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Steam Next Fest is in full flow, and as usual, gamers have just one week (six days from today) to find their favorite demos among thousands of choices.
There are currently 3,455 games participating in the event. That number alone can make it hard to find the diamonds in the rough. But some gamers are complaining that this year it's become even more difficult. And yes, AI is to blame yet again.
Typically held three times a year in February, June and October, Steam Next Fest is a week-long gaming buffet where players can sample as many titles as they want in the form of demos of upcoming PC games. Taking part is a great way for indie devs to gain visibility for upcoming releases, and many hold live streams around the event (see the recent debate over how to market an indie game).
The current February 2026 Steam Next Fest is live from 23 February to 2 March. But one theme is cropping up again and again in the debate on gaming forums: the inability of Steam's filter to do its job and filter out the dross in the over three thousand free demos available to download.
Some gamers want a filter that would allow them to find games from developers or publishers they already have games from in their library. But the biggest request seems to be for a way to filter out games with heavy use of generative AI.
“AI made many things worse, but NextFests are basically searching for diamonds in a sea of shit now thanks to it,” on person complains on Reddit, and they aren't alone.
“I wish Valve would add AI to official game tags so I could filter those out,” someone pleads. “At least then I would only have to ignore the human made, soulful asset flip and porn game. It really sucks how those 'genres' make it so actual games barely show up in the discovery feed,” another person comments.
Some developers have similar concerns. John 'Bucky' Buckley, head of publishing and communications at Palworld developer Pocketpair, took to X to say that AI capsule art was an immediate turn off when browsing games during Next Fest.
There are a zillion demos in this Steam Next Fest, and I'm going to be very real...I don't feel very compelled to check out demos with AI art capsulesFebruary 24, 2026
Many say they've noticed an increase in 'AI slop' in the latest edition of the event. Steam does have an AI policy of sorts. Developers must declare it if generative AI content appears in their game, for example, AI-generated art, dialogue, or assets that players will see. This must be stated on the Steam store page.
Many hoped that this would lead to the creation of an AI tag, but that hasn't happened, so there's still no way to filter out AI-generated content.
There may be some complications to the implementation of such system, including defining what counts as use generative AI, but the reaction to the current Next Fest suggests there's an increasingly pressing need for a toggle or filter in Steam’s browsing tools to hide AI-driven titles.
5 Steam Next Fest demos to try
Struggling to find gems amid the AI slop? These are the games from the February 2026 Steam Next Fest that people are most talking about.
Inspired to craft your own title? See our guide to getting started in game design and our pick of the best laptops for game development.
Phonopolis
The latest from the Czech indie developer Amanita Design (Machinarium) is set in an intriguing hand-painted 3D world made of cardboard. Phonopolis is a story-driven adventure in which you have to solve playful puzzles to help Felix end the Leader's oppressive influence in a dystopian city inspired by avant-garde art.
The behind-the-scenes video above shows some of the work that went into hand-crafting the game's world.
Windrose
Windrose Crew's open-world PvE pirate survival game features "soulslite combat" and challenging bosses. It looks set to blend the freedom of survival sandboxes with the structure of action-RPG combat, all wrapped in an underused pirate theme complete with sea shanties.
Vampire Crawlers
There have been plenty of Vampire Survivors imitators, but the original's developer Poncle is back with a twist. Feeling almost like a joke at first, Vampire Crawlers reimagines Survivors as a retro PC dungeon crawler with turn-based combat represented by cards. The translation to a totally different genre works surprisingly well.
Wax Heads
Pattatie Games' Wax Heads is a cozy-punk narrative sim that involves managing a struggling record store. You get to chat with quirky customers, explore a handcrafted record collection, fall in love with bands or just slack off. It feels like a zeitgeist idea, as we noted when we spoke to the developer's Murray Somerwolff last year about creating Wax Heads in Godot.
The Eternal Life of Goldman
Weappy Studio has come up with a sumptuous-looking platform adventure in which we explore an expansive hand-drawn archipelago as an elderly man who carries a cane and wears a yarmulke. With the objective of defeating a mysterious deity, the game was inspired by ancient fables. The frame-by-frame animation looks gorgeous. It's reminding some of Duck Tales on the NES.
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