Steam Next Fest June 2026: 8 Demos Worth Your Week

Steam Next Fest is live right now and runs through June 22. Valve packed in close to 5,000 free demos this time, the biggest haul the event has ever had, and it spills straight into the Summer Sale. That is a lot of download buttons and not nearly enough hours in the week.

So we did the sorting for you. We skipped the games we already covered, ignored the asset-store filler, and pulled eight demos that actually justify a slot in your queue. They cover shooters, deckbuilders, stealth, management and one of the biggest brands in indie gaming taking a hard left turn. One bonus pick at the bottom is already out in full.

If you want the wider context, Denshattack’s Tony-Hawk-with-trains demo is in this fest too, and most of the Summer Game Fest reveals we flagged last week get playable demos this week.

1. Among Us Story: On Guard

The headline demo, and the strangest pivot of the fest. Innersloth built a single-player narrative game out of Among Us. You are not the Impostor and you are not running tasks. You are the Guard, watching over the crew and trying to figure out who among them is about to start killing.

It is the first time the studio has spun the franchise into a story-rich format, and the demo leans into mystery and investigation rather than the frantic meetings you know. Whether that survives without other players plotting against you is exactly what the demo is for. The full game has no release date yet, so the demo is the whole pitch right now.

2. EMPULSE

If you miss the days when shooters expected you to move, 1047 Games wants your attention. EMPULSE is a 6v6 movement shooter built on wall-running, grappling, holojumps and surface-altering P.A.I.N.T. bombs, and you can grab a mech mid-round if the fight tips the wrong way.

It is loud, fast and unapologetically arcade. The demo is your only window before it hits Early Access on June 24, so this is the one to play now while it is still up. Movement shooters live or die on feel, and the trailer above can only hint at it. The demo is the real test.

3. Junkyard Stories: Rebirth

Junkyard Stories: Rebirth sells you on mood before anything else. It is a dystopian stealth puzzle-platformer where you pilot a discarded robot carrying a hacker’s consciousness through a dead industrial world. A floating companion drone tags along while you sneak past patrolling machines toward a place called Block-07.

The hook underneath the stealth is a draining battery, which turns every stretch of darkness into a small panic about whether you will make the next checkpoint. It is targeting Q3 2026, and the demo sells the mood before it fully reveals its systems. That is usually a good sign.

4. Sovereign Tower

Sovereign Tower is for anyone who always liked managing the party more than swinging the sword. From WILD WITS GAMES and published by Curve Games, it hands you a magical tower and a roster of eccentric knights. You recruit them, send them on quests, manage their egos when they clash, and rewind time when a run goes sideways.

It is a story-rich RPG wrapped around a spreadsheet you actually want to read, with an Arthurian round-table flavor and a real sense of humor. The Next Fest build is an extended demo covering the opening acts, and the full game lands August 6, 2026. A good one to wishlist if you bounced off harder colony sims but still love the genre’s pull.

5. Shroom and Gloom

The weird deckbuilder, and weird in the best way. Shroom and Gloom, from Team Lazerbeam and published by Devolver Digital, is a first-person roguelike where you run two separate decks at once. One for combat, one for exploring the hand-drawn fungal tunnels you are crawling through. And yes, you can eat your enemies.

The dual-deck idea is the kind of swing that either falls apart or becomes your next obsession. If you burned through our roguelike deckbuilders to play before Slay the Spire 2, this is the fresh one to add to the pile. Early Access is slated for Q3 2026.

6. Endless Rails

A train you build, defend and pray for. Endless Rails, from Studio Monoblok, is an isometric bullet-heaven roguelite where your survivors-style horde clearing happens on and around a moving train. Between stations you merge cars, bolt on modules and decide what your locomotive becomes before the next wave hits.

It is a clean genre mashup that reads instantly and still leaves room for build depth. The demo is live with no firm release date yet, so this is wishlist-and-watch territory. Not to be confused with the handful of similarly named train games floating around Steam right now.

7. Guncrypt

There is serious pedigree behind Guncrypt. It comes from Halfbrick Studios, the team behind Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, and it is a fast action roguelite about chaining the perfect sequence of shots. You combine unique bullets, stack relics and chase the run where everything finally clicks.

Halfbrick knows how to make a loop you cannot put down, which is exactly the skill a roguelite needs. The demo is your test of whether the bullet-crafting holds up over a full run. No release date yet, but the studio name alone earns it a try.

8. Chained Beasts

Round up some friends for this one. Chained Beasts, from Featherweight Games, is a co-op gladiator roguelike for one to four players that literally shackles you to your teammates. The chain is a constant liability when it tangles, and a weapon when you learn to use it to stun, trip and drag enemies around the arena.

This is the genre lineage of the chaotic co-op hits that defined the year, the PEAK and R.E.P.O. school of friendships-ending multiplayer. The June build adds a new character roster, fresh weapons and new enemy types, and a full release is planned for 2026. Grab three friends before you grab the demo.

The one you can actually buy: MOLE

A bonus, because it skipped the demo stage entirely. MOLE, from Off Black Creations and published by Oro Interactive, launched its full version on June 15, the day the fest opened. It is a psychological horror sim about keeping a colossal underground drilling machine running, alone, in the dark, and it draws straight from the Iron Lung and Mouthwashing well of claustrophobic dread.

At $11.69 it is the only game on this page you can finish this week instead of merely sampling. If the demos leave you wanting something with an ending, start here.

How to actually survive the week

Nearly 5,000 demos is a wishlist trap, not a to-do list. Pick three or four that match what you actually want to play, ignore the rest, and remember that the personalized carousels do not kick in until day three. The good stuff is easiest to find now, while the homepage is still randomized.

If you are a developer rather than a player this week, our guide on optimizing your Steam page before Next Fest covers why those first two days matter so much. Otherwise, keep the wishlist tab open. The Summer Sale is right behind this.