Do I ship it?

Games › Character Customization › Character Customization + Bullet Heaven

Specimen · observed

Should I ship a Character Customization Bullet Heaven?

Character Customization + Bullet Heaven

Of 47 developers who shipped a Character Customization Bullet Heaven 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.. 74 more are announced.

Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.

The middle developer here made $990, ×1.6 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $210; 1 in 20 cleared $940k, ×1506 the market median. Revenue is down 95% on the market; 74 games are announced against 42 developers who shipped in the last year.

Deciding numbers: median 1.6 times the market baseline, revenue down 95% on the market, 74 announced, ×1.8 per developer who shipped in the last year.
Nobody has said they are building this yet.
Character Customization + Bullet Heaven
Fig. 1 · this niche among 16,100
Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr n = 47
Median est. gross by half-year cohort, 2023 H1 to 2026 H2: $629 → $11k → $2.3k → $2.0k (still earning) → $240 (still earning)
The last cohort is still earning.
Outcomes for Character Customization + Bullet Heaven: Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr, n = 47
Bottom 30% $210 (exactly $210)
Median $987 (exactly $987)
Top 25% $45k (exactly $44,955)
Top 5% $946k (exactly $945,719)
Developers, 2 yr 47
Released games 57
Announced 74
Effort 6 / 10
AI-buildability Medium
Typical price $5.99

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 down 95% on the market, supply 740% more developers than the period before.

Free games: 2%, 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.

Character Customization
effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
Bullet Heaven
effort 3 / 10 · high · effort 3 sits in the high band

How the rubric works →

Plate 3 · the cost side

What it takes

Effort
6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
Systems
Character Customization, Bullet Heaven; 9 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Action, Action Roguelike, Roguelite
Price point
$5.99 typical · top 25% priced $14.99 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 $14.99 or above; the middle game at $5.99.

The top 10 games average 78% positive over 16,020 reviews.

Plate 5 · the loss side

What kills games here

Developer outcomes in the last 2 years by share: 3 in 10 under $210, median $990, 1 in 4 over $44k, 1 in 20 over $940k.

3 in 10 developers made under $210. 4 in 10 of the 5 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 74 games are announced against 42 developers who shipped in the last year.

Plate 6 · same mechanic, other settings

Adjacent niches

Character Customization with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.

  1. + Football (American)Strong odds14 devs · median $3.6k · 12 announced
  2. + Real-TimeStrong odds7 devs · median $2.0k · 6 announced
  3. + Music-Based Procedural GenerationFair10 devs · median $18k · 8 announced
  4. + TransportationFair19 devs · median $7.2k · 24 announced
  5. + MinigamesFair27 devs · median $5.7k · 34 announced
  6. + DwarvesFair7 devs · median $3.2k · 13 announced
  7. + BikesFair11 devs · median $1.5k · 10 announced
  8. + IdlerFair210 devs · median $1.2k · 286 announced
  9. + IncrementalFair146 devs · median $1.2k · 190 announced
  10. + GamblingFair30 devs · median $836 · 32 announced
  11. + Precision PlatformerFair103 devs · median $748 · 116 announced
  12. + TypingFair27 devs · median $539 · 38 announced

All 250 pairs on the Character Customization page

Plate 7 · comparable specimens, by est. revenue

Comparable games

Tower of Babel: Survivors of Chaos 2026 · $2.4M Pathogenic 2026 · $1.2M Wanderburg 2026 · EA · $946k Reality Break 2025 · $512k Soulbound: Online 2026 · EA · $253k
Capsule Game Released Price Reviews Est. copies Est. revenue Developer
Tower of Babel: Survivors of Chaos $12.99 6,281 68% 188k $2.4M (exactly $2,447,706) NANOO
Pathogenic $9.99 4,145 92% 124k $1.2M (exactly $1,242,256) Aberrant Labs
Wanderburg · EA $14.99 2,103 78% 63k $946k (exactly $945,719) Randwerk
Reality Break $24.99 683 80% 20k $512k (exactly $512,045) Element Games, LLC
Soulbound: Online · EA $14.99 562 58% 17k $253k (exactly $252,731) SpiderWare
Nomad Survival older $4.99 1,517 87% 46k $227k (exactly $227,095) The Fox Knocks
Genome Guardian 2 · EA $15.99 410 95% 12k $197k (exactly $196,677) Alpherior
Sodaman $7.99 738 78% 22k $177k (exactly $176,899) Tape Corps
Blood Dungeon $9.99 453 89% 14k $136k (exactly $135,764) Messhof
Geometry Arena 2 $5.99 381 88% 11k $68k (exactly $68,466) 011 Games
Murim Survival $7.99 264 75% 7.9k $63k (exactly $63,281) Sunwood Games

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