How to find games like your favorites

What Inspired is built to answer two questions fast: "What other games are like this one?" and "What inspired this one in the first place?" Here's how to get the most out of it.

What Inspired graph for Mass Effect 2, showing games that inspired it (Dungeons & Dragons, Baldur's Gate, KOTOR, Dragon Age: Origins) and games it influenced (Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Alpha Protocol, The Outer Worlds, Starfield). — A real graph: Mass Effect 2 — its lineage on the left, the games it influenced on the right.

1. Search a game you love

Open the home page and type any title — Hades, Hollow Knight, Stardew Valley, Elden Ring. The search is fuzzy: partial names and typos still work.

2. Explore the graph

Your game appears as the center node. Branches fan out for the games that inspired it (shared themes, shared studios, IGDB-confirmed similarity) and the titles it influenced. Click any node to recenter the graph on that game — chain four or five hops and you've toured a whole subgenre.

3. Apply a lens

The lens bar lets you filter results — e.g. "co-op", "story-driven", "indie", "released after 2020". Useful when a popular game has dozens of cousins and you only want a slice.

4. Share or export

Every graph has a Share button (copies a link to the exact view) and an Export JPEG button (saves the matrix as an image). Handy for posting on Reddit, Discord, or a personal blog.

Need a starting point?

Try one of our curated landing pages: games like Hades, games like Hollow Knight, games like Elden Ring, or browse the full examples gallery.

Start exploring →