Kaizen - a puzzle game developed by some of the zachtronics team, it looks interesting but the demo was underwhelming.

Star birds - a logistics game made by the developers of Dorfromantik and published by Kurzgesagt. It reminded me of anno for some reason but they are quite different games. I liked it.

Word play - a rougelike deckbuilding (very original) word puzzle game by Mark Brown (from GMTK). Didn’t play it much but when I did I got hooked on it like a rougelike has never hooked me before.

Sintopia - I don’t really know how to describe this. It’s a bit like two point. I would just look at the steam page yourself. I thought it was ok but didn’t like that the main character in the tutorial was horny.

Grappling bagel - cool game. Lots of fun on the steam deck. The title tells you what the game is.

I was also interested in wildgate but didn’t have time to play it.

I tried (and loved)

• Jump Ship that also ran greatly on the Deck. It’s a game that mix mechanics from Sea of Thieves and Void Crew, great if you loved them. Can’t get enough of a good space coop game :)
• Herdling same as above. This indie game is about guiding a group of creatures up a mountain.

and today I’ll also try Quantum Witch, a narrative adventure in pixel art

My favorite demo I played was Clover Pit, it’s by the devs of Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom, and could lazily be described as balatro meets a slot machine. In reality it’s more different from balatro, it has it’s own retro horror vibe and some other interesting things going on. I enjoyed it, and found myself itching to play it more.

Nothing else clicked with me unfortunately. Jump Ship looked cool but didn’t run well on the deck, Brave Junction is a blackjack StS type game by rideonjapan but didn’t quite click with me. I tried a few other games but nothing hooked me.

Bloodthief ended up being exactly as fun as I’ve expected