Abyssal Lapidary: The Gem-Cutting Mystery That Quietly Cracked Next Fest's Top Ten
Appraise living minerals, cut flawless facets and try not to listen to the voices. A strange little crafting game set in an underground Victorian city became one of October's most-played demos.
Most crafting games are about volume: more planks, more ingots, bigger bases. Abyssal Lapidary is about one stone at a time. You hold it to the light, look for flaws, decide where to cut, and hope you haven't just ruined the most valuable thing you'll see all week. Then the stone whispers back.
Abyssal Lapidary, from developer Light Worm and publisher XD, was one of the ten most-played demos of Steam Next Fest in October 2026, a surprising result for such a quiet, focused game. It is coming soon to PC with no date announced yet, and a free demo is available on Steam now.
A family business in the deep
The game is set in Fathomholm, an underground Victorian city where minerals are alive. You inherit a struggling family business, the Vermilion House, and work as its lapidary, the craftsperson who cuts and polishes gems.
Your daily work has a satisfying, tactile rhythm:
- Appraise raw ore and inspect each mineral for impurities.
- Remove flaws and cut facets. Every mineral behaves differently under your tools.
- Set finished gems into jewellery for Fathomholm's citizens, who get stranger as your reputation grows.
The abyss stares back
What turns a cozy crafting loop into something unsettling is the "abyssal" half of the title. Some minerals are dangerous. Working with them for long stretches sharpens your perception, helping you spot things you would otherwise miss, but it also brings hallucinations. The deeper you go into your craft, the less you can trust what you see.
Between commissions, you explore hidden passages, sealed rooms and old ledgers in and around the Vermilion House, piecing together a crime tied to your family's business.
Who is behind it
The game is published by XD, the Chinese company that also runs the TapTap game platform, which gives a small team access to a large audience in Asia. Light Worm itself has kept a low profile, letting the demo do the talking.
By the numbers
- Top 10: among the most-played demos of October 2026's Next Fest.
- 1: city, Fathomholm, built underground.
- Free: demo available now on Steam.
- Not announced: release date and price.
Why it matters
The success of games like Papers, Please, Potion Craft and the recent wave of "job simulators" shows that players love a well-designed workbench. Abyssal Lapidary combines that pleasure with a slow-burning mystery and a dash of cosmic horror. Its Next Fest result proves that a game doesn't need explosions or co-op chaos to stand out in a festival of thousands of demos. It needs one clear, unusual idea, presented well.
It is also a game that depends on texture. Cutting a gem has to feel precise, and the city has to feel alive for the horror to land. From what the demo shows, Light Worm understands that: the slow inspection, the nervous first cut and the strange customers at the counter all build the mood before anything overtly frightening happens. The full game will need more of everything, more minerals, more clients, more of the Vermilion House's secrets, to sustain that over many hours.
WGC's take: this is the kind of discovery Next Fest exists for. Play the demo, cut a few stones, and see whether the whispers get under your skin.
What's next
Watch the Steam page for a release date. For more of October's biggest demos, see our Steam Next Fest October 2026 round-up.