Kotaku names Fallbearers as its writer’s only Steam Next Fest demo

Kotaku said Oct. 20 that its writer made time for only one demo during the current Steam Next Fest, naming Fallbearers.

Kotaku said Fallbearers takes QWOP and combines it with a Coffin Flop segment from the Tim Robinson HBO program I Think You Should Leave. In the game, one or two players guide two Victorian-era pallbearers moving a corpse from a hearse to a grave. The player sets speed, jump height, and coffin height while steering around manholes and steep inclines and past malicious bulldogs.

If the corpse leaves the coffin, the run ends, with allowed failures depending on difficulty settings. Kotaku’s writer called the demo criminally short but enjoyed figuring out how to raise and lower the carriers. The full game will add terrain such as snowy levels requiring skis. The writer also said the game has no release date, with a guess placing the launch between Sloppy Steaks on one side and Dan Flashes Dressmaker DLC on the other.

Retro Handhelds and Polygon said this fall’s Steam Next Fest includes more than twice the number of demos from last year’s edition. Polygon said Oct. 19 that PC players can try free demos for upcoming Steam games through Oct. 26. Kotaku said players have made slop-free recommendation lists on social media and shared browser plugins and tools that filter games with genAI (generative AI) disclosure, describing these as responses to an influx of AI-generated demos clogging the festival.