Do I ship it?

Games › Base Building › Base Building + Programming

Specimen · observed

Should I ship a Programming Base Building game?

Base Building + Programming

Only 13 developers shipped a Programming Base Building 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, Desynced, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 21 more are announced.

Verdict: fair, for a 5 / 10 build.

The middle developer here made $53k, ×84 the market's $630 for a 5 / 10 build, with 3 in 10 under $900. Momentum is unreadable here, too few recent games; 21 games are announced against 11 developers who shipped in the last year.

Deciding numbers: median 84.0 times the market baseline, revenue too few recent games to read momentum, 21 announced, ×1.9 per developer who shipped in the last year.
Nobody has said they are building this yet.
Base Building + Programming
Fig. 1 · this niche among 16,100
Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr n = 13
Median est. gross by half-year cohort, 2023 H1 to 2026 H2: $13k → $53k → $59k (still earning) → $113k (still earning)
The last cohort is still earning.
Outcomes for Base Building + Programming: Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr, n = 13
Bottom 30% $899 (exactly $899)
Median $53k (exactly $52,767)
Top 25% $90k (exactly $89,955)
Top 5% $1.7M (exactly $1,690,536)
Developers, 2 yr 13
Released games 41
Announced 21
Effort 5 / 10
AI-buildability Medium
Typical price $14.99

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 too few recent games to read momentum, supply 450% more developers than the period before.

Free games: 12%, excluded from money figures.

See every window in the explorer →

Plate 2 · systems and tooling

Can AI deliver it?

AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.

Base Building
effort 5 / 10 · medium · effort 5 sits in the medium band
Programming
effort 4 / 10 · medium · effort 4 sits in the medium band

How the rubric works →

Plate 3 · the cost side

What it takes

Effort
5 / 10 · real systems or entry 3D
Systems
Base Building, Programming; all of the top 25% also carry Automation, Resource Management, Simulation
Price point
$14.99 typical · top 25% priced $29.99 or above
Art
5 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 2D
Plate 4 · demand

Why players buy here

The top 25% priced at $29.99 or above; the middle game at $14.99.

The top 10 games average 81% positive over 3,253 reviews.

Plate 5 · the loss side

What kills games here

Developer outcomes in the last 2 years by share: 3 in 10 under $900, median $53k, 1 in 4 over $89k, 1 in 20 over $1.6M.

3 in 10 developers made under $900. 21 games are announced against 11 developers who shipped in the last year.

Plate 6 · same mechanic, other settings

Adjacent niches

Base Building with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.

  1. + DwarvesFair12 devs · median $13k · 19 announced
  2. + Bullet HellFair61 devs · median $540 · 67 announced
  3. + DiplomacyPoor odds19 devs · median $520k · 47 announced
  4. + SailingPoor odds9 devs · median $356k · 38 announced
  5. + Dating SimPoor odds19 devs · median $128k · 21 announced
  6. + TrainsPoor odds19 devs · median $113k · 47 announced
  7. + Real-Time with PausePoor odds20 devs · median $73k · 35 announced
  8. + Open World Survival CraftPoor odds130 devs · median $72k · 262 announced
  9. + UndergroundPoor odds12 devs · median $65k · 71 announced
  10. + MarsPoor odds15 devs · median $58k · 28 announced
  11. + HistoricalPoor odds81 devs · median $58k · 175 announced
  12. + Job SimulatorPoor odds23 devs · median $53k · 19 announced

All 175 pairs on the Base Building page

Plate 7 · comparable specimens, by est. revenue

Comparable games

Stormworks: Build and Rescue 2020 · $41M Mad Games Tycoon 2 2023 · $5.5M Turing Complete 2021 · EA · $3.3M Autonauts 2019 · $2.2M Juno: New Origins 2023 · $1.9M
Capsule Game Released Price Reviews Est. copies Est. revenue Developer
Stormworks: Build and Rescue older $24.99 54,649 90% 1.6M $41M (exactly $40,970,355) Geometa
Mad Games Tycoon 2 older $24.99 7,355 93% 221k $5.5M (exactly $5,514,044) Eggcode
Turing Complete · EA older $19.99 5,520 95% 166k $3.3M (exactly $3,310,344) LevelHead
Autonauts older $19.99 3,596 90% 108k $2.2M (exactly $2,156,521) Denki
Juno: New Origins older $19.99 3,085 89% 93k $1.9M (exactly $1,850,074) Jundroo, LLC
Desynced $29.99 1,879 79% 56k $1.7M (exactly $1,690,536) Stage Games Inc.
Mad Games Tycoon older $14.99 3,700 91% 111k $1.7M (exactly $1,663,890) Eggcode
Screeps: World older $19.99 1,934 86% 58k $1.2M (exactly $1,159,820) Screeps, LLC
Craftomation 101: Programming & Craft $14.99 636 83% 19k $286k (exactly $286,009) Luden.io
Autonauts vs Piratebots older $19.99 334 80% 10k $200k (exactly $200,300) Denki
Code: Terraform · EA $14.99 252 85% 7.6k $113k (exactly $113,324) AppsMafia
MegaFactory Titan $19.99 150 76% 4.5k $90k (exactly $89,955) Q Switched Productions, LLC
Screeps: Arena $19.99 105 82% 3.2k $63k (exactly $62,968) Screeps, LLC
Icaria $24.99 79 75% 2.4k $59k (exactly $59,226) Blindsight Games LLC
I Fetch Rocks $15.99 110 94% 3.3k $53k (exactly $52,767) SarumXR
F.A.R.M.S.: Chill Factory $7.99 22 72% 660 $5.3k (exactly $5,273) Plema Crafts
MicroFab $4.99 17 70% 510 $2.5k (exactly $2,545) Flirp
Frogrammer $9.99 3 100% 90 $899 (exactly $899) Snobfox

Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.