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Should I ship a Programming Choose Your Own Adventure game?
Programming + Choose Your Own Adventure
Only 8 developers shipped a Programming Choose Your Own Adventure 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, Karigurashi Ren'ai: Living on Borrowed Love, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 16 more are announced, ×4.0 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: dead, for a 4 / 10 build.
Only 4 developers shipped this in the last year, under the 5 a verdict needs; over 2 years the middle one made $300 against a market of $480. 16 games are announced.
not enough cohorts to draw
| Bottom 30% | $210 (exactly $210) |
|---|---|
| Median | $300 (exactly $300) |
| Top 25% | $31k (exactly $31,487) |
| Top 5% | $68k (exactly $68,377) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 8 |
| Released games | 26 |
| Announced | 16 |
| Effort | 4 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $12.99 |
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 40% on the market, supply as many developers as the period before.
Free games: 15%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Programming
- effort 4 / 10 · medium · effort 4 sits in the medium band
- Choose Your Own Adventure
- effort 2 / 10 · high · branching text with light state
What it takes
- Effort
- 4 / 10 · mid 2D, writing-heavy, or simple 3D
- Systems
- Programming, Choose Your Own Adventure
- Price point
- $12.99 typical
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 $24.99 or above; the middle game at $9.99.
The top 10 games average 76% positive over 771 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $210. 16 games are announced against 4 developers who shipped in the last year, ×4.0 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Programming with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + Base BuildingFair
- + Auto BattlerFair
- + RogueliteFair
- + SandboxFair
- + Time ManagementFair
- + AutomationFair
- + Turn-Based TacticsFair
- + SimulationFair
- + RobotsFair
- + CrimeFair
- + Sci-fiFair
- + FuturisticFair
Comparable games
Tron: Identity 2023 · $123k 
Karigurashi Ren'ai: Living on Borrowed Love 2026 · $68k 
Web Host Simulator 2025 · EA · $31k 
Open Sorcery: Sea++ 2021 · $23k 
PixPhys 2021 · EA · $23k | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Tron: Identity | older | $14.99 | 274 79% | 8.2k | $123k (exactly $123,218) | Bithell Games |
| | Karigurashi Ren'ai: Living on Borrowed Love | $29.99 | 76 92% | 2.3k | $68k (exactly $68,377) | ASa Project | |
| | Web Host Simulator | · EA | $24.99 | 42 26% | 1.3k | $31k (exactly $31,487) | Chibum |
| | Open Sorcery: Sea++ | older | $14.99 | 52 92% | 1.6k | $23k (exactly $23,384) | Abigail Corfman |
| | PixPhys | · EA older | $3.99 | 193 73% | 5.8k | $23k (exactly $23,102) | Red Starship |
 | DevLife | · EA older | $10.99 | 56 60% | 1.7k | $18k (exactly $18,463) | Roman Studio |
 | VSCS-II | older | $9.99 | 22 90% | 660 | $6.6k (exactly $6,593) | Oliver Morrish |
 | ANGEL WHISPER - The Suspense Visual Novel Left Behind by a Game Creator. | older | $9.99 | 17 64% | 510 | $5.1k (exactly $5,095) | Child-Dream |
 | Yumeiri | older | $4.99 | 33 93% | 990 | $4.9k (exactly $4,940) | Affility |
 | Kooring VR Coding Adventure | older | $9.99 | 6 100% | 180 | $1.8k (exactly $1,798) | VRANI inc. |
 | OneOne | $9.99 | 3 100% | 90 | $899 (exactly $899) | Abyss Tech | |
 | 莫待无花空折枝：做题家的 Git 重启日志 | $2.50 | 4 100% | 120 | $300 (exactly $300) | 西江仙客 | |
 | FYGameCompany | $7.99 | 1 0% | 30 | $240 (exactly $240) | Foryun | |
 | Command Reboot | $6.99 | 1 100% | 30 | $210 (exactly $210) | 厦门必虎网络科技有限公司 | |
 | Algorithmically | $12.99 | 0 0% | 0 | $0 (exactly $0) | Pipera Games | |
 | Chief of the Valley | $12.99 | 0 0% | 0 | $0 (exactly $0) | deadsoftie |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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