Games › Dungeon Crawler › Dungeon Crawler + Bullet Heaven
Should I ship a Bullet Heaven Dungeon Crawler?
Dungeon Crawler + Bullet Heaven
Only 19 developers shipped a Bullet Heaven Dungeon Crawler 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, Deadly Days: Roadtrip, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 32 more are announced.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 4 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $32k, ×67 the market's $480 for a 4 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $6.3k; 1 in 20 cleared $1.2M, ×2703 the market median. Revenue is down 70% on the market; 32 games are announced against 16 developers who shipped in the last year.
not enough cohorts to draw
| Bottom 30% | $6.3k (exactly $6,296) |
|---|---|
| Median | $32k (exactly $31,625) |
| Top 25% | $200k (exactly $200,299) |
| Top 5% | $1.3M (exactly $1,283,894) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 19 |
| Released games | 25 |
| Announced | 32 |
| Effort | 4 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $9.99 |
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 70% on the market, supply 435% more developers than the period before.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Dungeon Crawler
- effort 4 / 10 · medium · effort 4 sits in the medium band
- Bullet Heaven
- effort 3 / 10 · high · effort 3 sits in the high band
What it takes
- Effort
- 4 / 10 · mid 2D, writing-heavy, or simple 3D
- Systems
- Dungeon Crawler, Bullet Heaven; all of the top 25% also carry Action, Action Roguelike, Bullet Hell
- Price point
- $9.99 typical · top 25% priced $14.99 or above
- Art
- 5 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Pixel Graphics, 2D
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $14.99 or above; the middle game at $9.99.
The top 10 games average 86% positive over 12,550 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $6.3k. 32 games are announced against 16 developers who shipped in the last year.
Adjacent niches
Dungeon Crawler with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Time ManagementFair
- + GamblingFair
- + DiceFair
- + Artificial IntelligenceFair
- + Local Co-OpFair
- + ZombiesFair
- + Word GameFair
- + ThrillerFair
- + Walking SimulatorFair
- + Score AttackFair
- + MMORPGPoor odds
- + DwarvesPoor odds
Comparable games
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Neon Abyss | older | $31.49 | 19,709 86% | 591k | $19M (exactly $18,619,092) | Veewo Games |
| | Deadly Days: Roadtrip | · EA | $14.99 | 2,855 87% | 86k | $1.3M (exactly $1,283,894) | Pixelsplit |
| | Pathogenic | $9.99 | 4,145 92% | 124k | $1.2M (exactly $1,242,256) | Aberrant Labs | |
| | I Am Legion: Stand Survivors | $8.99 | 2,432 82% | 73k | $656k (exactly $655,910) | JA Game Studio | |
| | Spell Disk | older | $14.99 | 965 89% | 29k | $434k (exactly $433,960) | Sunpeak Games |
| | Soulbound: Online | · EA | $14.99 | 562 58% | 17k | $253k (exactly $252,731) | SpiderWare |
| | Desktop Survivors 98 | $4.99 | 1,338 94% | 40k | $200k (exactly $200,299) | Brandon Hesslau | |
| | Survivors of the Dawn | · EA older | $7.99 | 694 73% | 21k | $166k (exactly $166,352) | indieGiant |
| | Net.Attack() - Code or Die! | $7.99 | 510 80% | 15k | $122k (exactly $122,247) | ByteRockers' Games | |
| | Hand of Fate: Hordes | · EA | $11.99 | 312 79% | 9.4k | $112k (exactly $112,226) | Spitfire Interactive |
| | Stolen Realm Survivors | $9.99 | 150 64% | 4.5k | $45k (exactly $44,955) | Burst2Flame Games | |
| | SHRIMP GAME: OVERKRILL | $11.99 | 93 89% | 2.8k | $33k (exactly $33,452) | GasGod Games, GLUE MAN | |
| | Loot Frog | $6.89 | 153 79% | 4.6k | $32k (exactly $31,625) | Clumsy Dog |
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.