Next Up
An experiment by Prashant Matta
Pick another game

In The Butterfly Collector you: read a story, play with words, read a text-led game

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

Your party Games like The Butterfly Collector

Keeps what you do. Adds something new.

  1. Love Stories: When Pastel Meets Grotesque

    • Story
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Keeps: play with words
    • Keeps: read a text-led game

    New here: read and choose, several endings

    Why you’d like it: Like The Butterfly Collector, you click through choices that lead to different endings, but here you step into the worlds of books.

    See on Steam: Love Stories: When Pastel Meets Grotesque (opens in a new tab)

  2. 咒影 Curse of the Shadow

    • Puzzle
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Keeps: play with words
    • Doesn’t keep: read a text-led game

    New here: read and choose, LGBTQ+ characters

    Why you’d like it: Like The Butterfly Collector, you read and choose your way toward different endings, but here you uncover the truth behind a curse.

    See on Steam: 咒影 Curse of the Shadow (opens in a new tab)

  3. Stiff Neck

    • Role-playing
    • Solo
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Keeps: play with words
    • Keeps: read a text-led game

    New here: level up a character, LGBTQ+ characters

    Why you’d like it: Like The Butterfly Collector, you make story choices while working out a crime, but here you play police officer Noele hunting The Flayer.

    See on Steam: Stiff Neck (opens in a new tab)

Reserve

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  1. WILL: A Wonderful World / WILL：美好世界

    • Story
    • Solo
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Keeps: play with words
    • Doesn’t keep: read a text-led game

    New here: solve puzzles, choices that matter

    See on Steam: WILL: A Wonderful World / WILL：美好世界 (opens in a new tab)

  2. 侠隐行录：困境疑云Wuxia archive: Crisis escape

    • Puzzle
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Doesn’t keep: read a story
    • Keeps: play with words
    • Doesn’t keep: read a text-led game

    New here: solve puzzles

    See on Steam: 侠隐行录：困境疑云Wuxia archive: Crisis escape (opens in a new tab)

  3. The Chrono Jotter

    • Story
    • Solo
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Keeps: play with words
    • Doesn’t keep: read a text-led game

    New here: solve cases, LGBTQ+ characters

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

  4. 停留此刻 Stay in the moment

    • Puzzle
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Keeps: play with words
    • Keeps: read a text-led game

    New here: an anime look

    See on Steam: 停留此刻 Stay in the moment (opens in a new tab)

  5. Far Away

    • Story
    • Solo
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Keeps: play with words
    • Doesn’t keep: read a text-led game

    New here: choose how the story goes, choices that matter

    See on Steam: Far Away (opens in a new tab)

  6. Dark Notes

    • Puzzle
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Keeps: play with words
    • Keeps: read a text-led game

    New here: solve puzzles, a mystery

    See on Steam: Dark Notes (opens in a new tab)

  7. Love in the distance

    • Puzzle
    • Solo
    • Mixed reviews
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Keeps: play with words
    • Doesn’t keep: read a text-led game

    New here: date characters, several endings

    See on Steam: Love in the distance (opens in a new tab)

Played one of these? See what to play after it: Stiff NeckWILL: A Wonderful World / WILL：美好世界The Chrono JotterFar Away

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

754 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.