll run into, however, are all from the Beyond, all with their own tastes in drinks, and you must make sure you make them the right one. The gameplay loop here is about managing ingredients, cups, and equipment, making sure you keep everything spic and span, and that you don't hold up the customer line. The hero here is clearly the art style, which, despite its darkness, can soon give way to a brilliantly homely spectral café that you can call your own and take pride in. Brotherhood is what happens when modernity meets old-school shooting This is the demo I played the most Blood: Fresh Supply is my favorite DOS game remaster to ever exist, and I've been counting the days for Refreshed Supply, the true remake, to hit Steam in December. In the meantime, however, there is Brotherhood, a brutal retro FPS where neither the combat stops, nor the music, as you try to find your way out of an ancient underground prison. It's about as old-school as they come, and the smooth flow of the gameplay only makes the game feel better in every way. There's also a bit of BioShock sprinkled in here, with special mutagens that unlock different abilities for you to use when the going gets tough. Do You Even Forklift needs you to get work done, any way you can If I had a dollar for every forklift-based game I loved at the Next Fest... This is one of those games that's both completely ridiculous and weirdly brilliant. Do You Even Forklift turns industrial warehouse work into a chaotic physics sandbox, and it's way more fun than it has any right to be. Undoubtedly born from the inexplicable rise of forklifts and forklift licenses in meme culture over the past few years, DYEF puts you in a Ghibli-esque Japan, where you must operate a forklift all over the city, solving puzzles. The puzzles themselves are tied into Japan's car culture, where you have to lift and place Kei Cars in the right parking spots at the right angle, making sure you find the right way (and place) to do it. Heck, the game even allows you to bend the law, but you gotta make sure no one is looking. For me, though, the best part of the demo was one singular, standout feature that the devs themselves made sure to highlight — a dedicated beep button. Master Lemon: The Quest for Iceland is a celebration of existence itself A journey you won't soon forget once you're done This one might be the most bizarrely charming game I played at the '25 Steam Next Fest. Master Lemon: The Quest for Iceland is set in a beautifully-crafted pixel world, and it's all about the one thing that makes the human race the most special on the planet — language. In a world where the world's linguistic heritage is at risk of being destroyed by a plague, it's up to you, Lemon, who must solve unique puzzles, meeting unforgettable NPCs from different cultures with their own unique, real-world languages. All of it comes together to help you fight the memory-eating plague so you can change (and save) the world around you. The game tests your wits, your memory, and, above all, your love for language and communication. With themes of friendship, the celebration of life, and the connections we share, The Quest for Iceland is one game I'm certain I won't ever forget once the credits roll in November. Casting Whispers needs you to keep your ears open Cosmic horror meets 1960s America A good ol' fashioned horror game from the Next Fest, Casting Whispers is set in 1960s America, where an entire apartment block is terrorized by a cosmic horror. Here, as you explore your surroundings, ranging from dark alleys to tight apartment corridors, your most important tool is your sense of sound. The only way to solve the puzzles around you, or to know where to go and what needs to be done, is through sound. The game has a dedicated 'Listen' feature, where you must block out all senses to clear your mind and listen to the whispers and sounds around you that cryptically guide you on your path to find your lost mentor. A single-player linear game, Casting Whispers is shaping up to be an 8-hour thrill ride once it drops right before Halloween 2025. Service with a Shotgun – coffee with a side of zombie guts The zombies yearn for coffee If you've ever played Coffee Talk, it's one of the more relaxing games out there where you make conversation with interesting NPCs while brewing up some nice caffeinated concoctions for them. In Service with a Shotgun, you play as a lone barista working the late shift in a haunted coffee shop. Here, the orders never stop, and neither do the zombies. It's a brilliant mix of cozy chaos and creeping dread, where you're handing out espresso shots in one half of the café with a side of shotgun pellets in the other. I played the demo half expecting a shallow gimmick, but it's surprisingly layered with upgradeable weapons, combo kills, and fast-paced combat. Crashout Crew is whimsical and unapologetically fun The studio has not missed this year From the award-winning crew over at Aggro Crab studios that just gave us Peak, one of the breakout indie stars of 2025, comes Crashout Crew, and boy is it a joy to play from the word go. This is a co-op game where you and three other friends can form a four-person crew of overworked warehouse workers, each with their own colorful forklift to operate, and by operate, I mean drift around and crash into each other. Your collective job is to keep taking in some of the weirdest orders to ship worldwide across the huge warehouses you'll be in, and the game promises over 20 types of boxes, all with different physics-based behaviors to drive up the whimsical nature of the game. The forklifts themselves have mechanics like drifting and nitrous boosts, and, most importantly, much like another co-op game it's reminiscent of (Moving Out 2), Crashout Crew, too, has chickens... lots of chickens. Final Sentence is a battle royale like none other Your fast WPMs and typing accuracy will go through the wringer We may all be collectively tired of battle royale games, but Final Sentence challenges that notion with a fresh take that I bet you hadn't thought of. A typing battle royale game, Final Sentence pits you against 24 other players as you all find yourselves sitting in a dark hall with a typewriter on a dimly-lit table. The fastest typer wins, of course, but there are a couple of catches. First, there's the terrifying, hooded figure in a plague mask standing over you, refilling bullets in their revolver. Make three mistakes in any sentence, and they play Russian Roulette on your temple, leaving you with a one-in-six chance to be able to continue. If you take pride in your typing speed and WPM numbers, Final Sentence can be a very humbling experience, as I found out the hard way just how many mistakes you make when your fight or flight is activated. There's even a fantastic demo you can check out right now to prepare for when the game comes out in Q4 2025. Every Next Fest is a celebration of possibility Big studios may shape the industry, but the indies keep its soul alive. Every Steam Next Fest feels like a celebration of possibility, but this one hit differently. It's proof that the heart of gaming is thriving in the hands of small, wildly imaginative teams who aren't afraid to experiment and make strange, beautiful, and often unhinged games. With the demos I just played from this Next Fest, I felt like I was being reminded of why I love games in the first place — because they surprise us all with what they offer. The big studios today may shape the industry, but it's these indies that keep its soul alive and kicking, and that's the hill I'm willing to breathe my last on.
