// PC GAMER — GAMING
I ran 45 idle game demos from Steam Next Fest all at once for a desktop companion battle royale
Steam Next Fest is packed, but I've found a way to manage.
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Steam Next Fest is back and bigger than ever, but I'm not so sure that's a good thing as I struggle to sift through its thousands of demos in search of my next second-screen idler. If anything, I kind of hate the current structure: we've gone from browsing a bespoke, quality selection of gems to navigating the world's busiest Costco where every aisle has a dozen free samples to shove in your mouth.
The free food is nice, but sometimes I take a bite and instantly regret it. Sifting through today's Steam Next Fest feels a lot like that, and with nearly 500 idlers in the showcase, filters aren't that helpful either. I don't have time to even read that many store descriptions, let alone play them, so I did what any sane, totally normal person in this situation would do:
I downloaded 45 demos, launched them all at once, and started narrowing my selection down by closing the ones that didn't entertain me for more than a few seconds.
Well, I say all at once, but what I really did was flood my second screen with as many idlers as I could fit before culling them to just my favorites. The results were a hellish mixture of lo-fi beats to get overstimulated to, cats meowing, and every farm noise imaginable. It took about two or three rounds to go through them all, but the strategy worked, and I have a nice little list of desktop idle games to wishlist.
Coincidentally, I also have the worst video I've ever recorded.
As you can imagine, my PC wasn't particularly thrilled to have a billion chirping idle games all sounding off at the same time, but ol' faithful handled it like a champ. And out of the 45 idlers I downloaded, I only have 11 desktop distractions to recommend.
I've got the attention span of an overcaffeinated toddler, so I love the brief yet satisfying distraction found in a good idler. I don't need something that takes me away for long, so I go for the desktop companion-style games that fit nicely in the corner of my screen. They give me something to do for a minute or two before it's back to work, and I like seeing my finished collections or completely decorated spaces when I'm done with them.
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