This weekend, in the first June recap, I’ve got little to nothing new to share, so today I’m giving you a few leads on fresh demos worth checking out. With the 2026 edition of the Steam Next Fest on the horizon (June 15–22), plenty of developers are starting to release new demos or update ones that are already available.
Aside from a few new releases and DLCs, today I’ve got several demos I want to spotlight that I think you might want on your radar. Let’s jump right in.
Legends of Starkadia (demo)
Legends of Starkadia is a sci-fi turn-based RPG from Doom Turtle, the studio behind Ember Knights and Welcome to Harmony.
The story follows a bored teenager from Earth who ends up far from home and gets pulled into the Starkadian Empire, a strange space civilization caught in an interdimensional war. Combat uses classic party-based turns, but with quick-time inputs tied to attacks and defense, so battles ask for more than simply choosing commands from a menu.
The full game is planned to include 12 playable characters and 11 planets to explore, while the current demo offers a first look at one planet, its party dynamics, and the game’s offbeat tone.
dotAGE: Trade Secrets (DLC)
dotAGE: Trade Secrets expands the turn-based village survival roguelite with new systems built around trade, travel, and outside exploration.
The DLC introduces the Goldlings, a group that exchanges coins for resources, which gives the economy a stronger role across each run. Pips can now use horses, carts, and boats, while expeditions open the door to rare materials, blueprints, and new risks beyond the village.
Trade Secrets also adds new elders, buildings, events, and mysteries, making the settlement feel more connected to the world around it without moving away from the careful planning that defines dotAGE.
PRELUDE Dark Pain (Demo)
PRELUDE Dark Pain is a dark fantasy tactical RPG centered on grid-based battles, party building, and a world shaped by war and oppression.
The story follows Soren, a former warrior who becomes a blacksmith before being forced back into conflict after an attack on his family. The demo I tried introduces the game’s tactical combat, where positioning, high ground, enemy factions, skills, and battlefield hazards all play an important role.
The full game is planned to include more than 20 playable heroes, several class types, missions, raids, crafting, and choices that can affect recruitment and the direction of the story.
Kingdom of Ashes: Fallen Era
Kingdom of Ashes: Fallen Era is a roguelite deckbuilder about the last survivor of a ruined kingdom fighting back against the Lord of Shadows.
Each run moves across a procedural map with battles, elite enemies, bosses, shops, shrines, and other encounters, while the deck grows through new cards, upgrades, removals, relics, and elemental combinations. The game includes eight fallen heroes, each with a different starting deck and playstyle, plus permanent progression through Mastery levels and Ash spent at the Forge.
It looks built for players who enjoy careful routing, card synergies, and repeated runs where small deck choices can shape the whole attempt.
Goddess of Strategy (Demo)
Goddess of Strategy debuted with a demo that includes a short campaign that leads to a boss fight against Wrath, the first of the Seven Sins, and features three heroes with different roles to test in battle.
Runs move through combat, events, merchants, shrines, and other nodes, while gods, skills, items, and team synergies change how each attempt develops.
Meta progression and difficulty options add some replay value, with a cursed mode available for players who want a tougher challenge after learning the basics.
Songs of Conquest: Yulan (DLC)
Songs of Conquest: Yulan adds a full new faction to Lavapotion’s turn-based strategy game, built around the divided lands of Yulan and three ancient houses: Li, Sheng, and Xuan. The DLC includes a new Tale told across three connected maps, five Conquest maps, a new biome, new towns, new buildings, and eight troops with fresh traits and abilities.
Its main strategic twist comes from Essence alignment, since favoring Order, Arcana, or Creation changes buildings, units, and the way armies develop. Several troops also have multiple upgrade paths linked to the houses, giving Yulan more flexibility than a standard faction roster.
A Kobold Story: Trenchcoat Adventurer
A Kobold Story: Trenchcoat Adventurer is a hand-drawn dungeon crawler from Crystal Spider Games about three kobolds pretending to be one adventurer by hiding inside a trenchcoat.
Behind the joke, the game follows a classic dungeon RPG structure, with grid-based movement, turn-based combat, loot, leveling, and inventory management across six chapters. The kobolds can equip gear, but they can also eat unwanted items, which gives resource management a playful twist.
With more than 300 items and a crayon-like visual style, it looks like a lighthearted take on old-school dungeon crawling rather than a straight parody.
Midgardr (Demo)
Midgardr is a turn-based city-builder and card-driven strategy game from Holy Radish, presented with the feel of a medieval board game.
Players take the role of a duke sent to govern a village on the edge of the realm, then use cards and resources to build homes, farms, markets, mines, lumberyards, and defenses. A political layer comes through the Curtes, where assigning characters to government roles can unlock bonuses but also create problems if illness, madness, or poor decisions affect the court.
Events and letters add story choices to the management loop, so the demo is not only about building efficiently, but also about dealing with the consequences of the rule.
Food Devils (Demo)
Food Devils combines tactical RPG combat, roguelite progression, restaurant management, and monster cooking in a post-apocalyptic setting.
Players hunt creatures across procedural biomes, bring back ingredients, prepare meals, and use those dishes to attract human adventurers or strengthen Food Devils through contracts.
The demo includes a prologue with several hours of content, a wide skill pool for building combos, and parties made from one Food Devil and up to four adventurers. Its most interesting idea is how food connects the whole loop, since meals affect recruitment, buffs, contracts, and the next expedition.
Entropy (Demo)
Entropy demo gives players an early look at the new tactical turn-based RPG from Lovely Hellplace, the developer of Dread Delusion.
The game is set in a dying post-apocalyptic world where scattered human settlements survive under tyrants, monsters, and a growing demonic threat. The story begins in Draenog, where a theatre performance is interrupted by fighting at the gates, forcing the troupe to defend itself with whatever it has.
Combat is party-based and tactical, with up to six characters, mercenaries who can replace fallen allies, leveling, perks, weapons, armor, spells, and exploration across towns, dungeons, and strange landmarks.
The demo features a modified version of the opening, with faster access to stronger gear and magic, making it a useful first sample of its retro 3D style and grim JRPG-inspired structure.
Space Scum (Updated Playtest)
You probably already know Space Scum, but the news is that an updated playtest build is now live, giving players a newer look at Sole Survivor Games’ sci-fi tactical RPG, where a mercenary crew fights across hostile planets for loot, survival, and reputation.
The core loop is built around turn-based battles, recruitment, gear, experience, and hard choices, with procedurally generated planets changing the missions, factions, enemies, and environments from one run to the next.
The updated experimental build adds several combat and usability changes, including a revised battle start screen, better range indicators, UI improvements for crew management, enemy smoke grenades, poison effects, AI and pathfinding updates, and balance changes to wages, provisions, rewards, and mission limits.
