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Steam Next Fest October 2026: Our standout indie picks

Steam Next Fest is always a dangerous event for the wishlist.

You go in planning to sample a couple of demos, maybe find one or two games worth keeping an eye on, and somehow end up with a dozen new tabs open and a rapidly growing list of things you now desperately want to play.

The October 2026 edition of Steam Next Fest has been no different.

We’ve spent time jumping between horror, survival, co-op puzzlers, cosy restoration games, RPGs and some wonderfully strange ideas that probably wouldn’t have crossed our radar without Next Fest putting them directly in front of us.

This isn’t an objective ranking of the entire Next Fest event, because there are far too many demos for any sane person to play everything. These are simply 10 games that stood out to us during Next Fest, whether for a strong concept, an interesting setting, or because the demo left us wanting considerably more.

And, as usual, they’re in no particular order.

10 games worth wishlisting from Steam Next Fest October 2026

Frostrail

Frostrail - Logo and key art

Survival games have sent us into forests, deserts, islands and frozen wastelands countless times before, but Frostrail immediately separates itself from the crowd by making a steam-powered train the centre of the experience.

You’re travelling through a frozen, corrupted world where every stop could mean valuable resources, useful salvage or something considerably more interested in killing you. Exploration, scavenging and crafting all feed back into keeping the train moving, turning it into a mobile base rather than somewhere you simply return to after each expedition.

That idea alone gives Frostrail a strong sense of momentum. Instead of gradually settling into one safe location, you’re constantly pushing further into an unforgiving landscape and bringing your little patch of relative safety along for the ride. It can also be played solo or in co-op, which should make every questionable decision to stop somewhere dangerous considerably easier to blame on somebody else.

The frozen atmosphere, survival systems and train management made this one of the Steam Next Fest demos that immediately stayed with us.

Apple Crumble

Apple Crumble - Logo and key art

Apple Crumble might have one of our favourite pitches from the entire Next Fest event.

It’s your grandma’s 84th birthday party, nobody is trying to murder her, there is absolutely no reason to suspect your family members, and that strange man in your bedroom is definitely nothing to worry about.

Perfectly normal family gathering, then.

Coming from Happy Broccoli Games, the studio behind Duck Detective, Apple Crumble is described as a creepy-cosy mystery thriller, and that combination of tones is exactly what makes it interesting. The setting is familiar and almost comforting, but everything about the situation suggests something is very wrong beneath the surface.

Rather than relying on huge monsters or obvious horror, it looks to build tension through awkward conversations, suspicious behaviour and the increasingly strong feeling that your apparently ordinary family event may not be ordinary at all.

We already enjoyed Happy Broccoli Games’ approach to mystery with Duck Detective, so seeing the studio push into something darker while keeping that same slightly odd personality makes Apple Crumble an easy one to watch.

Dude, Trust Me

Dude, Trust Me - Logo and key art

So this one, the developer actually approached us about checking it out before Steam Next Fest. And I still don’t think I have replied to that email, but you can be sure we will now.

Most co-op puzzle games rely on good communication. Dude, Trust Me deliberately makes that communication as difficult as possible.

The game is built for three players, with one person losing their sight, another their hearing and the third their voice. Every puzzle requires information held by more than one player, meaning nobody can simply take control and solve everything themselves.

It’s such a simple idea, but it creates exactly the kind of chaos that makes co-op games memorable. One player might understand what needs to happen but be unable to explain it normally, while another can hear instructions but has no idea what everybody else is looking at.

You’re essentially trying to build a shared language while solving the actual puzzles at the same time.

That sounds like a recipe for equal parts teamwork and shouting, which is probably exactly why it caught our attention.

UNFROST

UNFROST - Logo and key art

UNFROST takes co-op horror into Antarctica, which already gives it a setting that feels refreshingly different from the endless abandoned houses and industrial corridors we’ve become used to wandering through.

You and your team are hunting ancient entities known as the Riftborne, but simply finding them isn’t enough. Players need to gather evidence, survive the extreme conditions, prepare a nuclear strike and then get out before everything in the area becomes considerably warmer.

That escalation is what really sells the premise.

Investigating strange creatures is familiar territory for co-op horror, but turning that information into the setup for a nuclear attack gives the whole thing a much greater sense of purpose. The Antarctic environment should also provide its own threats, making the landscape itself just as important as whatever is hiding inside it.

We’ve seen plenty of co-op horror over the last few years, not just during Next Fest events, but UNFROST feels like it has enough of its own identity to stand apart.

Mind the Clown: Reborn

Mind the Clown: Reborn - Logo and key art

If clowns already make you uncomfortable, Mind the Clown: Reborn probably isn’t going to help.

This first-person survival horror game takes place inside a cursed circus shaped by childhood memories. You’ll explore its attractions while trying to avoid a demonic clown stalking you through the environment, with the ultimate goal of finding and burning circus posters to break the curse.

The circus setting gives the game plenty of room to play with imagery that should feel fun and nostalgic but becomes considerably more unpleasant once everything is abandoned, dark and apparently trying to kill you.

There’s something naturally unsettling about empty fairground attractions and forgotten entertainment spaces, and Mind the Clown: Reborn leans directly into that.

It is certainly the sort of game where you know exactly what you’re signing up for the moment you see the title. And yet, apparently, even after the Next Fest demo, we still want to play it.

From Basement with Love

From Basement with Love - Logo and key art

From Basement with Love is one of the quieter games on this Next Fest list, but its Cold War espionage setup immediately caught our attention.

Rather than running around with silenced pistols and conveniently disguised gadgets, the focus is on intelligence work. Players intercept and decipher classified information, break codes, cover their tracks and gradually uncover a hidden threat while operating from the safety, or supposed safety, of a basement.

