Next Up
An experiment by Prashant Matta
Pick another game

In Backpack Battles you: set up teams that fight alone, pack your gear, plan ahead

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

Show same-series games?

2 hidden: Backpack Jianghu and Backpack Hero

Your party Games like Backpack Battles

Keeps what you do. Adds something new.

  1. Wretch: Divine Ascent

    • Strategy
    • Solo or multiplayer
    • Less played
    • Keeps: set up teams that fight alone
    • Keeps: pack your gear
    • Keeps: plan ahead

    New here: plan moves in turns, medieval times

    Why you’d like it: Arranging items in a backpack so they connect your moves carries over, though here the setting is dark medieval and some moves counter each other.

    See on Steam: Wretch: Divine Ascent (opens in a new tab)

  2. Monster Battles

    • Card game
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Keeps: set up teams that fight alone
    • Keeps: pack your gear
    • Keeps: plan ahead

    New here: plan moves in turns, plan in turns

    Why you’d like it: Both have you buy from a shop and place your pieces to fight other players, but here monsters fuse and evolve.

    See on Steam: Monster Battles (opens in a new tab)

  3. Down with the Ship

    • Strategy
    • Online only
    • Early access
    • Keeps: set up teams that fight alone
    • Keeps: pack your gear
    • Keeps: plan ahead

    New here: space, science fiction

    Why you’d like it: Placing parts so item effects connect works much like your backpack, except you build a spaceship hull and send it into space battles.

    See on Steam: Down with the Ship (opens in a new tab)

Reserve

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  1. Valefor

    • Strategy
    • Solo or multiplayer
    • Mixed reviews
    • Keeps: set up teams that fight alone
    • Keeps: pack your gear
    • Keeps: plan ahead

    New here: crawl through dungeons, a hard challenge

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

  2. Oaken Tower

    • Strategy
    • Online only
    • Early access
    • Keeps: set up teams that fight alone
    • Doesn’t keep: pack your gear
    • Keeps: plan ahead

    New here: level up and move squads, a fantasy world

    See on Steam: Oaken Tower (opens in a new tab)

  3. Tiny Auto Knights

    • Strategy
    • Solo or multiplayer
    • Less played
    • Keeps: set up teams that fight alone
    • Doesn’t keep: pack your gear
    • Keeps: plan ahead

    New here: run an operation, pixel art

    See on Steam: Tiny Auto Knights (opens in a new tab)

  4. Toy Smash Kaboom!

    • Strategy
    • Solo or multiplayer
    • Free to play
    • Keeps: set up teams that fight alone
    • Keeps: pack your gear
    • Keeps: plan ahead

    New here: play a tabletop game, jokes

    See on Steam: Toy Smash Kaboom! (opens in a new tab)

  5. Backpack Dungeon

    • Run-based
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Keeps: set up teams that fight alone
    • Keeps: pack your gear
    • Keeps: plan ahead

    New here: plan moves in turns, artificial intelligence

    See on Steam: Backpack Dungeon (opens in a new tab)

  6. Combo Card Clashers

    • Card game
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Keeps: set up teams that fight alone
    • Doesn’t keep: pack your gear
    • Keeps: plan ahead

    New here: plan moves in turns, levels that change each time

    See on Steam: Combo Card Clashers (opens in a new tab)

  7. Batomon Showdown

    • Strategy
    • Online only
    • Less played
    • Keeps: set up teams that fight alone
    • Doesn’t keep: pack your gear
    • Keeps: plan ahead

    New here: collect creatures, dragons

    See on Steam: Batomon Showdown (opens in a new tab)

Played one of these? See what to play after it: Wretch: Divine AscentDown with the ShipOaken TowerToy Smash Kaboom!Backpack DungeonBatomon Showdown

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

664 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.

Games from the same series start hidden, and the next best fits take their places. Choose Yes to show them in their places on the list.

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.