Play these exclusive, limited-time Steam Game Festival demos to celebrate the 2019 Game Awards

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Starting right now, Steam is celebrating the annual Game Awards with a weekend of exclusive, free demos.

These demos are available immediately and disappear at 10am PST on Saturday, December 14th, so don’t wait if you want to give them a try! There is some amazing stuff to try out including classics like System Shock, the RPG adventure title Haven, and more.

Three standout demos available during the Steam Game Festival

If you’re looking for something new to try out during the Game Festival, here are three of my personal recommendations.

Spiritfarer

Spiritfarer is a gorgeous, hand-animated, 2D adventure game about being the envoy of the dead, escorting spirits of the recently-deceased into the afterlife. It masterfully balances unabashed joy and solemn grief, an emotional spectrum I’ve rarely seen in the medium before. If this is the same demo as the one I played at PAX West, it is a beautiful experience and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

I really wish I could be playing this demo, but it is one of several that aren’t compatible with macOS Catalina. If you can, please check this one out.

Chicory: A Colorful Tale

Chicory: A Colorful Tale on Steam is a vibrant story about art, color, and a magical brush that goes missing. I played this one at the MIX at PAX West and it is an incredibly fresh take on what playing games can really be like. If you liked Mario Paint back in the day, grab a mouse and give this one a whirl.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’ve seen a growing prevalence in cute, cozy, non-violent games over the last few years and I am absolutely here for it.

SkateBIRD

What if Tony Hawk: Pro Skater featured a bunch of birds? SkateBIRD is the answer to that question. I don’t really feel like I need to say more, because that should already give you enough information to know if you want to play or not. I just hope in the full game you can literally play as a hawk named Tony, because if not, what are we even doing here?

Do note that, like a lot of software now, several of these demos are not compatible with macOS Catalina due to 64-bit compliance. This is one of them.

The Game Awards

If you’re tuning in to the 2019 Game Awards, watch here starting at 8:30pm EST and remember, you only have until 10am PST on Saturday, December 14th to try out these Steam demos.

Note: Jake is personal friends with some of the developers of Chicory: A Colorful Tale. 

What do you think? Plan on trying out any of these titles during the Steam Game Festival? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• The smash indie hit Untitled Goose Game is coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One soon
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is becoming a litmus test for my aging reflexes
• The Resident Evil 3 remake is now official – watch the trailer here
• Oculus Quest gets an update that lets users play games and navigate menus without controllers