There’s something appealing about espionage games that let the information itself become the puzzle. Piecing together intercepted messages and gradually understanding what is happening can create just as much tension as sneaking through a guarded compound, especially when every mistake risks exposing the entire operation.

The smaller scale also gives From Basement with Love a very different feel from most spy games. You’re not saving the world through spectacular action sequences; you’re sitting somewhere nobody should notice you, trying to understand what everybody else is saying before they realise you’re listening.

Sometimes that’s much more interesting.

Reshine

Reshine - Logo and key art

After all the horror, nuclear strikes and Cold War paranoia, Reshine feels like exactly the sort of Next Fest game needed to bring the blood pressure back down.

The idea of this Next Fest find is wonderfully straightforward: restore old objects by cleaning away dirt, rust and years of neglect.

There’s no management layer demanding that you turn restoration into a profitable business and no timer forcing you to rush through each job. You simply choose your tools and gradually uncover what each item looked like before time took its toll.

That simplicity is part of the appeal.

Cleaning and restoration games work because the transformation itself is satisfying, and Reshine seems very happy to let that process do the heavy lifting. Watching grime disappear and seeing something old gradually come back to life gives it the same easygoing appeal that made games like PowerWash Simulator so dangerously relaxing.

Sometimes you don’t need an elaborate progression system. You just need something filthy and the correct brush.

Keelblade

Keelblade - Logo and key art

In truth, this Next Fest find reminded us a little of Sea of Thieves, which our very own Ben loves. So I couldn’t leave this one out.

Keelblade immediately attracted us by combining several things that sound like they should work very well together. You have a pirate ship, a fantasy world, Souls-like combat, powerful magic, boss fights, hidden treasure and support for between one and six players.

The basic loop sends you sailing between islands, exploring whatever you find and gathering loot that can be used to upgrade both your character and your ship. That means the vessel isn’t just a glorified loading screen between locations; it becomes another part of the progression.

What stands out most is the sense of adventure. Spotting an unknown island, steering towards it and discovering whatever is waiting there fits perfectly with the fantasy of running your own pirate crew, particularly once several friends are involved.

Of course, six-player co-op also means there is a very good chance somebody will immediately make a terrible decision on behalf of the entire group.

That’s part of the experience.

Tom the Postgirl

Tom the Postgirl - Logo and key art

Tom has a new job delivering post around the village. Unfortunately, Tom also seems to have absolutely no understanding of personal boundaries.

Tom the Postgirl turns an ordinary delivery round into an excuse to obsessively spy on the people living along the route. Instead of simply handing over parcels and moving on, you can peer through windows, investigate homes and gradually uncover the strange behaviour of the village’s residents.

It’s funny, uncomfortable and more than a little creepy. Which made this Next Fest find our perfect cup of tea.

The hand-drawn presentation gives everything an almost storybook-like appearance, which only makes the increasingly bizarre things happening around Tom feel stranger. There is something wonderfully wrong about watching such an innocent-looking character enthusiastically invade everybody’s privacy.

Plenty of games cast you as a reluctant hero dragged into somebody else’s problems. Tom appears to be actively looking for them.

We respect the commitment.

Emberville

Emberville - Logo and key art

Last on our Next Fest list, Emberville throws a lot into the mix, but the premise tying everything together is particularly intriguing.

You awaken without your memories inside the Vitromotus, an enormous underground world originally created as a magical dungeon where death no longer lasts. You’ll explore its depths, fight dangerous creatures, rescue survivors and gradually rebuild the ruined town of Emberville while trying to understand exactly what this place is.

That combination of exploration and rebuilding gives the game a strong sense of progression beyond simply finding better equipment.

Every survivor rescued and every piece of the town restored should make the world feel increasingly like somewhere worth protecting, while the dungeon itself keeps pulling you further into the mystery behind your situation.

There’s combat, exploration and plenty of traditional RPG progression, but it was the town-building side that made Emberville stand out to us. Having something tangible to restore between trips into the underground world gives all that adventuring a little more purpose.

The demo left us feeling like we’d barely scratched the surface, which is probably exactly what you want from a Next Fest appearance.

Ten Next Fest demos, ten very different reasons to keep watching

The best part of Steam Next Fest is that it makes finding these games ridiculously easy.

You don’t need to commit to buying something based on a trailer or hope the finished game lives up to a handful of screenshots. You can simply download the demo, spend some time with it and decide whether it deserves a place on the increasingly unmanageable wishlist.

Our ten choices cover a pretty wide range of what made this Next Fest interesting. Frostrail gave survival crafting a moving base, while Apple Crumble turned Grandma’s birthday into something deeply suspicious. Dude, Trust Me made communication itself the puzzle, and UNFROST decided hunting monsters in Antarctica wasn’t dramatic enough without adding nuclear weapons.

Elsewhere, Mind the Clown: Reborn gave us another reason to distrust circuses, From Basement with Love slowed things down with Cold War codebreaking, and Reshine provided something much calmer through simple restoration. Keelblade offered fantasy piracy, Tom the Postgirl encouraged behaviour that would absolutely result in a restraining order, and Emberville combined dungeon exploration with rebuilding a community underground.

None of them are trying to do the same thing, and that’s exactly why they stood out.

There will undoubtedly be plenty more Next Fest demos we completely missed, and somebody will immediately tell us their favourite game wasn’t included.

That’s fine.

Steam Next Fest isn’t really about finding the definitive ten best games anyway. It’s about stumbling across something you had never heard of before and suddenly adding another release date to the calendar.

Unfortunately for our backlog, it worked.

Looking for more top picks for events like Steam Next Fest, or just the best alternatives to other popular games? Head over to our Lists section to find more posts like this.

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