Games › Character Customization › Character Customization + Time Manipulation
Should I ship a Character Customization Time Manipulation game?
Character Customization + Time Manipulation
Only 18 developers shipped a Character Customization Time Manipulation 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, Hotel Architect, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 27 more are announced, ×2.7 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 $540; 1 in 20 cleared $1.7M, ×2771 the market median. Revenue is up 625% on the market; 27 games are announced against 10 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $539 (exactly $539) |
|---|---|
| Median | $1.9k (exactly $1,948) |
| Top 25% | $13k (exactly $13,187) |
| Top 5% | $1.7M (exactly $1,740,020) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 18 |
| Released games | 47 |
| Announced | 27 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $8.99 |
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 up 625% on the market, supply 25% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 13%, excluded from money figures.
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
- 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
- Character Customization, Time Manipulation; 5 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Action, Choices Matter, Class-Based
- Price point
- $8.99 typical · top 25% priced $29.99 or above
- Art
- 5 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Relaxing
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $29.99 or above; the middle game at $8.99.
The top 10 games average 92% positive over 2,410 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $540. 8 in 10 of the 13 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 27 games are announced against 10 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.7 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Character Customization with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Football (American)Strong odds
- + Real-TimeStrong odds
- + Music-Based Procedural GenerationFair
- + TransportationFair
- + MinigamesFair
- + DwarvesFair
- + BikesFair
- + IdlerFair
- + IncrementalFair
- + GamblingFair
- + Precision PlatformerFair
- + TypingFair
Comparable games
Hotel Architect 2026 · $1.7M 
No Plan B 2024 · $342k 
Titans of the Past 2025 · $81k 
Penny Larceny: Gig Economy Supervillain 2023 · $37k 
Unaware in The City 2024 · $35k | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Hotel Architect | $29.99 | 1,934 94% | 58k | $1.7M (exactly $1,740,020) | Pathos Interactive | |
| | No Plan B | older | $14.99 | 761 86% | 23k | $342k (exactly $342,222) | GFX47 |
| | Titans of the Past | $24.99 | 108 83% | 3.2k | $81k (exactly $80,968) | Devil's Dozen Games | |
| | Penny Larceny: Gig Economy Supervillain | older | $11.99 | 102 96% | 3.1k | $37k (exactly $36,689) | Fiction Factory Games |
| | Unaware in The City | $5.99 | 194 81% | 5.8k | $35k (exactly $34,862) | Mr. Unaware Studios | |
 | PositronX | older | $19.99 | 56 71% | 1.7k | $34k (exactly $33,583) | Scorpius Games |
 | Shadows of Soldiers | $9.99 | 45 75% | 1.4k | $13k (exactly $13,486) | Ghost in the Wire | |
 | Temporal Titans | · EA | $9.99 | 44 95% | 1.3k | $13k (exactly $13,187) | Lost Tower Games |
 | Sandy's Great Escape | older | $9.99 | 43 93% | 1.3k | $13k (exactly $12,887) | Mocha Moose Games |
 | ACIIIIIIIIIIIIIIID | older | $9.99 | 38 76% | 1.1k | $11k (exactly $11,389) | deadworld games |
 | Doujin Fever!! Night Assault! | $6.99 | 48 85% | 1.4k | $10k (exactly $10,066) | Genesis Arthangel | |
 | Paradox Guardians | · EA | $12.99 | 13 38% | 390 | $5.1k (exactly $5,066) | Paraguard |
 | Rogum A Cat Match Puzzle | $5.99 | 16 100% | 480 | $2.9k (exactly $2,875) | DevGamesRo | |
 | Law of Demons | $12.99 | 5 60% | 150 | $1.9k (exactly $1,948) | Sierra Nevada Tunis | |
 | Casa De Diamantes | $8.99 | 3 100% | 90 | $809 (exactly $809) | SoulPixel 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.