I want a city builder with a Civ-like timeline. You start off building huts and farms and keep on going until you get space elevators and fusion power. I want to see roads go from footpaths to trails for horse drawn carriages to full on highways. I also like the idea that you could choose your starting period so it could be used as a standard city builder too.
I don’t use categories, but I do keep a tab open with this loaded with my Steam ID. It uses all the tags games have on Steam so you can see if you have a 2D Sci-Fi Souls-like if you want.