Megaphone-Controlled Dystopias, Rad Record Stores, and Haunted Post Offices: Eight Cool Games from Steam Next Fest

Games

In recent years, I’ve been trying to expand into playing a wider variety of games, especially indie games created by small teams. Steam Next Fest, an online event held three times each year, is an excellent way to explore a variety of games and game genres to find something new. The most recent event, from February 23 to March 2, event hosted a slew demos for forthcoming indie games in a wide variety of genres.

As I scrolled through the list of games participating, I made my choices mostly based on vibes. Interesting artwork or creepy atmospheres caught my attention immediately — and before I knew it, I had a massive list of games to explore. Unfortunately, I only made it through a small fraction of the games I wanted to play. Here are some of my favorites, and if any of these games sound interesting, you can support them by wishlisting them on Steam.

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Games I Played in February 2026

Games, Review
Screenshot from a video game, showing a computer terminal. Little PostIt notes stick to the sides with gameplay instructions. On screen is a postcard with text scratched out.
Transcribing a postcard in Dead Letter Dept. | screenshot by me

Dead Letter Dept., developed by Mike Monroe and Belief Engine, is a fantastic horror game with an interesting premise. After moving to the city, the player is taking part in a data entry job in an empty, dank warehouse in the middle of nowhere, filling in addresses that a mail-scanning system finds illegible. Each day, you wake, wander down the dreary corridors of your apartment hallway, hearing the muffled voices of your neighbors in their own apartments, and take the train to work.

The job — and gameplay — involves hand-typing in addresses and, in some cases, increasingly bizarre passages of text. Little narratives unfold in the strange letters and postcards sent through, each building a sense of dread. While typing, the electricity sometimes flickers and pops (multiple times causing me to jump) and also hear strange sounds of things shifting around the room.

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Games I Played in January 2026

Games, Review
Michelle is a stylish survivor in Sorry We’re Closed | screenshot by me

Sorry We’re Closed (á la mode games) is a survival horror game with immense amounts of style. The art (which is one of the first things that attracted me to it) is stunning, both the nostalgic computer graphics and the character portraits. The music hits the perfect vibes and the gameplay adds to the survival horror experience.

Michelle is a young woman working in a corner shot in a small neighborhood in London. Though on another continent, the community feels very much like some of the counter-culture neighborhoods I’ve seen in San Francisco, being full of charming punks, oddballs, and weirdos. Everyone seems a bit on edge, considering the number of disappearances in the area.

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Global Game Jam 2026

Games Development
Covers for the games Best Face Forward (showing the silhouette of a face with the text arranged inside) and Thomas Was NOT Alone (showing a man in a beanie and suit jacket, holding a wine glass, with pink hearts floating around his head)

Over the weekend, I participated in the Global Game Jam at the UC Davis location hosted by the Game Development & Arts Club. I’ve done several jams in the past, but always as a solo developer. So, this was the first time I participated in a jam with the intention of joining a team, let alone at an in-person event. Quite nerve-racking.

Fortunately, everyone was wonderfully chill. The event kicked off with a presentation, with former Davis alumnus providing advice on how to approach a jam, before declaring the theme for the 2026 jam: Mask.

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‘Stray’ Is a Cute Cat Game… Full of Horrors

Review

In Stray , developed by BlueTwelve Studio, the player gets to experience what it’s like to be an ginger tabby cat exploring the ruins of the human world. At the start, the cat is living with a group of fellow strays, who wander along giant pipes and culverts, likely looking for food — when one of the pipes suddenly gives way causing the kitty to fall into a deep crevasse, with their cat family helpless to do anything but watch him disappear into the dark.

Alone in an underground structure full of garbage, the kitty must find their way back outside (hopefully to return to their family). Fortunately, he’s not alone in this journey. Neon signs and lighted arrows guide the cat through dark tunnels, helping him to avoid danger, and ultimately leading him to a small, empty apartment with a secret room full of computers and technology. After solving a simple puzzle, the cat encounters a new friend in the form of a small, floating robot.

B-12, as this robot is named, would also like to reach the Outside, because that’s what it’s long-dead creator wanted. So, it straps a battery pack to the kitty’s back and together, they head off to escape to the world above.

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