Do I ship it?

Games › Character Customization › Character Customization + Hacking

Specimen · observed

Should I ship a Hacking Character Customization game?

Character Customization + Hacking

Only 7 developers shipped a Hacking Character Customization 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, Streamer Life Simulator 2, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 36 more are announced, ×6.0 for every developer who shipped in the last year.

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

The middle developer here made $2.5k, ×4.0 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $1.8k; 1 in 20 cleared $4.0M, ×6447 the market median. Momentum is unreadable here, too few recent games; 36 games are announced against 6 developers who shipped in the last year.

Deciding numbers: median 4.0 times the market baseline, revenue too few recent games to read momentum, 36 announced, ×6.0 per developer who shipped in the last year.
Nobody has said they are building this yet.
Character Customization + Hacking
Fig. 1 · this niche among 16,100
Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr n = 7
Median est. gross by half-year cohort, 2023 H1 to 2026 H2: $1.1k → $19k (still earning) → $1.8k (still earning)
The last cohort is still earning.
Outcomes for Character Customization + Hacking: Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr, n = 7
Bottom 30% $1.8k (exactly $1,798)
Median $2.5k (exactly $2,516)
Top 25% $24k (exactly $23,834)
Top 5% $4.0M (exactly $4,048,575)
Developers, 2 yr 7
Released games 28
Announced 36
Effort 6 / 10
AI-buildability Medium
Typical price $11.99

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 500% more developers than the period before.

Free games: 18%, 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
Hacking
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
Price point
$11.99 typical
Plate 4 · demand

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 $9.99.

The top 10 games average 81% positive over 8,878 reviews.

Plate 5 · the loss side

What kills games here

Developer outcomes in the last 2 years by share: 3 in 10 under $1.8k, median $2.5k, 1 in 4 over $23k, 1 in 20 over $4.0M.

3 in 10 developers made under $1.8k. 36 games are announced against 6 developers who shipped in the last year, ×6.0 per shipper.

Plate 6 · same mechanic, other settings

Adjacent niches

Character Customization with a different setting or mood, 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

Streamer Life Simulator 2 2026 · $4.0M Jack Move 2022 · $488k Brigand: Oaxaca 2017 · $165k 4th Generation Warfare 2022 · $116k Hacktag 2018 · $96k
Capsule Game Released Price Reviews Est. copies Est. revenue Developer
Streamer Life Simulator 2 $19.99 6,751 81% 203k $4.0M (exactly $4,048,575) Cheesecake Dev
Jack Move older $19.99 813 80% 24k $488k (exactly $487,556) So Romantic
Brigand: Oaxaca older $9.99 551 94% 17k $165k (exactly $165,135) Brian J. Lancaster, Laughing Coyote Sof… (Brian J. Lancaster, Laughing Coyote Software)
4th Generation Warfare older $29.99 129 59% 3.9k $116k (exactly $116,061) Eversim
Hacktag older $9.99 319 66% 9.6k $96k (exactly $95,604) Piece of Cake studios
Deadnaut older $9.99 128 67% 3.8k $38k (exactly $38,362) Screwfly Studios
Chaos Chain · EA older $14.99 68 92% 2.0k $31k (exactly $30,580) Corrosive Studios LLC
Within the Cosmos $14.99 53 43% 1.6k $24k (exactly $23,834) debdev
Cyberscape $14.99 43 93% 1.3k $19k (exactly $19,337) AtomicTorch Studio
Entodrive older $5.99 23 69% 690 $4.1k (exactly $4,133) Noah Lewin
Dash'n'Drops · EA $6.99 12 91% 360 $2.5k (exactly $2,516) Le Moulin aux Bulles
Cyber Academy · EA $11.99 5 100% 150 $1.8k (exactly $1,798) JinjaGames
Meridian $9.99 4 100% 120 $1.2k (exactly $1,199) Turn Based Hedgehog
Coreward $2.99 11 72% 330 $987 (exactly $987) carllacan

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