Games › Character Customization › Character Customization + Twin Stick Shooter
Should I ship a Character Customization Twin Stick Shooter?
Character Customization + Twin Stick Shooter
Of 46 developers who shipped a Character Customization Twin Stick Shooter 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.. 94 more are announced, ×4.3 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $900, ×1.4 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $240; 1 in 20 cleared $150k, ×251 the market median. Revenue is flat on the market; 94 games are announced against 22 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $240 (exactly $240) |
|---|---|
| Median | $899 (exactly $899) |
| Top 25% | $4.7k (exactly $4,676) |
| Top 5% | $158k (exactly $157,845) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 46 |
| Released games | 119 |
| Announced | 94 |
| 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 flat on the market, supply 10% fewer developers than the period before.
Free games: 14%, 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
- Twin Stick Shooter
- effort 3 / 10 · high · effort 3 sits in the high band
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Character Customization, Twin Stick Shooter; 7 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Action, Bullet Hell, Top-Down Shooter
- Price point
- $5.99 typical · top 25% priced $19.99 or above
- Art
- 3 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Top-Down, 3D
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $19.99 or above; the middle game at $5.99.
The top 10 games average 74% positive over 2,561 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $240. 8 in 10 of the 24 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 94 games are announced against 22 developers who shipped in the last year, ×4.3 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
The Ascent 2021 · $17M 
Nine Parchments 2017 · $2.5M 
SYNTHETIK 2 2021 · EA · $1.9M 
Blazing Beaks 2019 · $919k 
Relic Hunters Legend 2025 · $660k | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | The Ascent | older | $29.99 | 19,235 74% | 577k | $17M (exactly $17,305,730) | Neon Giant |
| | Nine Parchments | older | $19.99 | 4,123 77% | 124k | $2.5M (exactly $2,472,563) | Frozenbyte |
| | SYNTHETIK 2 | · EA older | $19.99 | 3,202 81% | 96k | $1.9M (exactly $1,920,239) | Flow Fire Games |
| | Blazing Beaks | older | $14.99 | 2,043 84% | 61k | $919k (exactly $918,737) | Applava |
| | Relic Hunters Legend | $19.99 | 1,101 65% | 33k | $660k (exactly $660,270) | Rogue Snail | |
 | AK-xolotl: Together | older | $18.99 | 1,094 75% | 33k | $623k (exactly $623,252) | 2Awesome Studio |
 | Snezhinka:Sentinel Girls2 | older | $7.99 | 2,433 96% | 73k | $583k (exactly $583,190) | hinyari9 |
 | Shakedown: Hawaii | older | $19.99 | 645 90% | 19k | $387k (exactly $386,806) | Vblank Entertainment, Inc. |
 | Maniac | older | $4.99 | 1,754 90% | 53k | $263k (exactly $262,574) | Transhuman Design |
 | 9th Dawn III | older | $15.99 | 501 87% | 15k | $240k (exactly $240,330) | Valorware |
 | Genome Guardian 2 | · EA | $15.99 | 410 95% | 12k | $197k (exactly $196,677) | Alpherior |
 | CyberCorp | $14.99 | 351 75% | 11k | $158k (exactly $157,845) | Megame LLC | |
 | Graveyard Gunslingers | $7.99 | 224 58% | 6.7k | $54k (exactly $53,693) | PyroPhysics | |
 | DAMON and BABY | $19.99 | 87 89% | 2.6k | $52k (exactly $52,174) | Arc System Works | |
 | HSS:Reload | $8.99 | 181 71% | 5.4k | $49k (exactly $48,816) | SmokingBear Studio | |
 | Bonelords | $6.99 | 94 92% | 2.8k | $20k (exactly $19,712) | Z0 Game Studios | |
 | RoadOut | $14.99 | 34 97% | 1.0k | $15k (exactly $15,290) | Rastrolabs Game Studio | |
 | HoverGrease 2 | $19.99 | 24 83% | 720 | $14k (exactly $14,393) | Altergaze | |
 | Cosmic Coliseum | $4.99 | 55 92% | 1.7k | $8.2k (exactly $8,234) | Exane Games |
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.