NEXT FEST 2026 - #1
- Hubert Spala
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
What a beautiful time to be alive! Not only has Winter, finally, been defeated by Spring here, and the snow melted away to not come back anytime soon, but also, there's a gosh darn STEAM NEXT FEST on right now! A true holiday for the indies enthusiasts... like me! As is tradition, for the next few days I will be trying my hand at as many awesome game demos as I can to find some delicious gems to bring to your attention, dearest readers. And so, without further ado, let's start with the first trio of great games I enjoyed today.
ARCHON SOUL
Love it. To bits. It's such a simple idea, such a baseline concept. Card game mixing up with dice game? Hardly a groundbreaking revelation! I've seen attempts like that done dozens of times, to various degrees of success. But as I often say, you don't need to invent something completely new to make a fantastic game, and ARCHON SOUL is a superlative example of this. Because it is so, SO well crafted. In games that mix various mechanics together it can often feel which one is the supposed main one, with all the others being half-baked auxiliaries. Small and unimportant. Here both the spells on the cards and the dice play equally important roles in creating a powerful build and offer a variety of play that a proper roguelike must have to be a good game.
Even with just one character in the demo, I was surprised by the many ways you could play it. The number of spells isn't exactly staggering, but that's just a small point. Each die you roll to activate the spells can have different runes on each side. Also, the unique body of each die can significantly modify its core behavior. You can have a die dedicated to combat, to between-rounds healing, or to cutting down into big countdown spells. A die that is indestructible can be used on abilities and especially enemy abilities that would otherwise make you sacrifice a die. A great variety of runes lets you customize everything to your heart's content. You can spread a great choice of effects across multiple dice or focus on one die in particular to have all sides have the same effect, basically guaranteeing that you will see it rolled every round.
And so, in the demo alone, using just one provided character, I had a build dedicated to huge Countdown spells with 2 dice being made heavy, making sure they often land on their biggest values and double their impact on reducing cooldowns. In another run, I had a (Darude) Sandstorm build dedicated to retriggering dice rolls with Reload runes. And yet in another run, I made a tank with runes dedicated to generating barriers and a fortitude buff, loading up on an enormous amount of shielding just to unleash a devastating attack with damage based on the amount of my shield. It's pretty fantastic how well it works, how your brain is well massaged by the possibilities on display.
Add to that fantastic pacing, great aesthetics, and most importantly of all - engaging combat. Enemies and bosses are very unique and always have some wacky thing they want to do. It's never just a boring exchange of hits. There are triggers, passives, buffs, and debuffs to always be wary about. Enemies that you MUST use their once-per-battle ability with your own dice to overcome. It's awesome. Can't wait to play the whole game once it is out.
GAMBONANZA
I'll start with a crucial preamble - I suck at chess. Big time. I do know the rules, of course. How every piece moves and all that jazz. But somehow, despite being a big board games nerd, chess's peculiar brand of simple abstract movement screws with my brain. I make some really dumb errors, unable to see all angles of attack, safe spots, and next moves. So I am definitely not, I'd say, a good target audience for a game about executing chess moves. The thing is, GAMBONANZA is a roguelike, which makes it approachable, fun, and often quite wacky!
The idea is simple. You have a few pieces, and each combat encounter is a tiny chess puzzle to solve. Taking enemy pieces without losing your own is the preferred outcome. What makes it fun is all the charming nonsense around the game that makes it a roguelike in the first place! Gambits offer unique interactions with your pieces. Tile modifiers add an additional layer of strategy, letting you find new ways to move or interact with your and enemy pieces. And all your bits are very precious, for the game has a crazy simple, nasty, and fun system of keeping you in check - your precious pawns, rooks, bishops, and the like vanish forever when taken out. Yup! Your very limited pieces are not permanent by any means, and if you misplay, you can quickly find yourself in a tight budget hole of spending well-earned dough not on powerful upgrades, but on refilling your board with enough moving parts to even be able to face the music. Rough!
That would be deeply frustrating, especially for an inept chess player like me, who loves losing pieces left and right... But what makes it work is that it is not too demanding to build a little pawn-generating engine. A gambit that spawns 3 pawns in your pocket each time your Queen gets threatened? Nice. One in three chances of getting a free knight each time you take something with a bishop? Sure, sounds good. There are plenty of such interactions, and many of them are crafted to work with each other. You can spread your powers wide, making sure each of your pieces has a little ace up its sleeve, or go broke on empowering a single one. A Queen that takes a free turn every time it takes a particular piece, then gets protection from being taken, then also spawns pawns? All doable, all achievable. And so, it is as much a set of chess miniature challenges as it is a bit of clever engine building and resource management - to some small degree. It's fun, it's wacky, it's very direct and to the point.
DON'T KILL THEM ALL
Since the first teasers for this game dropped, I have been interested in the premise alone. Running a crew of rambunctious orcs with a keen love of violence and short fuses? Having an orcish psychologist working with your clan via therapy and herbal supplements to control their rage? That's fun. That's new! But of course, it was hard to predict how this would shape up in actual gameplay. Well, the demo is out, and I am happy to report that it is quite brilliant. It's a pretty standard formula of tactical turn-based combat, but very much tilted on its axis to be something completely different.
First, you do not really fight the enemies. I mean, sure you do, of course you do! But that is not the goal. Each area you explore has that delightful loot your clan needs. Wood and bone, ores and various bits and bobs. And the dang critters attacking each area don't much care about bashing your orcs' heads, but rather are starving to get their grubby claws, paws, and what have you into said resources, destroying them. How rude! And this also pisses off your greenskin compatriots.
Which is a problem. See, your orcs are mighty and they can easily win any battle and wipe the area clear in a bout of berserker rage. That's great for smashing things to bits, but not so good when your frothing warriors come back from a raid empty-handed due to their festival of destruction. And so, you must play a delicate balancing act. Beat and chase the monsters and critters away. Secure resources crucial for your clan's growth. Unlock new gear and abilities, learn how to control that inner fury! And make sure to watch your team so nobody blows a gasket and goes crazy with a right-to-smash.
So yeah! It's a clever twist on the genre, a fun switch of balances. It's not about the fighting, it's not about the killing, but more about keeping your brutes in check, letting them discover tranquility, learn meditation, and letting their impulses be reined in - for the greater glory of the clan!
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