Brazilian developer Epopeia Games has really knocked it out of the park with their demo for Gaucho in the Grassland. Their newest title is showing off for Steam Next Fest, and while we’ve heard some great things about it, I’ve now gotten the chance to play the demo for myself. And let me tell you, it’s definitely worth playing for yourself!

Tiny Grassland Planet

Gaucho in the Grassland‘s demo opens with you communing with the spirit of your father. After you’ve spent plenty of time customizing yourself, your horse, and your dog, your father uses the Force to direct you to a terrifying bramble fence. He asks you to help people and gain enough benevolence to open the gate, so we can find him. Now honestly, I didn’t trust that at first. Open the scary gate and go into the clearly cursed bramble forest – suuuure! That’s definitely not suspicious! But there’s a lot to do before we can even do that.

Back away from the scary brambles and there’s a wide-open world to explore. Everyone you meet has their own quest for you to teach you various aspects of playing the game. One wants you to challenge his horse races, another needs you to help him track down his herds. It’s a great tutorial that also builds the characters and the world in a natural way. And if you don’t have the right tool or skill to get the job done? The character will turn you away and sometimes even direct you to the person you need to talk to for the skill you need to learn.

The world that you’re playing in is a little planet all its own. You can run round and around and never find a corner. The locals refer to a mainland, so perhaps we can just assume this is an island specific to the demo. The mainland would be the main game, which is such a clever way of referring to it. You can even share a drink with the characters, and they’ll give you hints about how Epopeia Games plans on expanding the game! More fish, more furniture, and most importantly more magic!

Building Blocks All Day

Aside from the quests, a lot of Gaucho in the Grassland‘s main gameplay involves resource gathering. Whether it’s to craft, build, or trade you’ve got to have the right materials to start with. Oh, and this game doesn’t have currency. Everything is based in a barter system. You want some cassava? Better shear a sheep for me. Want some land to build a sheep barn? I’m gonna need three fish, ten red dye, and twenty-four wooden boards. There’s a clear line of progression, but it certainly does take some time.

I will say that the building and decorating mechanics are pretty fun. It is a little limited right now, but what demo isn’t? What it is, is promising. You are able to create buildings modularly that seamlessly expands the interior, and then you can place walls and doors to customize the layout! That much control over the building gets me a little giddy, not gonna lie.

The ranch buildings are also cute, and I enjoy the mechanic of having to find and herd your first animals back to your property. However, I am not sure if it necessarily works as intended right now? It is hard to tell when an animal locks to your barn, aside from the bull literally going inside it. And watching the cows I gathered clip right through the closed gate was pretty frustrating, but the concept it solid.

So Not The Matrix

I do have to mention that the demo has quite a few bugs at the moment. Nothing too terribly game-breaking, if you ignore the time I loaded in without my horse, tried to get it to spawn by starting a race, and got stuck there. Or the time I was in a race and the check points just completely vanished, meaning I could never finish or leave the race. Those were probably the worst, as I had to reload my save to resolve them.

Other than that, I did get stuck on leaving a building with a porch. However, that was resolved by destroying that section of building, putting a part with a door in front of myself, and going in and out again. The other glitches I noticed mainly involved characters either clipping down into the ground or way up into the air randomly. Thankfully, Epopeia Games built in a bug reporting system that automatically screenshots your issue. It’s reassuring to see that feature and gives me some hope that they will be able to address these issues before the full release.

Teasing the Story

As I mentioned, Gaucho of the Grassland‘s demo is a separate story from the full release. However, it teases a great deal and hints at what our main goals are going to be. Helping your neighbors grant you benevolence, which you can use to access cursed lands and harness magic. I might have been skeptical at first, but our Force Ghost Father seems to be legitimately concerned with healing the land and guiding you home. Your home is the mainland, and when the game’s released fate will guide you there. Or so says Papa.

The demo really does its job. Not only does it show off its core mechanics, but it’s got me hooked for the full release. If you are looking for some good ol’ fun this Steam Next Fest I really recommend you give Gaucho of the Grassland a chance.

Gaucho in the Grassland is part of Steam Next Fest: June 2025. The full release of the game is slated for July 16, 2025.