Valve is kicking off the Steam Game Festival: Spring Edition tomorrow. This event gives studios a chance to show off their in-progress projects through public, downloadable demos. The Steam Game Festival kicks off at 10 a.m. Pacific on March 18.
As part of the festival, Valve will showcase more than 40 games. You can find these on the event’s landing page on Steam once it goes live. This is the second Steam Game Festival. Valve held one in December that enabled gaming fans to get an early look at 14 upcoming releases.
In its press release, Valve points out that this is an important opportunity for developers:
“With 40+ titles featured, the Spring Edition highlights an even larger selection of games from studios who missed out on the chance to demo their games at showcases like Indie Megabooth, Day of the Devs, and The MIX during this year’s GDC.”
The Game Developers Conference was originally scheduled for this week. But GDC cancelled its March event earlier this month due to the spread of the coronavirus. That virus is so contagious (no one has immunity to it, though vaccines are in development) that it has forced many local and state governments in the U.S. to enact curfew or shelter-in-place quarantines to fight the pandemic. In Ohio, the governor even asked the state supreme court to delay voting in the primary election.
But even as millions of people isolate themselves to due their part to flatten the curve, game creators still have to eat. And Valve is giving some studios a chance to still put their games in front of people in a way that can help build excitement on the path to an eventual launch.
