Next Up
An experiment by Prashant Matta
Pick another game

In Thrive you: run a simulation, stay alive

2,340 of 20,285 games share what you do. These 10 fit best.

Your party Games like Thrive

Keeps what you do. Adds something new.

  1. Gridworld

    • Life and farm
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Keeps: run a simulation
    • Keeps: stay alive

    New here: live a daily life, a relaxed pace

    Why you’d like it: Like Thrive, you run a simulation of creatures that compete and survive, though here they are colored tiles with neural network brains.

    See on Steam: Gridworld (opens in a new tab)

  2. The Bibites: Digital Life

    • Simulation
    • Solo
    • Early access
    • Keeps: run a simulation
    • Doesn’t keep: stay alive

    New here: play with physics, a level editor

    Why you’d like it: Like Thrive, you run a simulation of evolving life, but here bibites with their own brains and genetics adapt to sandbox worlds you build.

    See on Steam: The Bibites: Digital Life (opens in a new tab)

  3. The Sapling

    • Life and farm
    • Solo
    • Early access
    • Keeps: run a simulation
    • Keeps: stay alive

    New here: live a daily life, dinosaurs

    Why you’d like it: If designing your own species in Thrive appealed, The Sapling lets you design plants and animals, then turn on random mutations.

    See on Steam: The Sapling (opens in a new tab)

Reserve

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  1. Planetary Life

    • Simulation
    • Solo
    • Early access
    • Keeps: run a simulation
    • Doesn’t keep: stay alive

    New here: play a god, a relaxed pace

    See on Steam: Planetary Life (opens in a new tab)

  2. Creatura

    • Simulation
    • Solo
    • Mixed reviews
    • Keeps: run a simulation
    • Doesn’t keep: stay alive

    New here: play a god, life underwater

    See on Steam: Creatura (opens in a new tab)

  3. Species: Artificial Life, Real Evolution

    • Simulation
    • Solo
    • Early access
    • Keeps: run a simulation
    • Doesn’t keep: stay alive

    New here: play a god, experimental ideas

    See on Steam: Species: Artificial Life, Real Evolution (opens in a new tab)

  4. Equilinox

    • Simulation
    • Solo
    • Keeps: run a simulation
    • Doesn’t keep: stay alive

    New here: play a god, a relaxed pace

    See on Steam: Equilinox (opens in a new tab)

  5. Tyto Ecology

    • Strategy
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Keeps: run a simulation
    • Doesn’t keep: stay alive

    New here: plan ahead, dinosaurs

    See on Steam: Tyto Ecology (opens in a new tab)

  6. Lifecraft

    • Builder
    • Solo
    • Early access
    • Keeps: run a simulation
    • Doesn’t keep: stay alive

    New here: automate machines, an angled view from above

    See on Steam: Lifecraft (opens in a new tab)

  7. Nature And Life - Drunk On Nectar

    • Life and farm
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Keeps: run a simulation
    • Keeps: stay alive

    New here: live a daily life, an open world

    See on Steam: Nature And Life - Drunk On Nectar (opens in a new tab)

Played one of these? See what to play after it: The SaplingPlanetary LifeSpecies: Artificial Life, Real EvolutionEquilinox

AI wrote the “Why you’d like it” lines, and a second AI pass checked them against each game’s store page. They can be wrong, so check the store page before you buy.

How this list was made

2,340 of 20,285 games share what you do. These 10 fit best.

What gets in

A game is what you do in it, so a pick has to share what players say you do most. If fewer than ten games earn a place, the list stays short.

Lists use the tags Steam players vote on, plus each game’s Steam store page.

Less played means far fewer Steam reviews than the game you finished. Mixed reviews means 60 to 69% of its Steam reviews are positive.

What only changes the order

A shared setting, look or popularity can move a game up or down, but it can’t put a game on the list by itself. Being set in space, for example, isn’t enough: a pick has to keep something you do.

What isn’t known

No players have tested this. Newer and smaller games have less data.

Privacy

To learn whether this works, the page records how it’s used. This is all of it.

What’s recorded

Searches

The text you type is never sent to Next Up. If it matches a game Next Up knows but has no list for, only that game’s number is recorded. If it matches nothing, only the fact that it matched nothing is recorded, with a rough length such as 4 to 6 characters.

Suggestions show a small image of each game, loaded straight from Steam’s image servers. So while you type, Steam sees which games’ images your browser asks for, though not the text itself.

The random ID

Your browser keeps a random ID for up to 6 months after your last visit, so repeat visits can be counted. It’s created when the first batch of this record goes out, which is your first action or the first time you leave or switch away from the page, whichever comes first. It’s stored in this browser, not in a cookie.

The ID is kept like this only in the US, Canada outside Quebec, Australia and New Zealand. Everywhere else, nothing is stored for it: the ID lasts only until you close or reload the tab, so a return visit counts as a new one. That’s decided from the location Cloudflare reports for your connection, so a VPN can change it. If it reports no country, or Canada with no region, nothing is stored either.

From your connection

The record keeps your country and region, device type, operating system and browser family, language, and the kind of site you came from. Your IP address, city and network aren’t stored, and this recording uses no cookies. Cloudflare may set a security cookie of its own.

Who else sees a visit

Cloudflare hosts the page and this data, and handles your connection like any web host. Store links and Steam searches go to Steam only if you click them, and Steam then sees that visit.

Game art loads straight from Steam’s image servers (shared.akamai.steamstatic.com and shared.fastly.steamstatic.com): on the first screen’s game tiles as soon as it opens, in search suggestions as you type, and on each list. So your browser contacts Steam for those images, and Steam sees that connection and which games’ images were asked for.

Google Analytics is blocked on this page by its security policy, but the rest of pmatta.design uses it.

AI-written lines

The “Why you’d like it” lines on cards were written by AI ahead of time and checked by a second AI pass. No AI runs while you browse.

How long it’s kept

Up to 13 months.

Turn counting off

Turning it off stops this browser sending anything and removes the ID. The choice is kept in this browser, so clearing site data turns counting back on, and so can a browser that clears such data by itself, as Safari can after 7 days without a visit. If your browser sends Global Privacy Control, counting is already off, and the ID is removed. What was sent before you turned it off is kept for up to 13 months, like the rest.

To ask about any of this, write to privacy@pmatta.design.