The Game Awards offers an E3-esque buffet of Steam demos for unreleased games

Geoff Keighley, the founder and host of The Game Awards, announced a new project on Wednesday morning called The Game Festival. The Festival is designed to work hand-in-hand with the Game Awards to give players the chance to try out some new games being discussed on the show with Steam acting as the digital event space.

The demos will only be available for 48 hours, but giving fans a way to actually try these games for themselves is an interesting move for the awards show.

According to Keighley, the idea behind the Festival is to mimic the experience of a gaming trade show or consumer event, like E3, digitally.

“Now feels like the right time to take the next step with The Game Festival, a completely digital approach to the consumer event space,” Keighley said. “Let’s face it: Not everyone can attend a physical trade show or consumer event. The Game Festival is designed from the ground-up as an event without barriers, extending the benefits of a physical event to the global gaming community that watches The Game Awards.”

This first version of The Game Festival will include over a dozen games demos on Steam. Here’s a preview of the games that will have free demos during the event:

• System Shock (Nightdive Studios)
• Eastward (Pixpil/Chucklefish)
• Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus)
• Moving Out (SMG Studio/Devm Games/Team17)
• Röki (Polygon Treehouse/United Label)
• Chicory (Greg Lobanov)
• Wooden Nickel (Brain&Brain)
• Haven (The Game Bakers)
• Heavenly Bodies (2pt Interactive)
• Acid Knife (Powerhoof)
• The Drifter (Powerhoof)
• CARRION (Phobia/Devolver)
• Skatebird (Glass Bottom Games)

The Game Festival will begin on Thursday at 1 p.m. ET and end on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET. Players will be able to play any of the available demos through Steam while the Festival is happening. Steam will also broadcast The Game Awards in 4K, while the show airs live on Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. ET.