Games › Automation › Automation + Nature
Should I ship a Nature Automation game?
Automation + Nature
Of 98 developers who shipped a Nature 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.. 138 more are announced.
Verdict: fair, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $2.5k, ×4.0 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, with 3 in 10 under $720. Revenue is up 65% on the market; 138 games are announced against 70 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $718 (exactly $718) |
|---|---|
| Median | $2.5k (exactly $2,516) |
| Top 25% | $42k (exactly $41,511) |
| Top 5% | $1.9M (exactly $1,947,201) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 98 |
| Released games | 137 |
| Announced | 138 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $4.99 |
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 65% on the market, supply 150% 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
- Nature
- effort 3 / 10 · high · effort 3 sits in the high band
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Automation; 8 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Resource Management, Simulation, Management
- Price point
- $4.99 typical · top 25% priced $24.99 or above
- Art
- 5 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Relaxing, Colorful, Cute
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $24.99 or above; the middle game at $4.99.
The top 10 games average 89% positive over 74,941 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $720. 7 in 10 of the 30 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 138 games are announced against 70 developers who shipped in the last year.
Adjacent niches
Automation with a different setting or mood, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Timberborn | $34.99 | 38,529 95% | 1.2M | $40M (exactly $40,443,891) | Mechanistry | |
| | RoadCraft | $39.99 | 13,527 74% | 406k | $16M (exactly $16,228,342) | Saber Interactive | |
| | The Wandering Village | $29.99 | 7,734 91% | 232k | $7.0M (exactly $6,958,280) | Stray Fawn Studio | |
| | Flotsam | $24.99 | 4,308 80% | 129k | $3.2M (exactly $3,229,708) | Pajama Llama Games | |
| | Rusty's Retirement | older | $6.99 | 13,902 96% | 417k | $2.9M (exactly $2,915,249) | Mister Morris Games |
| | MineMogul | · EA | $14.99 | 4,330 96% | 130k | $1.9M (exactly $1,947,201) | NoodleForge (Gvarados & Diomonder) |
| | Outpath | older | $14.99 | 2,898 92% | 87k | $1.3M (exactly $1,303,231) | David Moralejo Sánchez |
| | Laysara: Summit Kingdom | $24.99 | 1,421 80% | 43k | $1.1M (exactly $1,065,324) | Quite OK Games | |
| | Station to Station | older | $17.99 | 1,239 89% | 37k | $669k (exactly $668,688) | Galaxy Grove |
| | The Last Clockwinder | older | $24.99 | 776 96% | 23k | $582k (exactly $581,767) | Pontoco |
| | Chop Chop Inc. | $12.99 | 1,258 90% | 38k | $490k (exactly $490,243) | NullRef Entertainment | |
| | Maltese's Fluffy Onsen | $5.99 | 2,727 94% | 82k | $490k (exactly $490,042) | Sinkhole Studio, Moonlab Studio | |
| | Industry Giant 4.0 | $24.99 | 506 33% | 15k | $379k (exactly $379,348) | Don VS Dodo | |
| | Ecosystem | $19.99 | 601 76% | 18k | $360k (exactly $360,420) | Tom Johnson |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
Your address goes to Buttondown, which sends the letter, and nowhere else. Every issue has an unsubscribe link. No tracking beyond the open count Buttondown keeps.