I'm glad I didn't skip this Metroidvania's Steam Next Fest demo – it's more than pixel art Hollow Knight and has maybe the best graphics settings ever

gamesradar.com:

Just finding time to play through the best Steam Next Fest demos, let alone all the promising ones that appeal to me specifically, is a tough task. I've had to get pretty aggressive about my selection process this week. If a demo's screenshots and tags don't grab me immediately, it's not getting a download, and if the first five minutes don't feel right, it's getting uninstalled. Life, like Steam Next Fest, is too short. And I was this close to passing on Noreya: The Gold Project, a 2D pixel art Metroidvania from developer Dreamirl, not because it didn't look good, but because I still haven't gotten to demos for some of the event's most popular games. But I'm glad I gave it a shot. The demo is a little rough technically, but I see huge potential in this distinctly post-Hollow Knight game. 

Noreya has been pitched as something of a Microvania, or at least micro by the standards of Hollow Knight, which the game closely resembles in its layered backgrounds, clean platforming, and especially the main character's simple, directional sword swipes and pogo hopping. Dreamirl says the early access version coming next month will be about five to six hours, with a full 10-hour version planned for its early access graduation after two to three months of feedback-guided development time. As a point of reference, the game's targeting seven boss fights total, which sounds pretty snacky to me. 

I've put some time into the even more limited demo, and it's definitely left me hungry for more, but also hungry for some improvements which should be easy wins. If we can get two little fixes here, I think Noreya could be really nice. First of all, there's a bit of hitching in the frame rate during some jumps, which is a big problem for a