Steam NextFest First Impressions: Creature Keeper

Steam NextFest is upon us!

Once again, I almost missed out. 😅 I knew that the event would be this week... but then, lost in Palworld, I also lost track of time and days and before I knew it the event had started without me.

But that's okay. There's still a couple of days left, I have downloaded six demos that look pretty spiffy, and today I'm bringing to you an upcoming game called Creature Keeper.

_{(I've also decided to do one post per game, due to the fact my previous NextFest showcases were getting rather large and I wanted to write so much more about some things but was restraining myself due to post size.)}

✨🎮Check it out on the Steam Store here!🎮✨

Creature Keeper describes itself as a monster-tamer where, as well as capturing and taming and levelling up the monsters of the land, you also have your own portable farm where you can grow power-ups, equipment, and ingredients for your monsters.

You are a 'creature keeper'. A sickness is afflicting monsters in the land. It is your job to restore balance to this world.

I'm in a bit of a monster hunting phase at the moment — mostly thanks to Palworld — so I felt that this was a good start to the NextFest event!

Loading up the game, I'm instantly greeted by very Pokemon-esque music. By that, I mean it gives similar vibes, not that it's a copy. It sounds really nice!

I can't use F12 to take screenshots in-game though, for some reason. So I'm relegated to using the ol' print screen button and directly pasting them into this post instead. Ugh.

After hopping straight into the Options, I'm pleased to see that I can rebind the keys. Thankfully. Because the original keyboard setup was the arrow keys and uggghhhhhh, no thanks.

I swiftly change things to a more modern layout, kind of. To the best of my abilities. And then, upon starting the game, I wish that I hadn't because it turns out that modern controls just aren't "right" with some games.

This game is also designed for controller use more than keyboard, and it's very evident. I once again voice my disdain for COMPUTER games that aren't designed with MOUSE AND KEYBOARD in mind.

So, this demo is specifically a combat demo. We get a few weapons and fruits and are sent on our way to befriend some creatures. Tame some monsters. Collect some creatures.

Only, the game doesn't tell you how to do that.

I happily go up to the various creatures and stab them, fling a boomerang at them... and kill them. But I have no clue how to capture these things. Evidently, according to the popup welcome message, I use fruits. But... how?

There's an inventory with a bunch of items in it. I have no idea what these items are or what they do. I have a look at the bestiary and see the monsters I've killed so far, and see that I can unlock items of interest on each of their pages.

I still don't know how to catch them or how to summon them once captured.

In the inventory window, you can also access the Pocket Garden which holds a bunch of tetris-shaped seeds that you plant, but can't rotate, in the garden square.

There's no information on how long they take to grow or if they just sit in the garden as a type of stat boost or what.

In this game I literally have no idea what I'm doing.

I'm vehemently against "hand-holding" in games, but come on. A little bit of guidance wouldn't go astray. Overall, my 20 minutes of demo time in this game went unenjoyed, unexplained, and was quite annoying.

It's only a demo, and an alpha demo at that... but this needs a lot of work and I doubt I'll ever give it another go, regardless.