Steam Next Fest's most-popular early demo is an open-world PvP FPS about building badass giant walking mech-bases

Screenshot from FPS SAND, showing a desert environment and a gun-wielding soldier running toward a walking base.

SAND. It gets everywhere. And so does its demo, which is climbing up the most-played charts ahead of Steam Next Fest's official start date.

Steam Next Fest properly begins on October 14, bringing literally thousands of demos along with it, but a bunch of indie teams have cheekily uploaded their demo a few days early to get a little head start on the digital festivities. Developers Hologryph and TowerHaus had the same idea, too, as the demo for the coolest multiplayer game I've seen in ages is playable right now and is already charting on Steam's demo charts based on active daily players.