Games › Automation › Automation + Logic
Should I ship a Logic Automation game?
Automation + Logic
Of 129 developers who shipped a Logic Automation game in the last 2 years: 3 in 10 made under est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method., the middle one made est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method., 1 in 4 cleared est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method., 1 in 20 cleared est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 181 more are announced, ×2.2 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $1.6k, ×2.5 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $420; 1 in 20 cleared $470k, ×753 the market median. Revenue is up 80% on the market; 181 games are announced against 82 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $419 (exactly $419) |
|---|---|
| Median | $1.6k (exactly $1,552) |
| Top 25% | $18k (exactly $17,538) |
| Top 5% | $473k (exactly $472,682) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 129 |
| Released games | 309 |
| Announced | 181 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $8.99 |
momentum: how a niche's revenue percentiles and developer count moved between two equal, adjacent periods, divided by the market's own move. See method., 12 months: revenue up 80% on the market, supply 70% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 9%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Automation
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
- Logic
- effort 2 / 10 · high · deductive rules and grids
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Automation, Logic; 7 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Simulation, Building, Sandbox
- Price point
- $8.99 typical · top 25% priced $17.99 or above
- Art
- 6 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 3D
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $17.99 or above; the middle game at $8.99.
The top 10 games average 93% positive over 32,099 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $420. 8 in 10 of the 56 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 181 games are announced against 82 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.2 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Automation with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Job SimulatorStrong odds
- + Female ProtagonistStrong odds
- + Open World Survival CraftFair
- + HorrorFair
- + HistoricalFair
- + UndergroundFair
- + Class-BasedFair
- + MiningFair
- + Auto BattlerFair
- + ProgrammingFair
- + FishingFair
- + Turn-Based TacticsFair
Comparable games
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | shapez 2 - Factory | $29.99 | 13,846 96% | 415k | $12M (exactly $12,457,246) | tobspr Games | |
| | Stationeers | · EA older | $34.99 | 8,597 88% | 258k | $9.0M (exactly $9,024,271) | RocketWerkz |
| | Airport CEO | older | $24.99 | 7,752 83% | 233k | $5.8M (exactly $5,811,674) | Apog Labs |
| | shapez | older | $9.99 | 14,252 96% | 428k | $4.3M (exactly $4,271,324) | Tobias Springer |
| | Opus Magnum | older | $19.99 | 5,964 97% | 179k | $3.6M (exactly $3,576,611) | Zachtronics |
| | Turing Complete | · EA older | $19.99 | 5,520 95% | 166k | $3.3M (exactly $3,310,344) | LevelHead |
| | The Farmer Was Replaced | $9.99 | 9,116 95% | 273k | $2.7M (exactly $2,732,065) | Timon Herzog | |
| | SHENZHEN I/O | older | $14.99 | 3,746 95% | 112k | $1.7M (exactly $1,684,576) | Zachtronics |
| | Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure | $29.99 | 1,867 82% | 56k | $1.7M (exactly $1,679,740) | Massive Miniteam | |
| | Human Resource Machine | older | $14.99 | 3,274 94% | 98k | $1.5M (exactly $1,472,318) | Tomorrow Corporation |
| | Alchemy Factory | $17.99 | 2,529 87% | 76k | $1.4M (exactly $1,364,901) | D5 Copperhead | |
| | Little Rocket Lab | $19.99 | 1,286 90% | 39k | $771k (exactly $771,214) | Teenage Astronauts | |
| | Modulus: Factory Automation | $24.99 | 817 90% | 25k | $613k (exactly $612,505) | Happy Volcano | |
| | Subway Builder | $39.99 | 394 59% | 12k | $473k (exactly $472,682) | Colin Miller, EJ Fox, Curran Kelleher,… (Colin Miller, EJ Fox, Curran Kelleher, Nate Maue, Alex Wohlbruck, Piero Maddaleni, Brooks Flannery) | |
| | Kaizen: A Factory Story | $19.99 | 694 91% | 21k | $416k (exactly $416,192) | Coincidence | |
| | Ultimate Theater Simulator | $12.99 | 634 88% | 19k | $247k (exactly $247,070) | RAKTWO Games, steelbox Games | |
| | Data Center | $8.99 | 916 76% | 27k | $247k (exactly $247,045) | Waseku |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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