Fellow Traveller’s Ludonarracon is live on Steam, and with it, comes a whole new batch of story-focused demos to try. I got to spend time with several games that piqued my interest, fusing improbable genres like classic arcade games, rhythm games, and deck-builders with narrative artistry. Below you will find a number of games that rose to the top of the pile for me, each showing the promise of a great story in the works. Let me know on BlueSky which demos from the festival have been your favourite as well!
Jump the Track
Part visual novel and part breakout, this game has the player make their way through several block-busting minigames to unlock dialogue options in the story. The game opens within a bright, neon-lit casino as our protagonist, Sam, is trying to find a lady who stole his phone. His phone is storing a whole bunch of tickets; he needs to purchase a special prize to get him out of another jam involving some angry mob boss. When he finds her, the game throws you into a mini-game where you have to aim a ball to hit certain coloured blocks and break them. You have 6 tries to clear all the green blocks, which unlocks a diplomacy dialogue option, or the orange blocks, which unlocks an aggressive dialogue option. Once you run out of balls, the minigame is over and you are taken back to the visual novel portion of the game.
You can now choose between the dialogue options you unlocked in the minigame or choose a default option, which is always available to the player, even if they fail the minigame. The story will advance regardless of what you choose, but it can take drastically different turns. For instance, the diplomacy option has you convincing the lady to let you have the phone back if you help her cheat at blackjack, while the orange option has you chasing her across the casino to wrestle the phone back yourself. The story kept the stakes high throughout, and I was on the edge of my seat as to how Sam was going to get out of his series of predicaments.
There was also a score-attack minigame that uses the same block-busting format, except now you have to reach a score threshold to be able to do certain actions in the visual novel. All in all, I found the pinball-esque minigames engaging, and it was especially fun to have a certain strategy in mind while playing them so that I could progress the story through the dialogue options that I wanted. With the backdrop of the casino, the whole experience felt thematically interconnected, and I really enjoyed my time with it. Time will tell if the minigames start to feel like gimmicks, but if they can keep those gameplay moments fresh and the story stays interesting like it was in the demo, this could be a perfect fusion of narrative and arcade action.
Battle Suit Aces
In this demo, we follow the crew of the USS Zephyr spaceship as they discover an ancient weapon in the middle of their fight against an alien race. At first I was a bit put off by the writing, which is filled with the tropes, cliches, and stereotypes of old-school anime. However, the narrative grew on me as I got to spend time with the characters, since the story focuses primarily on the relationships between the cast and their interactions with the various factions across the galaxy. The voice acting is superb, if a bit cringe-worthy at times, and adds a layer of emotional weight to each interaction. The narrative is mostly presented via comic book style story panels with very limited dialogue choices, but given its character focus, I generally had a good time exploring the quirks of each crew member.
Outside of the story cutscenes, the game has a really engaging deck-building gameplay loop. Each of your crewmates is represented by a card, and this forms the primary method of combat in the game. You will be deploying your crew in lane-based card battles against an enemy deck, with snappy animations and visual spectacle throughout. The mechanics felt like a mix of Hearthstone and Legends of Runeterra in the ways you are playing cards onto your side of the board in the hopes of both attacking the opponent and blocking damage against the health pool on your side. Even in my limited exposure to the system, I can see that there will be layers of strategic depth to card positioning, card ability synergies, and win conditions as players get deeper into the game.
There is also a base management system for players to improve their deck. Prior to going out on missions, you can engage in various activities throughout the spaceship, such as modding your cards with buffs, swapping in/out cards to fit your strategy, taking on side missions to earn currency and recruit new cards, etc. Each of these functions in the ship also provides the player the opportunity to dialogue with the various crew members as well, building on the overall story.
Overall, I had a really good time with Battle Suit Aces. The deck-builder gameplay loop was highly engaging and the narrative started to grow some legs throughout my playtime, even if the writing felt a bit juvenile in tone.
Unbeatable
Don’t let the bright colours and cartoon look fool you; this is a tough game. Not only did the rhythm-game tutorial make me sweat with the variety of different button prompts to learn, but the writing and story were much more mature than I expected as well.
The demo starts with a band of musicians centre stage against a black backdrop, pulsing to the beat of the music. Next, notes start to move towards the band along a musical measure overlay and you have to time two different button presses to advance. While keeping the input limited to two different buttons is mechanically simple compared to some other rhythm games, Unbeatable makes up for it by throwing the player different button prompts from two different sides of the screen that can alternate back and forth on a moment’s notice. Not only that, but you will have to press and hold one button by tapping the other and know when a prompt is asking you to press the indicated button or press the opposite. There is sometimes even dialogue on screen during these rhythm moments, which I had no chance of reading given my focus was on the inputs. In short, it all adds up to a challenging experience, but I did enjoy the visual variety of these sequences nonetheless.
Likewise, there is a lot of variety in the rhythm mini-games you encounter throughout the story. I was hitting baseballs to the beat in batting cages, finding the right cadence to mix drinks in a bar, fighting the local cops, and putting up band posters all over town. All of these activities have some type of rhythm mechanic to them, some much easier than others.
As far as the narrative goes, there is a lot of potential on display in this demo. You play as Beat, a girl with a laundry list of gripes about her lot in life. She had several bandmates, most of whom caused their own frustrations for Beat as she tried to navigate fraught relationships. Some shady organisation is out to stop our crew from making music, and it is constantly showing up to put obstacles in their path to play a concert. The writing is snappy, filled with teenage angst, but there is definitely something unique below the surface of this game in regards to how this youthful rebellion is intimately explored. There is a lot to chew on with this story.
The art style is a beautiful fusion of 2D and 3D, and I had a great time exploring the town. I just wish there was a better way to navigate the area, including some signposting to show me where I needed to go. The music, naturally, is phenomenal and really complements each scene, whether it is in the background or the primary focus for the rhythm-game sections.
I think this game will live or die by its accessibility features, and I sure hope it pulls that off in the full release because the world, characters, and writing display a craftsmanship that is rare in this genre.
Find out more about LuddoNarraCon on the official website
Check out the exclusive LudoNarraCon Story Rich Mega Bundle on Steam
The bundle and demos are available until the 8th of May, 2025.
