Games feel different because they are built different.

Strata scores every game across 21 construction traits organized into five domains: World Architecture (how the physical world is built and communicates itself), Social Architecture (how populated and socially textured the world feels), Narrative Architecture (how story is delivered), Psychological Architecture (the emotional conditions the game creates — vulnerability, tension, isolation), and Play Architecture (agency, progression, and encounter design). Each trait is scored on a 1–5 scale based on what is built, not whether it is good.

Genre tags describe category. Review scores describe quality. Neither describes construction. Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Ring are both open-world Action RPGs with high Metacritic scores — but Strata shows they are built very differently. Cyberpunk scores extremely high in urban density, social presence, and narrative saturation. Elden Ring scores high in isolation, tension, and environmental storytelling with minimal social presence. Strata finds these differences and uses them to surface games that are experientially similar — not categorically similar.

The Strata API is a standard REST API accessed via HTTPS. Licensed clients receive an API key and endpoint documentation. Submit a game title to the classification endpoint and receive a complete profile — all trait scores, domain averages, experiential intensity score, classification narrative, and ranked similarity results against the full database. All responses are JSON. The underlying taxonomy, scoring methodology, and similarity calculations are never exposed — clients see inputs and outputs only.

The database grows automatically every Sunday. New games are pulled from a curated source, classified across all 21 traits, and added without manual input. The live count is displayed at the top of this page and updates in real time. Every game added makes the similarity engine more precise — the more games in the database, the more nuanced and accurate the similarity results become.

Yes. The Professional and Enterprise tiers include access to the classification endpoint, which can classify any game title on demand — including unreleased games. This is particularly valuable for studios wanting to understand where their game sits experientially before launch, and for platforms needing to classify their full catalog.

Yes. The 21 trait definitions, scoring criteria, domain structure, and similarity calculation logic are Gray Room's core intellectual property and are never exposed through the API or any public documentation. Licensed clients receive an API key and endpoint documentation only. What they see is inputs and outputs — not how the outputs are generated.

Strata is built for three types of clients: game studios that want to understand where their game sits experientially relative to the market; gaming platforms and publishers that need richer recommendation data than genre or review score can provide; and games press that want editorial tools capable of identifying and articulating experiential similarities between titles. Enterprise pricing is available for major platforms needing database licensing at scale.