Must-Play Demos from the Steam Game Festival

The week-long Steam Game Festival began on Wednesday, giving gamers the chance to try out over 500 demos from upcoming PC games. Featuring titles from a wide variety of genres, the Steam event gives developers of all sizes an opportunity to showcase their hard work to an audience of millions.

The demos will no longer be available after 10 am PST on Tuesday, February 9, so players only have a limited time to check them out. With some demos taking as long as two or three hours to play through, time will be at a premium for gamers looking to make the most of the Steam Games Festival. The games are also in different stages of development, making it difficult to decide which ones are worth playing. So far, there have been a few stand-outs that gamers should keep their eyes on.

This rogue-lite deck builder takes all of the best ingredients from Slay the Spire and adds a ton of its own. Developed by Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield and Abrakam SA, Roguebook innovates on the growing genre by giving players two heroes to control instead of one. Heroes and their cards gain different abilities depending on whether they're standing in front or in back, making the order in which cards are played more crucial than ever. One of the most exciting innovations is the introduction of a hex-based board to explore, which players fill in with inks and brushes earned by defeating enemies.

Created by indie developer Greg Lobanov, Chicory: A Colorful Tale is an adorable puzzle platformer that doubles as a virtual coloring book. When all of the color disappears from the world, players take up a magical paintbrush that allows them to color in their surroundings. Featuring quirky, memorable characters whose cute designs mask darker themes, Chicory's tone is somewhat reminiscent of Undertale. Even in the first few minutes of the relatively short demo, Chicory plays a handful of tricks on the player, subverting established tropes and doing the exact opposite. The game also offers a co-op mode for players who want to paint the world together.

Releasing next month, Loop Hero is a fantasy rogue-lite that tasks players with rebuilding the world following an apocalyptic event. Players don't control the hero of this story, but rather the shape of the world itself. The hero automatically travels around a loop and fights enemies as players add towns and geographical features to the map, passively harvesting resources and outfitting the hero with scavenged gear. These resources can then be used to create buildings like farms and a smithy at the player's camp. The pixelated art style is reminiscent of classic RPGs, and the dreary color palette evokes the same sense of harsh finality as the future presented in Crono Trigger.

Gamers tired of saving the world might enjoy Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator. The surprise hit from niceplay games lets players run their own potion shop, catering to the myriad needs of their customers in a fantasy setting straight out of Dungeons and Dragons. Players brew their own potions by using various herbs, each of which creates a uniquely-shaped path on a map that contains multiple effects. Over time, players improve their skills and discover new effects, developing a specific relationship to each herb along the way.