Next Up
An experiment by Prashant Matta
Pick another game

In Road to Empress I you: level up a character, read a story, solve problems your own way

1,214 of 20,285 games share what you do. These 10 fit best.

Show same-series games?

1 hidden: Road to Empress Ⅱ

Your party Games like Road to Empress I

Keeps what you do. Adds something new.

  1. 神都不良探 Underdog Detective

    • Story
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Keeps: level up a character
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Keeps: solve problems your own way

    New here: plan ahead, a mystery

    Why you’d like it: Both are live-action stories set in imperial China where your choices matter, but here you play a slum-dwelling detective solving cases and puzzles.

    See on Steam: 神都不良探 Underdog Detective (opens in a new tab)

  2. Shao Song I

    • Story
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Keeps: level up a character
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Keeps: solve problems your own way

    New here: plan ahead, deep background lore

    Why you’d like it: Both are live-action historical games set in an imperial court where choices shape the outcome, but here you play an emperor restoring a fallen realm.

    See on Steam: Shao Song I (opens in a new tab)

  3. Inner Scales 1:Choice

    • Story
    • Solo
    • Mature
    • Keeps: level up a character
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Keeps: solve problems your own way

    New here: stay alive, a relaxed pace

    Why you’d like it: Both are live-action games where your choices decide life and death, but here you deliver meals inside a guarded prison building.

    See on Steam: Inner Scales 1:Choice (opens in a new tab)

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  1. Vanity Fair: The Pursuit

    • Role-playing
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Keeps: level up a character
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Keeps: solve problems your own way

    New here: play with words, a 1990s feel

    See on Steam: Vanity Fair: The Pursuit (opens in a new tab)

  2. The Heart of Influencer

    • Role-playing
    • Solo
    • Mature
    • Keeps: level up a character
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Keeps: solve problems your own way

    New here: plan ahead, romance

    See on Steam: The Heart of Influencer (opens in a new tab)

  3. 美女，请别影响我成仙

    • Story
    • Solo
    • Mature
    • Keeps: level up a character
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Keeps: solve problems your own way

    New here: plan ahead, comedy

    See on Steam: 美女，请别影响我成仙 (opens in a new tab)

  4. Mandate Of Heaven

    • Role-playing
    • Solo
    • Keeps: level up a character
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Keeps: solve problems your own way

    New here: plan ahead, exploring

    See on Steam: Mandate Of Heaven (opens in a new tab)

  5. Sovereign Brain Empire

    • Role-playing
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Keeps: level up a character
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Keeps: solve problems your own way

    New here: comedy, science fiction

    See on Steam: Sovereign Brain Empire (opens in a new tab)

  6. THE VIG

    • Role-playing
    • Solo
    • Less played
    • Keeps: level up a character
    • Keeps: read a story
    • Keeps: solve problems your own way

    New here: press buttons on cue, deep background lore

    See on Steam: THE VIG (opens in a new tab)

  7. 心动恋旅：樱花篇

    • Role-playing
    • Solo
    • Mature
    • Keeps: level up a character
    • Doesn’t keep: read a story
    • Keeps: solve problems your own way

    New here: romance

    See on Steam: 心动恋旅：樱花篇 (opens in a new tab)

Played one of these? See what to play after it: 神都不良探 Underdog DetectiveShao Song IInner Scales 1:ChoiceVanity Fair: The Pursuit美女，请别影响我成仙Mandate Of HeavenTHE VIG心动恋旅：樱花篇

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

1,214 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.