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Should I ship a Procedural Generation Mystery Dungeon?
Procedural Generation + Mystery Dungeon
Of 64 developers who shipped a Procedural Generation Mystery Dungeon 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.. 96 more are announced, ×2.7 for every developer who shipped in the last year.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 4 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $1.4k, ×3.0 the market's $480 for a 4 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $180; 1 in 20 cleared $110k, ×249 the market median. Revenue is up 145% on the market; 96 games are announced against 35 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $180 (exactly $180) |
|---|---|
| Median | $1.4k (exactly $1,436) |
| Top 25% | $11k (exactly $11,089) |
| Top 5% | $118k (exactly $118,129) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 64 |
| Released games | 164 |
| Announced | 96 |
| Effort | 4 / 10 |
| AI-buildability | Medium |
| Typical price | $6.99 |
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 145% on the market, supply 20% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 7%, excluded from money figures.
Can AI deliver it?
AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.
- Procedural Generation
- effort 4 / 10 · medium · effort 4 sits in the medium band
- Mystery Dungeon
- effort 3 / 10 · high · effort 3 sits in the high band
What it takes
- Effort
- 4 / 10 · mid 2D, writing-heavy, or simple 3D
- Systems
- Procedural Generation, Mystery Dungeon; 5 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Dungeon Crawler, Roguelike, RPG
- Price point
- $6.99 typical · top 25% priced $19.99 or above
- Art
- 4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 2D, Pixel Graphics, Cute
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $19.99 or above; the middle game at $6.99.
The top 10 games average 90% positive over 11,433 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $180. 9 in 10 of the 32 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 96 games are announced against 35 developers who shipped in the last year, ×2.7 per shipper.
Adjacent niches
Procedural Generation with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + SnowFair
- + Traditional RoguelikeFair
- + DetectiveFair
- + Word GameFair
- + TypingFair
- + IdlerFair
- + LogicFair
- + Walking SimulatorFair
- + Precision PlatformerFair
- + Hidden ObjectFair
- + Open World Survival CraftPoor odds
- + TrainsPoor odds
Comparable games
Elin 2024 · EA · $5.0M 
ENDLESS Dungeon™ - Definitive Edition 2023 · $1.3M 
The Classrooms 2022 · EA · $1.2M 
Vivid Knight 2021 · $735k 
Shattered Pixel Dungeon 2022 · $631k | Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Elin | · EA | $19.99 | 8,406 93% | 252k | $5.0M (exactly $5,041,078) | Lafrontier |
| | ENDLESS Dungeon™ - Definitive Edition | older | $14.99 | 2,953 64% | 89k | $1.3M (exactly $1,327,964) | AMPLITUDE Studios |
| | The Classrooms | · EA older | $12.99 | 3,040 89% | 91k | $1.2M (exactly $1,184,688) | Xefier Games, Hillcrest Games Inc. |
| | Vivid Knight | older | $14.99 | 1,635 89% | 49k | $735k (exactly $735,260) | Asobism.Co.,Ltd |
| | Shattered Pixel Dungeon | older | $9.99 | 2,106 95% | 63k | $631k (exactly $631,168) | Shattered Pixel |
 | Dungeon Drafters | older | $24.99 | 563 76% | 17k | $422k (exactly $422,081) | Manalith Studios |
 | Skull Horde | $12.99 | 1,083 81% | 32k | $422k (exactly $422,045) | 8BitSkull | |
 | One Way Heroics | older | $3.49 | 3,503 94% | 105k | $367k (exactly $366,764) | Smoking WOLF |
 | Vivid World | $19.99 | 591 88% | 18k | $354k (exactly $354,423) | Asobism.Co.,Ltd | |
 | Monster Girls and the Mysterious Adventure 2 | older | $24.99 | 342 89% | 10k | $256k (exactly $256,397) | NEKOTOKAGE GAMES |
 | Touhou ~Red Empress Devil. | $8.99 | 438 70% | 13k | $118k (exactly $118,129) | STUDIO POCO | |
 | Meowgic | $7.99 | 462 79% | 14k | $111k (exactly $110,741) | Lazy Turtle Games | |
 | Runehaven | $9.99 | 119 91% | 3.6k | $36k (exactly $35,664) | Cikoria Studio | |
 | HoloDungeon: Koyori vs HollowLive in Honsha Tower | · EA | $12.99 | 84 72% | 2.5k | $33k (exactly $32,735) | VELUX STUDIO |
 | SAVE | · EA | $11.99 | 91 48% | 2.7k | $33k (exactly $32,733) | Influsion Inc. |
 | Monster Girls and the Mysterious Adventure Remastered Edition | $9.99 | 103 94% | 3.1k | $31k (exactly $30,869) | NEKOTOKAGE GAMES | |
 | SHINONOME ABYSS The Maiden Exorcist | $14.99 | 56 78% | 1.7k | $25k (exactly $25,183) | WODAN,Inc. |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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