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Steam Next Fest is now live, and players have found a variety of engaging independent titles. Yet, one is particularly notable for its unconventional concept. Titled Unko Technica, this old-school styled jumping adventure features a protagonist that is literally a turd striving to navigate to a restroom. In case you're wondering, "Unko" is Japanese for "poop."

Player controls is easy to grasp: you only need a single jump button. Across 150 challenges, battle tough enemies and visit a shop to acquire customizations for your poop character.

Plan your jumps with caution, as a mistake means starting over. Bounce using floating orbs to propel your character to new heights, cross fragile platforms, and activate triggers to unlock new areas. Gather coins to purchase tougher game content as gameplay ramps up.

In terms of design, the game shows off vibrant environments and a killer music score. The retro visual style with moving basic polygons evokes memories of gamers of classic titles like Earthbound.

Although hard to think of previous releases where you play as a dung character, video games have long incorporated fecal matter. As an illustration, in Death Stranding, players create explosives from character excrement. Examples include Palworld and Ark: Survival Evolved employ feces as fertilizer. And of course, fecal references appears a lot in Obsidian's role-playing game The Stick of Truth.

Putting aside its goofy concept, Unko Technica has already received notable accolades, like taking top honors at Bandai Namco's GYAAR Studio in 2023. The demo is accessible currently on Steam, with the complete version scheduled to arrive on PC this November.