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Should I ship an Interactive Fiction Stealth game?
Stealth + Interactive Fiction
Of 38 developers who shipped an Interactive Fiction Stealth game 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.. 115 more are announced, ×5.8 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 6 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $450, ×0.7 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $120; 1 in 20 cleared $250k, ×399 the market median. Revenue is down 20% on the market; 115 games are announced against 20 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $120 (exactly $120) |
|---|---|
| Median | $449 (exactly $449) |
| Top 25% | $4.5k (exactly $4,497) |
| Top 5% | $250k (exactly $250,400) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 38 |
| Released games | 118 |
| Announced | 115 |
| Effort | 6 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $9.99 |
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 20% on the market, supply as many developers as the period before.
Free games: 21%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Stealth
- effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
- Interactive Fiction
- effort 1 / 10 · high · prose plus a state machine
What it takes
- Effort
- 6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
- Systems
- Stealth, Interactive Fiction; 4 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Adventure, Survival Horror, Exploration
- Price point
- $9.99 typical · top 25% priced $14.99 or above
- Art
- 5 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 3D, Dark, First-Person
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $14.99 or above; the middle game at $9.99.
The top 10 games average 87% positive over 11,259 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $120. 9 in 10 of the 22 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 115 games are announced against 20 developers who shipped in the last year, ×5.8 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Stealth with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + JRPGFair
- + World War IIPoor odds
- + LGBTQ+Poor odds
- + Turn-Based CombatPoor odds
- + WargamePoor odds
- + DinosaursPoor odds
- + Gun CustomizationPoor odds
- + Base BuildingPoor odds
- + Cold WarPoor odds
- + HistoricalPoor odds
- + MilitaryPoor odds
- + WarPoor odds
Comparable games
Shift At Midnight 2026 · $3.0M 
Shelter 2 2015 · $2.5M 
Card Shark 2022 · $1.8M 
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum™ 2023 · $1.3M 
DYSTHANASIA 2025 · $250k | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Shift At Midnight | $9.99 | 10,147 88% | 304k | $3.0M (exactly $3,041,056) | Bun Muen | |
| | Shelter 2 | older | $24.99 | 3,378 87% | 101k | $2.5M (exactly $2,532,487) | Might and Delight |
| | Card Shark | older | $19.99 | 2,965 90% | 89k | $1.8M (exactly $1,778,110) | Nerial |
| | The Lord of the Rings: Gollum™ | older | $49.99 | 839 41% | 25k | $1.3M (exactly $1,258,248) | Daedalic Entertainment |
| | DYSTHANASIA | $24.99 | 334 88% | 10k | $250k (exactly $250,400) | Madowaku Kobo | |
 | iBLiS | older | $9.99 | 687 41% | 21k | $206k (exactly $205,894) | Bulut ULU |
 | Yolo Space Hacker | older | $24.99 | 208 95% | 6.2k | $156k (exactly $155,938) | BKNLab |
 | Eyes: The Horror Game | older | $4.99 | 923 90% | 28k | $138k (exactly $138,173) | Fearless Games |
 | 晨昏线 | $9.99 | 427 76% | 13k | $128k (exactly $127,972) | Enter Games | |
 | The Novelist | older | $4.99 | 553 78% | 17k | $83k (exactly $82,784) | Orthogonal Games |
 | Still It Runs | $9.99 | 70 48% | 2.1k | $21k (exactly $20,979) | NAYUG, KADOKAWA | |
 | Lurking Danger | $11.99 | 49 65% | 1.5k | $18k (exactly $17,625) | Farelas | |
 | Hank: Drowning On Dry Land | $2.99 | 140 95% | 4.2k | $13k (exactly $12,558) | My Next Games | |
 | A Twisted Place | $6.99 | 41 95% | 1.2k | $8.6k (exactly $8,598) | Wraithen Studio | |
 | I Hear Them | $6.25 | 36 86% | 1.1k | $6.8k (exactly $6,750) | Strange Presence | |
 | Under the Table | $29.99 | 5 100% | 150 | $4.5k (exactly $4,498) | RB Ashton | |
 | Perfect Porcelain | $14.99 | 10 100% | 300 | $4.5k (exactly $4,497) | Swordlake Entertainment |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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