We’re excited to announce an important milestone for Derby Champions: our first playable demo is coming to Steam Next Fest this October.
From October 19–26, players will get their first opportunity to step into Derby Champions and experience the game for themselves.
Our First Playable Demo
Derby Champions is being built around the idea of creating your own horse racing journey—not simply choosing a horse and entering a race.
Our vision is a game where you build your own racing dynasty by developing horses, training them, managing your stable, and ultimately taking them to the track to compete.
The demo will be the first public look at that experience.
It’s also important to us that players understand what this release represents. This is a demo, not the finished version of Derby Champions.
There are still systems to expand, features to build, content to add, and plenty of work ahead of us. The purpose of this first demo is to give players a real introduction to the game while allowing us to learn from how people actually play it.
Why Steam Next Fest Matters to Us
One of the biggest reasons we wanted Derby Champions to participate in Steam Next Fest is feedback.
When you spend a long time developing a game, your team becomes extremely familiar with every system, screen, mechanic, and decision. Putting the game in front of real players gives us something we simply can’t recreate internally.
We want to see what players enjoy, what feels intuitive, what needs more explanation, what could be improved, and—most importantly—what people want more of.
That feedback will help us continue shaping Derby Champions as we work toward the full release.
Building More Than a Racing Game
Horse racing is obviously at the center of Derby Champions, but we’ve always wanted the experience surrounding the races to matter just as much.
Building your stable, developing your horses, making decisions about training and progression, and eventually competing are all intended to be part of a larger journey.
The goal is for the horse standing at the starting gate to feel like your horse—one that you’ve spent time developing and preparing for that race.
There’s still a lot more we plan to add to that experience, and the upcoming demo is just the beginning.
See You at Steam Next Fest
Steam Next Fest begins October 19 and runs through October 26, and we’re looking forward to finally letting people experience Derby Champions for themselves.
We’ll be sharing more information about the demo, what you’ll be able to do, and what to expect as we get closer to October 19.
If Derby Champions sounds like a game you’d like to play, wishlist the game on Steam. Wishlisting helps support Derby Champions ahead of launch and makes it easier to keep up with future updates and releases.
We can’t wait to see you at the track.
