Do I ship it?

Games › PvE › PvE + Interactive Fiction

Specimen · observed

Should I ship a PvE Interactive Fiction?

PvE + Interactive Fiction

Of 33 developers who shipped a PvE Interactive Fiction 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.. 69 more are announced, ×3.8 for every developer who shipped in the last year.

Verdict: dead, for a 6 / 10 build.

The middle developer here made $300 in the last 2 years and $360 over 4, against a market of $630 for a 6 / 10 build. 18 developers shipped in the last year and 69 games are announced.

Deciding numbers: median 0.5 times the market baseline, revenue down 100% on the market, 69 announced, ×3.8 per developer who shipped in the last year.
Nobody has said they are building this yet.
PvE + Interactive Fiction
Fig. 1 · this niche among 16,100
Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr n = 33
Median est. gross by half-year cohort, 2023 H1 to 2026 H2: $419 → $30 → $1.8k → $598 → $150 → $360 (still earning) → $0 (still earning)
The last cohort is still earning.
Outcomes for PvE + Interactive Fiction: Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr, n = 33
Bottom 30% $0 (exactly $0)
Median $299 (exactly $299)
Top 25% $779 (exactly $779)
Top 5% $19k (exactly $18,708)
Developers, 2 yr 33
Released games 74
Announced 69
Effort 6 / 10
AI-buildability Low
Typical price $4.99

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 20% more developers than the period before.

Free games: 9%, 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 low: the lowest rating among its tags.

PvE
effort 6 / 10 · low · online co-op against AI still needs the whole netcode stack
Interactive Fiction
effort 1 / 10 · high · prose plus a state machine

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
PvE, Interactive Fiction; 3 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Adventure, Exploration, Choices Matter
Price point
$4.99 typical · top 25% priced $14.99 or above
Art
4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Story Rich, 2D, First-Person
Plate 4 · demand

Why players buy here

The top 25% priced at $14.99 or above; the middle game at $4.99.

The top 10 games average 83% positive over 762 reviews.

Plate 5 · the loss side

What kills games here

Developer outcomes in the last 2 years by share: 3 in 10 under $50, median $300, 1 in 4 over $770, 1 in 20 over $18k.

3 in 10 developers made under $50. 9 in 10 of the 17 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 69 games are announced against 18 developers who shipped in the last year, ×3.8 per shipper.

Plate 6 · same mechanic, other settings

Adjacent niches

PvE with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.

  1. + Dating SimFair17 devs · median $2.4k · 23 announced
  2. + IdlerFair161 devs · median $1.0k · 229 announced
  3. + MinigamesFair9 devs · median $899 · 14 announced
  4. + TypingFair23 devs · median $719 · 27 announced
  5. + Extraction ShooterPoor odds44 devs · median $163k · 97 announced
  6. + Open World Survival CraftPoor odds50 devs · median $85k · 120 announced
  7. + HeistPoor odds18 devs · median $30k · 50 announced
  8. + MMORPGPoor odds34 devs · median $25k · 248 announced
  9. + Real-TimePoor odds10 devs · median $20k · 24 announced
  10. + NavalPoor odds21 devs · median $11k · 59 announced
  11. + SpaceshipsPoor odds16 devs · median $6.3k · 20 announced
  12. + MarsPoor odds10 devs · median $6.3k · 13 announced

All 243 pairs on the PvE page

Plate 7 · comparable specimens, by est. revenue

Comparable games

Night Shift Nurses 2024 · $356k The Eternal Castle [REMASTERED] 2019 · $308k Serum: Toxic Survival 2024 · EA · $190k Writer's Rush 2024 · $72k Peaky Blinders: The King's Ransom Complete Edition 2023 · $42k
Capsule Game Released Price Reviews Est. copies Est. revenue Developer
Night Shift Nurses $19.99 593 84% 18k $356k (exactly $355,622) Shiravune
The Eternal Castle [REMASTERED] older $14.99 685 87% 21k $308k (exactly $308,044) Leonard Menchiari, Daniele Vicinanzo, G… (Leonard Menchiari, Daniele Vicinanzo, Giulio Perrone)
Serum: Toxic Survival · EA older $24.99 253 45% 7.6k $190k (exactly $189,674) Game Island
Writer's Rush older $5.99 402 74% 12k $72k (exactly $72,239) Frogstorm
Peaky Blinders: The King's Ransom Complete Edition older $19.99 70 52% 2.1k $42k (exactly $41,979) Maze Theory
Debris older $9.99 97 60% 2.9k $29k (exactly $29,071) Moonray Studios
White Bridge older $19.99 38 100% 1.1k $23k (exactly $22,789) Wolfs Moon Studios
Willow Guard $15.99 39 89% 1.2k $19k (exactly $18,708) MiTale
Alice's Lullaby $14.99 37 83% 1.1k $17k (exactly $16,639) Ape Law
Diddy $7.99 24 62% 720 $5.8k (exactly $5,753) GalaxyVerse
Azmar Quest - Text Based RPG $9.99 15 100% 450 $4.5k (exactly $4,496) Sevan Soukiassian
Babette $3.99 35 91% 1.1k $4.2k (exactly $4,190) RoaringLuck
Cauldron Caution $9.99 5 100% 150 $1.5k (exactly $1,498) Poisheesh
Midnight Kebab $4.99 8 12% 240 $1.2k (exactly $1,198) Ufuk
The Club $12.99 2 50% 60 $779 (exactly $779) TheMistressMatrix
Wrath of Mynah $4.99 4 100% 120 $599 (exactly $599) BluWind, sharkekei, mrwalrusthegiraffe,… (BluWind, sharkekei, mrwalrusthegiraffe, axi, OMI, CardCaph, Kacper Cieśluk, Janaeither, Javier89javi)

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