The dark horse of Steam Next Fest is this open-world zombie survival game that feels like an homage to the best game in the genre, but you'll have to be patient with it

You might not have heard of it, but Project Zomboid is quietly the best zombie game out there, a hugely-detailed simulation that puts you in the midst of the apocalypse and tasks you with working out how you're going to survive in a crumbling world. So when I spotted Dread Dawn slipping into Steam Next Fest's top ten, I had to take a closer look.

This particular zombie apocalypse kicks off during protagonist Jack's time at university, offering a slice-of-life element akin to Shaun of the Dead or All of Us Are Dead, and there's an effort to tell a bit more of a story than most survival games go in for. Truth be told, I think Dread Dawn invests a little too heavily in its narrative at the start of the game, but as a big fan of apocalypse fiction, I'm not complaining too much.

Once the outbreak has begun in earnest, it's up to Jack and the other survivors to use their surroundings to survive. Having missed the evacuation deadline, you're trapped in the city, so you'll initially have to scavenge to survive, but trailers show that you'll eventually be cutting down trees to build defenses, and growing crops and rearing chickens to keep your food supplies up. Eventually, you'll be taking the fight to impressively large hordes of zombies, attempting to corral them through the structures that you've built to keep yourself safe.

Interestingly, Dread Dawn seems to be garnering some attention from a quiet start. I didn't notice it at all on the first day of Steam Next Fest, but today it's high up on the charts, sitting at #2 on the trending chart behind the festival-leading Dungeonborne and embedded firmly in the top ten for daily active players. 

There's no word on a release date for Dread Dawn beyond a 'coming soon' message on its Steam page. The demo seems relatively robust, but as Project Zomboid's 13-year development should illustrate, detailed survival games like these can take a very long time to come out, so if you want a taste of this one, you might want to hop on this demo while it's around.

For a peek at what comes after Next Fest, here's our list of upcoming indie games.