Next Up
An experiment by Prashant Matta
Pick another game

In Locke(d) you: read a story, click to explore, read and choose

1,291 of 20,285 games share what you do. These 10 fit best.

Your party Games like Locke(d)

Keeps what you do. Adds something new.

  1. Sisyphus Reborn

    • Puzzle
    • Solo
    • Short
    • Doesn’t keep: read a story
    • Keeps: click to explore
    • Doesn’t keep: read and choose

    New here: not in its tags yet

    Why you’d like it: Like Locke(d), it uses simple point-and-click exploration in a short, atmospheric game, but you wake in a world where everyone digs forever.

    See on Steam: Sisyphus Reborn (opens in a new tab)

  2. DIVINATION

    • Story
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Keeps: click to explore
    • Doesn’t keep: read and choose

    New here: read a text-led game, a cyberpunk future

    Why you’d like it: Like Locke(d), it is a short visual novel built on conversation, but here you foresee people’s futures using drawn runes.

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

  3. 神明的一天世界(God’s One Day World)

    • Story
    • Solo
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Doesn’t keep: click to explore
    • Doesn’t keep: read and choose

    New here: solve puzzles

    Why you’d like it: If you liked reading a story in Locke(d), this visual novel adds puzzles to the mix.

    See on Steam: 神明的一天世界(God’s One Day World) (opens in a new tab)

Reserve

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  1. HOPE LEFT ME

    • Story
    • Solo
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Doesn’t keep: click to explore
    • Doesn’t keep: read and choose

    New here: read a text-led game, film-noir style

    See on Steam: HOPE LEFT ME (opens in a new tab)

  2. Without a Dawn

    • Story
    • Solo
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Doesn’t keep: click to explore
    • Doesn’t keep: read and choose

    New here: a big story, a female lead

    See on Steam: Without a Dawn (opens in a new tab)

  3. Unroaded

    • Story
    • Solo
    • Free to play
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Doesn’t keep: click to explore
    • Doesn’t keep: read and choose

    New here: level up a character, choices that matter

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

  4. Rain’s love memory-雨的恋记

    • Story
    • Solo
    • Free to play
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Doesn’t keep: click to explore
    • Doesn’t keep: read and choose

    New here: not in its tags yet

    See on Steam: Rain’s love memory-雨的恋记 (opens in a new tab)

  5. Queen of the flies 蝇后

    • Story
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Doesn’t keep: read a story
    • Keeps: click to explore
    • Keeps: read and choose

    New here: read a text-led game, dark humor

    See on Steam: Queen of the flies 蝇后 (opens in a new tab)

  6. Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between

    • Puzzle
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Doesn’t keep: read a story
    • Keeps: click to explore
    • Keeps: read and choose

    New here: walk and take it in, a free order

    See on Steam: Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between (opens in a new tab)

  7. SOULS

    • Story
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Doesn’t keep: click to explore
    • Doesn’t keep: read and choose

    New here: play with words, a big story

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

Played one of these? See what to play after it: Sisyphus Reborn神明的一天世界(God’s One Day World)HOPE LEFT MEWithout a DawnRain’s love memory-雨的恋记

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

1,291 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.