HANDS OVER Demo: The Hand-Losing Party Horror at Next Fest

That's a short runway. You get a week of demo, then a few days, then the real thing.

What the HANDS OVER demo is

It's a table game wearing a horror mask. The store page pitches one device in two lines: "Press the teeth one by one. One of them is the wrong one." Between turns you play influence cards to protect yourself, sabotage someone else, or trigger events. "A bad move can cost you a hand," and the last player still in wins.

ArtDock's own note is the important rule: "losing a hand doesn't mean you're out of the game." So a bad round hurts without ending your night.

There's no set length. It's a round-based party game, and the demo reviews so far log anything from a few minutes to about three hours.

Screenshot: Steam store page (ArtDock)

What the trailer shows

The date trailer is under a minute and mostly cast. At 0:15 a farmhand in overalls leans on a cowboy at the table edge, and at 0:30 the camera pulls back on a row of players strung up by their wrists beside a host in an apron. At 0:33 we finally see a device: a brass traffic light with a doll's head on top. The trailer closes on the Steam date over a carved pumpkin, which is about as clear as Halloween marketing gets.

Screenshot: HANDS OVER official trailer at 0:30 (ArtDock)

How the demo is landing

The numbers say people want it. ArtDock posted in the summer that the game had passed 100,000 wishlists. Its closed playtest had a sign-up goal of 15,000 players and was meant to let in only around 300.

The demo reviews are warmer than the comments section, though not by much. Three in four are positive, and the comparison everyone reaches for is the obvious one. One negative review put it bluntly: "Its Meh, Just as same concept as liars-Bar but you are a human instead of animals". On the other side, a short positive one said it "is really fun especially with friends, would definitely play it again after more content gets added!"

Screenshot: Steam store page (ArtDock)

The sharpest criticism is about how much is in the box. One reviewer wrote: "I couldn’t bring myself to play more than one round; the demo pretty much shows you everything there is to see." Practical notes too: a player asked for controller support, another hit "a brown screen" on launch, and a Mac user said it "Works well in crossover on a Mac", which is a workaround, not official support.

Early Access, and no price yet

ArtDock expects six months to a year in Early Access. The plan it lists is "adding more challenges and modes, expanding the influence card system", plus characters and unlocks. If that one-round reviewer is right about how much the demo already shows, the roadmap is what you're paying for. The studio hasn't set a price yet, so we can't link a store; it does say it doesn't plan to change the price after Early Access.

Our take

Play it with a full table or don't bother. HANDS OVER is a five-friends-on-voice game, and that's exactly the crowd the demo seems to work for. If one round already felt like the whole thing, believe that feeling and wait for the roadmap. For scarier solo picks, our horror demos for Next Fest list goes darker, the co-op Next Fest demos cover groups that want to work together rather than against each other, and the DEEPWARD demo is our pick for a slower, stranger dive.

How we checked this

On October 19, 2026 we read ArtDock's Steam announcements, the store page and its Early Access notes, the demo's Steam reviews, and the official date and console trailers, and stepped through the date trailer for the timestamps above. We haven't played the demo.

References

• HANDS OVER on Steam: date, Early Access notes, system requirements.
• HANDS OVER Demo on Steam
• ArtDock: Next Fest and demo date announcement
• HANDS OVER date trailer on YouTube
• HANDS OVER console announcement trailer
• ArtDock games site
• Steamworks: Next Fest October 2026 dates