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I don't think it has anything to do with being "notable" exactly. Some of the developers were just lucky enough to have had publishing rights transferred prior to this. That may well have been a contractual thing based on the game's performance or maybe not. Regardless, at this point it doesn't seem like the upper management responsible for the imminent delisting is willing to respond to any of the developers' concerns.

Here's a quick rundown of what I've tried out thus far.

Great

Ultros - Absolutely oozing with style and polish, and the soundtrack is pretty incredible too. It's also one of the increasingly rare Metroidvania games that's willing to let you get a little confused and lost, and that really fits with the way this game immerses you in its weird trippy aesthetic. I immediately pre-ordered after playing this demo.

Pepper Grinder - Smooth gameplay that manages to feel as good as it looks in the GIFs. Great sketchy pixel art style too.

Good

Berserk Boy - A solid indie Mega Man with some nice pixel art and a very satisfying dash attack.

Arco - A very cool "simultaneous turn-based" strategy game with a nice chunky pixel art style. The gameplay is very reminiscent of last year's Phantom Brigade, as well as similar predecessors like Frozen Cortex, where you have a planning phase where you can see what the enemies are going to do and can plan your actions and then an action phase where you see your plan play out.

Mid

Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse - In much the same way that Palworld is a knock-off survival game version of Pokemon, this is a knock-off survival game version of Hollow Knight from the same developer. That said, this is completely lacking the immediate allure of Palworld. It might end up being OK as there are some decent ideas in here, but right now, this feels like a bit too much of an unpolished mess to actually enjoy.

Lightyear Frontier - It's yet another stick and rock game, this time with chill vibes and a mech. It's already quite well polished at this point, a month ahead of its Early Access launch, so this does seem poised to break through and connect with a subset of the survival game fans looking for a relaxed experience.

Realm of Ink - The performance was so bad in the initial tutorial section that I almost immediately quit, but once you're past that, this is a nice looking and not half bad Chinese Hades clone. It still needs a lot of work and polish, but there is a nugget of a potentially satisfying roguelike experience in here.

I haven't dipped into the new demos yet, but one demo worth checking out that's been around for a while but is now being promoted in Next Fest is Balatro. It's a very addictive and fun deckbuilder that may be of extra interest if you're a poker fiend like Jan.

While I do appreciate this game being highly polished like the prior Steamworld games, I also found myself pretty put off by this game by the end of my one complete playthrough of a map.

My biggest issue is just that the progression here feels extremely linear and sorely lacking any level of depth or nuance. There's very little room for experimentation or creativity in your approach, and I feel like this type of resource management / strategy game really needs that in order for it to provide satisfying gameplay that's worth experiencing multiple times.

I agree that I wouldn't be totally surprised if they used AI, but at this point, it does seem more likely that this is just a classic case of copying someone else's homework.

They definitely have blatantly taken design elements directly from other games, but at this point, it doesn't seem like there's much specific evidence of the use of AI.

I have a massive backlog, but I don't really think that makes me more or less of a gamer. There are plenty of people that are hardcore into a single game that's the only thing they play that I would consider far bigger "gamers" than I'll ever be.

Thanks for all of your work on putting this together, Marino.

Frieren is just so incredibly good, primarily for it's handling of the heavier themes of mortality and regret, but I also really like the goofier elements that seem to put you off a bit. Even if they get meme'd to hell and back, I still think they contribute a lot to the charm of the show and really make me care about the characters even more.

I also have to credit Frieren with having an incredible score that really helps lend weight to the heavier moments.

And shoutout to the Paranormasight fandom.