The Steam Next Fest is here until March 3. Obviously, it’s an exciting time for us — as well as gaming as a whole. This is the time when indie games get some incredible exposure and demos are flying everywhere. I’ve been taking it in since things have kicked off, and I want to highlight three games that have caught my attention.

‘Deck of haunts’ MIGHT BE MY FAVORITE GAME Very SOON

Dwayne brought this game up a few weeks ago and I felt like doubling up with this one because Deck of Haunts is that good. I need all eyes on this. Scares are performed with a series of cards that can do different things like chilling the room, or screaming. There are also cards that attack the humans in the house. Your goal is to either kill them or make them lose sanity to take their essence. Essence is what keeps your game going and allows you to further build on your house.

The key is to build in a way that keeps the humans away from your heart, which lies in the last room of the house. If the humans reach your heart, they will do damage to you that ends the game. There’s an element of strategy in that you have a specific number of action points per turn, so you can’t just go crazy. And every turn that goes by, they get closer to your heart.

There are cards that can move humans to another room to buy you some time, but they are always moving towards the heart. Unless they spot a dead body, then you have two turns to kill them or empty their sanity bar. If they get out, the next batch of humans is going to be harder to take out. I’m enjoying my time with Deck of Haunts and look forward to putting some serious time into it to see if the strategy deepens and holds up over the expansion of the game. This is one I’m glad to see highlighted in Next Fest.

‘megabonk’ could be a next fest dark horse

At no point since Vampire Survivors-mania began did I ever consider that I needed a 3D game in this genre, and yet it makes perfect sense. Megabonk follows all of the normal trappings of the genre. But, there is something about actually seeing the world around you and being able to jump and plot your way around that enhances the genre. I will say there’s some cleaning up to do as far as the overall feel of controlling the game. But, there’s definitely something here. I’m also hoping that the animation style is intentional, though this bald dude as the standard enemy is wild.

I don’t think this Next Fest offering is gonna set the world on fire, though it’s a pretty solid time. But I do think it’s important in the same way D’Andre Swift was important to the Eagles getting (Super Bowl 59 Champion) Saquon Barkley. You can see what’s possible here. And I think we’re due for a great 3D Survivors-style game. Maybe it can be this one with a bit more polishing. The potential is there, but most important of all, the shot has been fired.

‘Neon Apex: Beyond the Limit’ – RACING WITH STYLE

Last but not least for this Next Fest look, Neon Apex: Beyond the Limit. A futuristic, anime-styled racing game that caught my eye on visuals alone. I’m always of the belief that we don’t need super-realistic, PC-melting graphics for every game. It’s cool here and there, but let’s keep bringing a level of graphical style to gaming. Neon Apex is for sure doing that. This is a game that believes in speed. In practice and in visuals. Every aspect of the game is created and intended to feel fast. And it largely succeeds.

The gameplay in this Next Fest demo is pretty straightforward. And while there are some pretty cool customization elements outside of the races, I hope to see more inside the actual races themselves to keep players engaged. My time with the game involved me doing more traffic dodging than competing with the AI in a race. Once I got to first place, the only thing that was going to get me out of it was damaging my car on a wall or other traffic. Although, there was one race where I was comfortably in first place and the 8th-place car stopped and wrecked me to avoid me setting a lap record. It is kind of hilarious. I’m hoping that’s a thing in the game.

The damage mechanic is interesting and could be a strategic play in-game as there are takedowns during the race. But, there definitely needs to be a bump up in the challenge of the race itself. But that’s what a demo is for, and based on what does exist here, I have faith that the finished product will be something that takes off once it hits.

NEXT FEST ISN’T OVER, I’ll be back with more

These are just three games I’ve chosen to highlight today, I’ve got quite a few left on my list to get after and I can’t wait to dive in. I’ll be at this all weekend. And in case you’re wondering, yes, it will likely be roguelike-heavy. Steam has a particularly dense roguelike showing this year for Next Fest. And also yes, I plan on being as annoying as possible about my Eagles putting hands, feet, and elbows on Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.