Games › Interactive Fiction › Interactive Fiction + Space
Should I ship a Space Interactive Fiction?
Interactive Fiction + Space
Of 68 developers who shipped a Space 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.. 99 more are announced, ×3.0 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 5 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $900, ×1.4 the market's $630 for a 5 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $240; 1 in 20 cleared $370k, ×604 the market median. Revenue is up 80% on the market; 99 games are announced against 33 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $239 (exactly $239) |
|---|---|
| Median | $899 (exactly $899) |
| Top 25% | $4.8k (exactly $4,790) |
| Top 5% | $379k (exactly $379,097) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 68 |
| Released games | 213 |
| Announced | 99 |
| Effort | 5 / 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 up 80% on the market, supply as many developers as the period before.
Free games: 16%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Interactive Fiction
- effort 1 / 10 · high · prose plus a state machine
- Space
- effort 5 / 10 · medium · effort 5 sits in the medium band
What it takes
- Effort
- 5 / 10 · real systems or entry 3D
- Systems
- Interactive Fiction; 4 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Adventure, Visual Novel, Choices Matter
- Price point
- $5.99 typical · top 25% priced $14.99 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Story Rich, 2D, Atmospheric
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $14.99 or above; the middle game at $5.99.
The top 10 games average 87% positive over 12,244 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $240. 9 in 10 of the 41 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 99 games are announced against 33 developers who shipped in the last year, ×3.0 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Interactive Fiction with a different setting or mood, ranked by verdict then median.
- + FMVFair
- + Match 3Fair
- + VampiresFair
- + SportsFair
- + IncrementalFair
- + PiratesFair
- + DrivingFair
- + DiplomacyFair
- + Perma DeathFair
- + Board GameFair
- + SnowFair
- + BuildingFair
Comparable games
The Invincible 2023 · $9.0M 
OPUS: Echo of Starsong - Full Bloom Edition 2021 · $6.5M 
Citizen Sleeper 2022 · $5.0M 
Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown 2026 · $4.4M 
New Tales from the Borderlands 2022 · $2.1M | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | The Invincible | older | $29.99 | 10,055 87% | 302k | $9.0M (exactly $9,046,484) | Starward Industries |
| | OPUS: Echo of Starsong - Full Bloom Edition | older | $24.99 | 8,722 96% | 262k | $6.5M (exactly $6,538,883) | SIGONO INC. |
| | Citizen Sleeper | older | $19.99 | 8,271 92% | 248k | $5.0M (exactly $4,960,119) | Jump Over The Age |
| | Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown | $34.99 | 4,162 79% | 125k | $4.4M (exactly $4,368,851) | Gamexcite | |
| | New Tales from the Borderlands | older | $39.99 | 1,737 29% | 52k | $2.1M (exactly $2,083,879) | Gearbox Software |
 | Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector | $24.99 | 2,358 91% | 71k | $1.8M (exactly $1,767,793) | Jump Over The Age | |
 | Fort Solis | older | $24.99 | 2,300 69% | 69k | $1.7M (exactly $1,724,310) | Fallen Leaf, Black Drakkar Games |
 | Kaiju Princess 2 | $17.99 | 3,107 96% | 93k | $1.7M (exactly $1,676,848) | PantyParrot | |
 | Heaven's Vault | older | $24.99 | 1,958 85% | 59k | $1.5M (exactly $1,467,913) | inkle Ltd |
 | Aliya: Timelink | older | $2.99 | 8,587 97% | 258k | $770k (exactly $770,254) | TDGame Studio |
 | Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog | $14.99 | 843 90% | 25k | $379k (exactly $379,097) | Space Colony Studios | |
 | 我的恋爱逃生攻略 Love to Live | $9.99 | 864 85% | 26k | $259k (exactly $258,941) | 番茄炖肉制作组 | |
 | PASSIONERS | $9.99 | 285 62% | 8.6k | $85k (exactly $85,414) | CryoDreams Interactive | |
 | Dead Reckoning: The Long Drift | · EA | $14.99 | 174 83% | 5.2k | $78k (exactly $78,248) | Garan Lorn |
 | Terraformental | · EA | $5.99 | 365 97% | 11k | $66k (exactly $65,590) | Shady Games |
 | Wings of Empire | · EA | $14.99 | 49 87% | 1.5k | $22k (exactly $22,035) | Droid Productions |
 | OMEGA 6 The Triangle Stars | $14.99 | 37 91% | 1.1k | $17k (exactly $16,639) | Takaya Imamura, Happymeal, Pleocene |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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