🎮 EXCISA Launches Soon! From Custom Calendar to Corner Shop Demo, This Week's Steam News 💸 - 2026.10.26 | Steam

Hello, fans! 🎮 Give your wallet a break, because we've got this week's Steam news!

🧟 Launching October 30! Horror Roguelite EXCISA

Indie developer zooyos' horror roguelite EXCISA (EXCISA) launches on Steam on October 30 ^[1]. It is set in an abandoned mansion's séance table, where the goal is to pick tarot cards, roll dice, and summon an angel that reveals the truth to any question ^[1]. While rolling dice, an uninvited guest with its own unique rules may appear, so the tension should be unpredictable 😱 Korean subtitles are supported, and the demo is already playable on Steam, so horror fans should check it out first!

📅 Easier Picking of New Games: Steam Custom Calendar

Struggling to decide what to buy among the flood of new releases? Steam now has a Custom Calendar feature ^[2]. Based on the games you play, it sorts upcoming releases over the next 8 weeks by date, so you'll be less likely to miss games that match your taste. It can be accessed right from the Steam store home, and Valve announced it through an official Steam notice at dawn on the 24th, Korean time ^[2]. Now there should be fewer moments of 'Wait, that's coming out?' 🙌

🏪 Become a Shop Owner: Lenin Street Geek Shop Demo

The demo of Lenin Street Geek Shop, a store management simulator set in a street shop of the early 2000s, is on Steam ^[3]. It's free to play from October 5, with about 1 to 2 hours of content ^[3]. You play as Kirill, a high school dropout who aims to give his mother a seaside vacation, while selling pirated game CDs and sticky toys and solving neighborhood incidents ^[3]. There are choices like selling items at triple price or giving less change, but rumors can hurt your shop's reputation, so choose carefully 😅 The game mixes pixel art with rough PS1-era style 3D, and the developer stresses that all textures, 3D models, music, and dialogue were made in-house without generative AI ^[3]. With 147 user reviews on Steam and 94% positive, the reception looks good ^[3]. The official release date has not been announced yet, so keep that in mind!

⚠️ Why Demos Are Disappearing: The AI Copycat Fear

The mood in indie games is getting tense. Spanish developer Digital Sun Games has switched the demo of its upcoming game Revamp, originally planned for Steam later this month, to a private schedule ^[4]. The reason is concern about reverse engineering and copying before the original is even released ^[4]. Also, within a day of showing gameplay footage for 'Escape the Walls', at least 7 copycats appeared on Roblox and at least 1 on Steam ^[4]. That's a truly frustrating situation for developers. Indie games live on the hype built through demos, so it's sad that demos are becoming a liability. As fans, we just hope our favorite indie games won't have to pull their demos 🥲

👻 Horror Hopeful for 2027: Moonlit Vigil

Indie studio Chomski Games' first title Moonlit Vigil is also worth watching. It's a first-person narrative horror game themed around cemetery management, set to release on PC via Steam in Q1 2027 ^[5]. Before the full release, the developer plans to let players experience the atmosphere and main gameplay in advance, so horror fans should add it to their wishlists 📌

🔖 One-Line Wrap-Up

It was a week full of news and worries. Mark the EXCISA launch date, try turning on the Custom Calendar, and check your demo shopping list! See you next week 👋