Three Edgegap-Powered Demos to Play This Steam Next Fest
Steam Next Fest is back, and three of our clients are part of it. Each one has a free demo on Steam, which means you can jump into their multiplayer right now.
The three games are very different: a hero brawler, a cozy life sim, and a fairy-tale party fighter. What they share is a focus on playing together online, backed by the server architecture that fits each game. The hero brawler and the party fighter run on match-bound dedicated servers, where each match gets its own server built for low latency and high fairness. The cozy life sim is an MMO, running on a persistent fleet of servers that keeps its world online. Here's what each one is bringing to Next Fest.
ALEA
ALEA from Afterlife Games is a free-to-play PvP brawler "where every hero is two fighters in one." Each hero can switch between two fighting styles in the middle of a fight, such as shield and greatsword or fire and ice. A duel can change direction with one swap.
The Next Fest demo has online 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3 queues with MMR-based matchmaking and public leaderboards. ALEA is set to launch in 2026.
Loftia
Loftia from Qloud Games is a cozy multiplayer life sim. Players farm, craft, explore, and decorate floating islands while building "towards a brighter, more sustainable future."
Loftia has massively multiplayer features. Players can form neighborhoods on shared islands, take on group quests across biomes, and work together on a community farm. Group play is optional, so players can also explore at their own pace.
Loftia has a limited-time demo for Next Fest, and the game enters Early Access on November 3, 2026. That's only two weeks after the festival! You can also read about Loftia's BETA Playtest, also ran on Edgegap, earlier this year.
More details on the demo is Loftia's social media account
Punch Upon a Time
Punch Upon a Time from Supersaurus is a team-based party fighter "inspired by Smash Bros." The roster has fairy-tale and fable characters (plus a playable frog), and Robin Hood is the newest addition for Next Fest.
The game supports 12-player online matches with rollback netcode, matchmaking, custom lobbies, and in-game voice chat. In Squad Saga mode, you team up with two friends or queue solo, then play rounds drawn from a pool of modes like basketball and Red-Light-Green-Light. The demo is at 95% positive on Steam so far.
Congratulations to the teams at Afterlife Games, Qloud Games, and Supersaurus. Grab the demos during Next Fest, invite some friends, and wishlist the games you enjoy. It helps indie studios more than you might expect.
Written by
Gabriel Parent (Director)
