Penguin Colony is Steam Next Fest’s weirdest demo

Steam Next Fest offers far more free demos than one person can play, but if you have time for only one, set aside about 30 minutes for Penguin Colony. The name might suggest something cute, but this is a Lovecraftian horror game about penguins from Origame Digital, the studio behind 2020’s Umurangi Generation.

The demo drops players into a dark, barren Antarctica circa 1939. The story is billed as a reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s At The Mountains of Madness and The Shadow Out of Time: Nazis arrive to uncover something buried in the ice while the Kaitiaki are there to protect it.

Even in the short snippet, the game weaves Lovecraftian lore with themes of fascism and colonialism. Gameplay moves at a slow, deliberate pace — a kind of waddling simulator. You shuffle across ice, slide on your belly to move faster, dive, hop and manage a stamina meter.

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