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Illustrated octopus-headed character in a waistcoat juggling many tentacles, each holding tools including a lantern, clipboard, watering can, wrench, tray of muffins, hat, doll and broom

Weird Days: Job Simulator Is Turning Steam Into the Worst Career Fair Ever (Aug 24–31)

Published by Rob from the Shack

Ever wondered what it’s like to work the night shift at a mortuary, sort genetic samples for a shady corporation, or treat a shark’s teeth while it tries to eat you? Steam’s newest festival has you covered. Weird Days: Job Simulator just opened its doors, and it’s stacked with over 100 indie games built around one simple idea: work sucks even more when the job is completely unhinged.

Weird Days: Job Simulator event logo featuring a stylized moon face illustration in sepia tones

Here’s everything you need to know, plus a few picks from the lineup we can’t stop thinking about.

Table of Contents

What Is Weird Days: Job Simulator?

Weird Days is a new recurring event series from indie studio Dark Cocooning, built to give unusual, hard-to-categorize indie games a dedicated spotlight instead of getting buried in Steam’s endless scroll. Job Simulator is the first edition, and the theme is exactly what it sounds like: over 100 indie games about strange jobs, suspicious workplaces, and everyday tasks that take a hard left turn into chaos.

Running August 24 to 31, 2026, the event lives on its own Steam sales page and pulls together free demos (including a few event exclusives), discounts across the lineup, six guest curator selections, and a full showcase trailer making the rounds on social media. As fellow indie developers themselves, the Dark Cocooning team built this as the kind of curated, focused discovery experience they wished existed for their own games. That mission lines up pretty closely with what we’re trying to do here at RGS, so we wanted to help spread the word.

Event Schedule

  • August 24, First Day. The festival opens with the full selection live and the launch campaign kicking off.
  • August 24–31, Weird Days. The main run. Expect demos, discounts, themed categories, guest curator picks, and a continuous trailer showcase featuring the participating games.
  • Night of August 27–28, Eclipse Night Shift. A special after-hours programming block dedicated to the supernatural and unsettling side of the lineup, with a livestream on Twitch.
  • August 31, Last Shift. Final highlights and your last chance to grab demos, discounts, and wishlist adds before the event wraps.

Explore the Themed Categories

Rather than one giant undifferentiated list, the sale page is broken into themed sections so you can dig into whatever flavor of weird you’re in the mood for:

  • Featured Games and Featured Demos and Playtests
  • Tavern Keeper for hospitality and innkeeping sims
  • Haunted Shops for retail with a supernatural twist
  • Night Shifts for the jobs nobody wants after dark
  • Dirty Jobs: Management for the sims about running the operation, not just clocking in
  • Strange Farming for agriculture that’s gone somewhere unexpected
  • Story-Rich: Suspicious Customers for the narrative-first picks

RGS Picks: Games Catching Our Eye

We went through the full lineup and pulled a handful of standouts worth adding to your wishlist right now.

The Mortuary Assistant (DarkStone Digital) is the biggest name in the bunch and it fits the theme perfectly: you’re alone with the dead, embalming bodies and figuring out which corpse is hiding a demon before it figures out you first.

Ravenous Devils (Bad Vices Games) puts you behind the counter of a meat pie shop where the secret ingredient is very much a crime. Run the shop, upgrade your tools, keep customers happy, keep the bodies hidden.

CorpoNation: The Sorting Process (Canteen) drops you into corporate dystopia as a genetic sample sorter earning credits to survive, with the looming threat of what happens when the samples don’t cooperate.

Bite Night (MyGrandfather Games) flips the horror job sim on its head. You’re the monster, and honestly, you’re kind of bad at your job.

Shark Dentist (Alice Games) is exactly what it sounds like: a horror roguelike where you treat the teeth of giant predators in a dark clinic while trying not to become their next meal.

Middle Management (Headplug Games) is a satirical office sim where you design the office, hire the talent, and keep your increasingly rebellious (and increasingly tentacled) workforce productive.

Dungeon Concierge (Lassar Games) casts you as an overworked wizard-janitor who cleans dungeons instead of raiding them, complete with spell upgrades and contract work.

Innkeep (Boot Disk Games) is a job sim with a mischievous streak: run a lonely inn in a lawless land, serve ale, cook “creatively,” and maybe rob a guest or two while you’re uncovering an arcane secret.

That’s just a slice of it. The full sale page covers all 100+ games across every category above, so it’s worth setting aside some browsing time.

Eclipse Night Shift on Twitch

Midway through the event, Weird Days is hosting a special livestream block called Eclipse Night Shift on the night of August 27–28, built around the supernatural and unsettling corners of the lineup. Keep an eye on the event’s YouTube and socials for stream details as the date gets closer.

How to Join In

The full lineup, discounts, and free demos are live now on the Weird Days: Job Simulator Steam page. Wishlist what catches your eye, grab a few demos, and if you’re around for Eclipse Night Shift, that’s the one to circle on the calendar.

And if you’re a developer with a strange little job sim of your own that didn’t make this lineup, we’re always looking for weird indie games to feature. Submit your game to RGS and let’s get it in front of more players.

Event details and schedule via the official Weird Days: Job Simulator fact sheet, provided by organizer Dark Cocooning.