We gamers have all been there. At that point in your life in which you just can’t seem to find the next right game for you or at least a title as addicting as THAT one title stuck in your head. You’ve been thinking about ways to find THE next game but … you failed. Well, we’re here to help by providing some tips and tricks to accelerate you finding the next video game to grind through the night.
1. Define the right benchmarks for your gaming title
Getting into the details of titles you enjoyed playing is key here. Finding similar games makes your life easier and increases the likelihood of finding a game you will not be able to put down next.
Let’s say you’re a big tower defense fan and you really got into Warcraft III back in 2002 with some downloaded maps from fans. You’ve been really missing some complex tower defense games in 2021 and have been trouble finding a substitute.
First create different tiers integrating the attributes you extracted from the game you enjoyed so much and want to find a substitute for:
Warcraft III:
top-down perspective
tower defense/subgenre of real-time strategy video games
train individual units and heroes, build mazes
medieval and fantasy epoche
comic style
Now look for games that fit the characteristics of Warcraft III and sort them into different tiers according to what of these characteristics seem more appealing to you.
Tier 1: Same style, perspective, and genre (maze focused)
Tier 2: Similar genre, style, and perspective
Tier 3: Related style and genre
That's it! The probability of you enjoying the elaborated tier 1 games is way higher than the ones listed in tier 3. Tier 2 is usually still a perfect fit to keep you awake through some nights grinding.
2. Find your gaming online persona
Do you actually know which games you like and why? You can either look for benchmarks for a specific game you loved playing (as stated above) or look for people who overlap in games with you.
Pick 5 games you enjoyed playing:
Now that you have picked your favorite games go and look for influencers or content creators who at last overlap with you in 3 games. You can improve your success rate by adding more games to your list and matching 5 or more games instead of just 3.
There is a bunch of tools online to find out which games your favorite creators are playing. We absolutely recommend using Twitchtracker or Sullygnome, two free platforms with extensive filter options.
3. Compare different gaming platforms and their suggestions
Different gaming platforms offer different algorithms. That’s a fact we all know about - or at least that is something you should know. Let's say you really liked The Curse of Monkey Island and want to find your next favorite click and point adventure with that unique humor. Then we recommend creating a list of possible alternatives by checking out overlapping in popular platforms.
Top platforms with The Curse of Monkey Island in their library and their recommendations:
Obviously, we should look into the Monkey Island franchise in general, but there are two further games that seem to be a fit: Indiana Jones and Day of the Tentacle.
4. Say goodbye to nostalgia
One thing that might be holding you back from finding the right game could be nostalgia or the memories you have connected to a certain type of game. We’re not saying you have to get rid of these memories or that you will never experience them again. Yes, you could but how about extracting key moments from that memory and understanding what made these situations so appealing to you?
Maybe it wasn't so much about a certain genre itself or art style but more about the moment you were in while playing through the game. Look what happened around that time, not just gaming-wise but in real life. Are there certain positive memories from your surrounding that created that positive moment for you and the reason why you are failing at recreating this high is not really because of the game but the memories attached to that period in your life? Recognizing and understanding the whys can help you detach and start enjoying new games.
5. The apple doesn't fall far from the stem
Game publishing studios or game developers tend to often have a passion for a specific type of game genre or at least their games often have similarities when it comes to the gaming experience. Let’s take Paradox Interactive as an example.
"Paradox is best known for releasing historically themed strategy video games, especially grand strategy games, and has published strategy games in different settings, as well as games of other genres such as role-playing video game and management simulators."
Source: Wikipedia
Obviously, it is not always THAT easy, but you get what we’re suggesting here. Another good example here is the studio Deadelic which focuses on story-driven titles in form of point-and-click adventures.
Good luck fellow gamer finding your next title to put your soul and passion into!
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This post was actually helpful! Would love to see a new one with recommendations for newer games too - seems this was written a while ago.