Loftia, the cozy solarpunk MMO from Sydney studio Qloud Games, has opened a free public demo on Steam for Next Fest. It is not a sandbox slice or a cut-down tutorial island. It is the actual opening of the game: character creation, the first stretch of the main questline in Loftia City, your own floating island, and a taste of the co-op Adventures. Progress carries forward, so anything you build this week will still be there when Early Access starts.
Quick answer: The Loftia demo is free on Steam from October 19 to October 26. Your progress and character name carry over to Early Access, which launches November 3.
Loftia demo dates, price and progress carryover
The demo runs for one week as a public playtest. The title screen spells out the purpose with a short developer note: “Welcome to the Loftia demo! Early Access launches November 3rd with lots more content!” Loftia is online-only, even when you play solo.
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Demo window | Oct 19 – Oct 26 |
| Demo price | Free |
| Progress carryover | Progress and character name |
| Early Access launch | Nov 3, 2026, 1 p.m. EST |
| Early Access price | $29.99 ($24.89 with 17% launch discount) |
A character name claimed in the demo is released to other players if you do not log into Early Access between November 3, 2026, and February 3, 2027.
What the Loftia demo covers in Loftia City
Things start in the character creator, which covers hair, hair color, eyes, nose, mouth and a starter outfit. Color choices are not limited to a preset palette, and options are not locked by gender. After that, you glide into Loftia City and a short cutscene shows off the hub before Pebble, a chinchilla, hands you the first quest, “A Fresh Start.”
From there, the main quest is a chain of introductions. Each NPC opens a system, and the order is fixed by the story.
| NPC | Where | What they introduce |
|---|---|---|
| Pebble | Loftia City | “A Fresh Start,” city tour |
| Milo | Workshop | Salvaging, Project Station |
| Hazel | Your island | Garden bed, lettuce seeds |
| Kun | Your island | Cooking Station, Carrot Soup |
| Amani | Permits Office | Building Permit upgrades |
| Cliff | Loftia City | Personal Glider |
| Ryder | Adventure Dock | Adventures to Research Islands |
For Milo, search the Scrap Quarter for screws and plastic discards. Then collect clay at the Construction Site and scrap wire at the Solar Farm. Use those materials to build the Project Station, the workbench for most early tools. Later, the town tour takes you around Estella’s and Linda’s before you reach the Airtram Station, which matters at the very end of the demo.
Your Neighborhood Island in the demo
A hot air balloon carries you from the city to your Neighborhood Island. The island holds your house, a shipping bin and a vending machine, and it starts out covered in junk. Walking into the house happens without a loading screen, and you can change wall and floor tiles right away. Other players’ plots sit nearby in the same neighborhood, so you can wander over and look at their homes.
The Hammer is the first tool you craft at the Project Station, and it breaks down the trash piles, debris and metal scraps that clutter the island. Hazel then gives you a garden bed and lettuce seeds. A watering can comes next, and harvested crops go into the shipping bin in exchange for Dews, the game’s currency. Kun adds a Cooking Station, and tires from the Solar Farm go into a Rain Collector.
An earthquake partway through the story leads to Amani at the Permits Office. Upgrading your Building Permits raises how many garden beds you can place, lifts item limits, and unlocks more processing stations and placeables. That is the main lever for growing the island beyond its starter footprint.
Loftia’s solar energy system replaces stamina
Loftia has no food-based stamina bar. Crafting and other actions draw from battery charges, and those charges come from solar panels like the Small Solar Panel. You charge a handheld battery at the panel and spend it at your stations.
Weather sets how fast that happens. Clear skies run panels at 99–100% efficiency, while light rain drops them to around 45%. Rain is not wasted, though, since it is what the Rain Collector exists for.
Adventures: timed runs to Research Islands
Ryder at the Adventure Dock sends you by submarine to unstable Research Islands. Adventures are instanced missions you can run solo or with a group of four, and the demo includes Crater Island and the Grassy Islands. The rules are short.
- Each run lasts four minutes.
- Every attempt costs 3 Scrambled Coordinates.
- Objectives include activating sonars, charging beacons, clearing gauntlets and freeing trapped animals.
- Rewards are cosmetic fragments, Dews and Bloom materials.
Cosmetic fragments are pieces of a larger item. Collect enough of them and they assemble into a full piece of clothing. Finishing your first Adventure also leads back to Cliff, who hands over the Glider blueprint. Building it takes refined rubber, straw and glass cullets.
Where the Loftia demo story ends
After the Glider, a second earthquake splits the ground open in front of the Dome. The story then points you to the Airtram Station and the Hanging Gardens. Trying to board triggers the demo completion message, and that is the clear sign you have reached the end of the story content. The Hanging Gardens, along with the Gridfall, are saved for Early Access.
The game keeps going after that message. Several systems stay open:
- Pebblethon: social activities with Pebble, where you wave with emotes, bonk with a hammer, and bounce a beach ball.
- World Projects: Pebble’s Birthday Party, where all players on a server donate daily materials like tires and scrap wood through the Project Bot.
- Tailoring: a quest from Linda’s fashion shop that unlocks the Tailoring Station.
- More Adventures: group runs with friends for extra fragments and Dews.
World Projects reward everyone at once. As the server’s donations fill each tier, community-wide cosmetics and furniture unlock.
Loftia demo rewards
Qloud Games is giving out three cosmetic rewards tied to the Next Fest week. Two of them depend on getting friends into the demo.
| Reward | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Demo Banner | Join the demo during Next Fest week |
| Pebble Chair | Invite 1 friend to play the demo |
| Pebble Couch | Invite 2 friends to play the demo |
If something breaks during the demo and it is not on the known issues list, Qloud Games collects reports through its official bug report form.
Loftia Early Access requirements and platforms
Loftia enters Early Access on PC and Mac via Steam on November 3, 2026, at 1 p.m. EST. It supports Steam Deck, while a Nintendo Switch release is planned for a later date. Loftia requires a purchase to play and has no subscription; cosmetic items are optional purchases. The minimum requirements are modest, except for Mac owners.
- 8 GB of RAM
- 10 GB of available storage
- Apple M2 or newer on Mac; Intel Macs are not supported
- A constant internet connection
Pre-registration for an official Loftia account is separate from the demo and from buying the game. It is open now through Loftia’s pre-registration page. The demo covers the opening few hours in Loftia City. Because your save carries forward, any island you build and any permits you upgrade will be waiting when Early Access opens the rest of the map.
