Games › Automation › Automation + Time Manipulation
Should I ship a Time Manipulation Automation game?
Automation + Time Manipulation
Only 8 developers shipped a Time Manipulation Automation game in the last 2 years, too few for firm odds: the middle one made est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.; the top game by est. revenue, Check Inn, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 14 more are announced, ×2.8 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $1.9k, ×3.1 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $480; 1 in 20 cleared $88k, ×141 the market median. Revenue is up 65% on the market; 14 games are announced against 5 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $478 (exactly $478) |
|---|---|
| Median | $1.9k (exactly $1,946) |
| Top 25% | $41k (exactly $40,923) |
| Top 5% | $89k (exactly $88,591) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 8 |
| Released games | 30 |
| Announced | 14 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $7.89 |
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 65% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 23%, 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
- Time Manipulation
- effort 4 / 10 · medium · effort 4 sits in the medium band
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Automation, Time Manipulation
- Price point
- $7.89 typical
Why players buy here
Fewer than 10 games in the last 2 years; sentiment and price figures use the all window.
The top 25% priced at $19.99 or above; the middle game at $5.99.
The top 10 games average 80% positive over 2,611 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $480. 9 in 10 of the 7 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 14 games are announced against 5 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | SeaOrama: World of Shipping | older | $19.99 | 382 58% | 11k | $229k (exactly $229,085) | Hidden Tower, SeaOrama |
| | Magic Research 2 | older | $5.99 | 610 92% | 18k | $110k (exactly $109,617) | Maticolotto |
| | Train World | older | $34.99 | 85 75% | 2.6k | $89k (exactly $89,224) | Turn Point Games |
| | Check Inn | $14.99 | 197 84% | 5.9k | $89k (exactly $88,591) | KishMish Games | |
| | Magic Research | older | $4.99 | 410 90% | 12k | $61k (exactly $61,377) | Maticolotto |
| | Oasis Mission: Colony Sim | $14.99 | 91 56% | 2.7k | $41k (exactly $40,923) | Lunar pug studio | |
| | Poop Clicker | older | $0.99 | 725 76% | 22k | $22k (exactly $21,532) | Serge Kornew |
| | Meet me at NooN | older | $9.99 | 55 100% | 1.7k | $16k (exactly $16,484) | Pandaroo Interactive |
| | Omnibullet | older | $11.99 | 36 100% | 1.1k | $13k (exactly $12,949) | Arbitrary Combination |
| | Hexahedra | older | $20.00 | 20 100% | 600 | $12k (exactly $12,000) | Sidequest Ninja |
| | Typhon: Bot vs Bot | · EA | $19.99 | 12 75% | 360 | $7.2k (exactly $7,196) | Brightshade Games |
| | Chat Ragdoll Racing | · EA | $4.99 | 13 100% | 390 | $1.9k (exactly $1,946) | Scuffed Gamedev, Samuli Salonen, Marcus… (Scuffed Gamedev, Samuli Salonen, Marcus Rose) |
| | ZAVOD: Conveyor Logic | $4.99 | 12 100% | 360 | $1.8k (exactly $1,796) | Growfall Games | |
| | Infinite Idle: Online Clicker RPG | $1.99 | 8 37% | 240 | $478 (exactly $478) | Comar Studios | |
| | Code My Robot Vacuum | · EA | $5.99 | 0 0% | 0 | $0 (exactly $0) | Umit Canbolat |
| | Quinn | $7.89 | 0 0% | 0 | $0 (exactly $0) | Wrong_Swich_Studio |
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.