Kepler Selects Vol. 2

Kepler Selects is our semi-regular round-up, featuring 5 games handpicked by the Kepler team that we believe are worth your attention.

For this edition, our Marketing Manager, Lewis Matthews, sifted through the deluge of Next Fest demos to handpick five that we think you should check out. From blood cults and a severed thumb to the 2001 World Cup, each of his picks showcases something bold and intriguing.


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[h4]Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena[/h4]

Published by: Panic
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Media has the magical ability to transport us to unfamiliar times and places, allowing us to become nostalgic for worlds we’ve never even known. While escaping to fantastical realms is ubiquitous in gaming, few titles set out to recreate a specific real-world moment and culture—especially one rooted in real people's lived experiences; But Despelote aims to do just that. From the demo alone, it’s clear the devs have succeeded in crafting a personal and extraordinary semi-autobiographical piece that’s also a thoroughly enjoyable game.

Set during Ecuador’s World Cup qualifying excitement of 2001, Despelote immerses you in the nation’s football obsession through the eyes of a young boy living in that time. There are no dragons to fight—just a kid, his family and friends, deeply involved in football’s cultural impact on their country. The art style, overlaying 2D monochrome hand-drawn characters on top of a vivid pink-and-orange bitmap pixelated 3D world, is utterly striking. Kicking a physics-based ball around in first-person, playing with childhood friends, and listening to authentic Ecuadorian audio ground you into the world making it feel less like a game and more like a dreamy, half-forgotten memory. Despelote looks set to be a beautiful, personal experience that will likely prove once again that games can be works of art— even when it’s just about kicking a ball around with your mates some 20 years ago.

https://sp.zhabite.com/steamstore/app/2367820/despelote/




[h4]Kaizen Game Works[/h4]

Published by: Kaizen Game Works
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Dear reader, to adequately describe what is happening in the Promise Mascot Agency is practically an impossible task, and you would likely not believe me if I tried. My words would not do justice, this game simply defies and evades simple descriptions or analysis. Instead, this title should be treated in the same way as falling in love or accidentally sending a risky text to your boss, it must be experienced to truly understand.

I will try my best to explain, stay with me. Imagine a world where corporate mascots are sentient, thinking, breathing, talking, walking people, like you and me and then imagine if you will, that you are a former member of the Yakuza now exiled to a cursed Japanese town where you have to set up an agency for the mascots, and you must recruit more mascots and organise public appearance bookings for the mascots but they may run into trouble so you need to send in heroes to – Are you still there? I think you should just go and experience the delightfully unhinged madness for yourself…luckily the demo is still available to play.

https://sp.zhabite.com/steamstore/app/2585830/Promise_Mascot_Agency/




[h4]Redlock Studio, Enclave[/h4]

Published by: Redlock Studio, Plug in Digital
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There’s nothing more relaxing after a long day than wandering through an infinite, sterile, and liminal labyrinth and giving yourself a metaphysical breakthrough of cosmic dread (who doesn’t do it at least once a week?). It’s a strangely specific itch that’s been hard to scratch in recent years.

This eerie first-person exploration game feels like a brutalist dream, where the walls are watching, statues are whispering, and the architecture itself seems to have its own agenda. The demo hooked me with its stark, near-monochromatic art style—cosmic dread distilled into cold unfeeling concrete. Heavily influenced by Robert W. Chambers' seminal classic The King in Yellow, which arguably launched the cosmic horror genre, BLACKSHARD channels the same existential doom (minus the fishmen and tentacles of later Lovecraft works), where knowledge is a curse and understanding is futile. If you too wish to give yourself a complex about the meaninglessness of your own existence you can still grab the demo for BLACKSHARD.

https://sp.zhabite.com/steamstore/app/3223390/BLACKSHARD/



[h4]Chasing Rats Games[/h4]

Published by: Chasing Rats Games
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We’d all secretly love to be part of a cult. Don’t deny it, you’ve thought about it. The followers ready to do your bidding, the cute blood rituals you get to perform with all your friends in the basement and just think of the immaculate drip (as the kids say) of the flowing robes you’d get to wear. There are clear advantages to the lifestyle. But if you’re still on the fence, perhaps you’d prefer to simulate the experience in video game form first. In that case Worship has you covered.

Get ready to use your magical blood powers to recruit followers and partake in all the joyous cultish activities listed above, all to appease your eldritch blood God master and bring about the end of the world. Gameplay wise, the developers cite Pikmin as a major influence but fans of the lauded and oft-forgotten Overlord series from the PS3/Xbox 360 era will feel immediately at home as they manually control their army of followers, to ransack for loot and beat enemies to death. It’s all very charming and wholesome and there’s lots of blood. The demo is still available to play, so give it a go and once you’re done have a real think about joining that local blood cult in your area. They do good work and need the support.

https://sp.zhabite.com/steamstore/app/1548180/Worship/




[h4]Tactical Adventures[/h4]

Published by: Tactical Adventures
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D&D fans have certainly been eating good in the last few years. A successful movie starring celebs that your mum would know and of course the earth-shattering success of Baldur’s Gate III has brought D&D into the forefront of the mainstream spotlight. I’ll admit, I’m not much of D&D person but Solasta II is deep, engaging and contains both dungeons and dragons.

The battle against the crabs is a one-sided slaughter (hardly a surprise as the crabs surely struggled to roll their dice), but not every encounter needs brute force. Later, I opted to sneak past a group of Kobolds, steal dragon scales, and blend in as one of their cult members—avoiding a fight entirely, highlighting the depth of choice and risk management Solasta II plans to offer players.

I’ve never played real D&D, but Solasta II feels like the closest thing to a true tabletop experience that I can imagine in video game form. I’m excited to leave my comfort zone and dip my toe into more D&D shenanigans when the game launches. If you’d like a taster ahead of time, the demo is still available to play.

https://sp.zhabite.com/steamstore/app/2975950/Solasta_II/

And that’s all for now. We'll be back next month with more Kepler Selects!

Missed Kepler Selects Volume 1? Check it out here: https://sp.zhabite.com/steamstore/news/group/44017243/view/527587373100302349?l=english