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Should I ship a Programming Interactive Fiction?
Programming + Interactive Fiction
Only 10 developers shipped a Programming Interactive Fiction 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, HackHub - Ultimate Hacker Simulator, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 21 more are announced, ×2.6 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 4 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $1.3k, ×2.8 the market's $480 for a 4 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $900; 1 in 20 cleared $470k, ×1005 the market median. Momentum is unreadable here, too few recent games; 21 games are announced against 8 developers who shipped in the last year.
not enough cohorts to draw
| Bottom 30% | $898 (exactly $898) |
|---|---|
| Median | $1.3k (exactly $1,347) |
| Top 25% | $7.8k (exactly $7,794) |
| Top 5% | $478k (exactly $477,589) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 10 |
| Released games | 26 |
| Announced | 21 |
| Effort | 4 / 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 too few recent games to read momentum, supply 300% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 23%, 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
- Interactive Fiction
- effort 1 / 10 · high · prose plus a state machine
What it takes
- Effort
- 4 / 10 · mid 2D, writing-heavy, or simple 3D
- Systems
- Programming, Interactive Fiction
- Price point
- $5.99 typical
Why players buy here
The top 9 games average 86% positive over 1,115 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $900. 21 games are announced against 8 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.6 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
HackHub - Ultimate Hacker Simulator 2026 · $478k 
[Chilla's Art] The Caregiver | 終焉介護 2021 · $65k 
Word Game World 2026 · $41k 
Open Sorcery 2017 · $37k 
World Wide Hack 2021 · EA · $35k | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | HackHub - Ultimate Hacker Simulator | $16.99 | 937 88% | 28k | $478k (exactly $477,589) | HotBunny | |
| | [Chilla's Art] The Caregiver | 終焉介護 | older | $4.99 | 431 80% | 13k | $65k (exactly $64,521) | Chilla's Art |
| | Word Game World | $11.99 | 114 62% | 3.4k | $41k (exactly $41,006) | Team9 | |
| | Open Sorcery | older | $3.99 | 310 98% | 9.3k | $37k (exactly $37,107) | Abigail Corfman |
| | World Wide Hack | · EA older | $16.99 | 69 60% | 2.1k | $35k (exactly $35,169) | Lotus Innovations |
 | Open Sorcery: Sea++ | older | $14.99 | 52 92% | 1.6k | $23k (exactly $23,384) | Abigail Corfman |
 | Code Romantic | older | $9.99 | 53 96% | 1.6k | $16k (exactly $15,884) | prettysmart games |
 | Blackdoor | $12.99 | 20 85% | 600 | $7.8k (exactly $7,794) | Static Signal | |
 | VSCS-II | older | $9.99 | 22 90% | 660 | $6.6k (exactly $6,593) | Oliver Morrish |
 | Extortion | older | $4.99 | 25 88% | 750 | $3.7k (exactly $3,742) | Dysnomia |
 | The Amateur Deity Society | $4.99 | 20 100% | 600 | $3.0k (exactly $2,994) | Robert Carlson | |
 | HyperDissonance | $4.99 | 9 88% | 270 | $1.3k (exactly $1,347) | meta, autoselff | |
 | OneOne | $9.99 | 3 100% | 90 | $899 (exactly $899) | Abyss Tech | |
 | HELLO HACKER | $5.99 | 5 100% | 150 | $898 (exactly $898) | h3ll0h4ck3r | |
 | wageslave | $5.49 | 3 100% | 90 | $494 (exactly $494) | Cauldron Games | |
 | 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 | |
 | N-OS: Desktop Story | · EA | $5.99 | 0 0% | 0 | $0 (exactly $0) | Andrii Danchuk |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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