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Should I ship a Zombie Interactive Fiction?
Interactive Fiction + Zombies
Of 46 developers who shipped a Zombie 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.. 41 more are announced.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 5 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $360, ×0.6 the market's $630 for a 5 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $50. Revenue is down 65% on the market, with 41 games announced against 27 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $0 (exactly $0) |
|---|---|
| Median | $358 (exactly $358) |
| Top 25% | $4.0k (exactly $3,950) |
| Top 5% | $24k (exactly $23,802) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 46 |
| Released games | 103 |
| Announced | 41 |
| Effort | 5 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $8.99 |
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 65% on the market, supply 40% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 9%, 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
- Zombies
- 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 RPG, Visual Novel, Adventure
- Price point
- $8.99 typical · top 25% priced $17.99 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Story Rich, 2D, 3D
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $17.99 or above; the middle game at $8.99.
The top 10 games average 90% positive over 3,557 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $50. Nearly all of the 25 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 41 games are announced against 27 developers who shipped in the last year.
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
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series | older | $49.99 | 36,594 96% | 1.1M | $55M (exactly $54,880,022) | Skybound Games |
| | SubZero | $9.99 | 2,719 92% | 82k | $815k (exactly $814,884) | Joy Media Limited | |
| | Serum: Toxic Survival | · EA older | $24.99 | 253 45% | 7.6k | $190k (exactly $189,674) | Game Island |
| | Zombie Exodus | older | $19.99 | 166 84% | 5.0k | $100k (exactly $99,550) | Hosted Games |
| | Survivor's Notes | $6.99 | 352 91% | 11k | $74k (exactly $73,814) | MYSTERY CROWN, YESPLAY | |
| | Purrfect Apawcalypse: Purrgatory Furever | older | $5.99 | 370 99% | 11k | $66k (exactly $66,489) | Denny Truong, Andy Schneider |
| | Gloomy Eyes VR | older | $8.99 | 186 88% | 5.6k | $50k (exactly $50,164) | 3DAR, Atlas V |
| | Scheming Through The Zombie Apocalypse: The Beginning | older | $4.99 | 322 84% | 9.7k | $48k (exactly $48,203) | Entertainment Forge |
| | I Walk Among Zombies Vol. 0 | older | $8.99 | 147 86% | 4.4k | $40k (exactly $39,646) | Seacoxx |
| | Eden's Ritter 1:2 - Priestess of Pleasure | older | $19.99 | 56 89% | 1.7k | $34k (exactly $33,583) | Waffle |
| | Apocalypse: The Last RV | · EA | $4.99 | 159 68% | 4.8k | $24k (exactly $23,802) | 光年切片工作室 |
| | Sex Vault: The Lust-Tec Project | $9.99 | 79 83% | 2.4k | $24k (exactly $23,676) | Kinky Business Group | |
| | Sword Mistress of the Dungeon Town | $17.99 | 38 65% | 1.1k | $21k (exactly $20,509) | ラブリープリチー超愛してる, Lovely Pretty Ultra Lov… (ラブリープリチー超愛してる, Lovely Pretty Ultra Loving You) | |
| | 翎之歌 | $6.99 | 83 89% | 2.5k | $17k (exactly $17,405) | YuKi制作组, 崩溃猛犸 | |
| | Outlying Islands | $8.99 | 64 92% | 1.9k | $17k (exactly $17,261) | 九指画尸, 线娘 | |
| | Giggle Night: Trixie's Trial | · EA | $19.99 | 16 81% | 480 | $9.6k (exactly $9,595) | Anaximanes Entertainment |
| | 69 Seconds Later | $19.99 | 14 85% | 420 | $8.4k (exactly $8,396) | SinVR | |
| | Terror Call | $4.99 | 33 69% | 990 | $4.9k (exactly $4,940) | Solozard Games |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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