Games › Point & Click › Point & Click + Time Travel
Should I ship a Time-Travel Point & Click game?
Point & Click + Time Travel
Of 34 developers who shipped a Time-Travel Point & Click 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.. 29 more are announced.
Verdict: poor odds, for a 4 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $3.1k, ×6.4 the market's $480 for a 4 / 10 build, and 3 in 10 made under $660; 1 in 20 cleared $580k, ×1223 the market median. Revenue is down 80% on the market; 29 games are announced against 21 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $657 (exactly $657) |
|---|---|
| Median | $3.1k (exactly $3,055) |
| Top 25% | $76k (exactly $76,162) |
| Top 5% | $581k (exactly $581,109) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 34 |
| Released games | 127 |
| Announced | 29 |
| Effort | 4 / 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 80% on the market, supply 60% 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.
- Point & Click
- effort 2 / 10 · high · effort 2 sits in the high band
- Time Travel
- effort 4 / 10 · medium · effort 4 sits in the medium band
What it takes
- Effort
- 4 / 10 · mid 2D, writing-heavy, or simple 3D
- Systems
- Point & Click; 5 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Adventure, Choices Matter, Exploration
- Price point
- $8.99 typical · top 25% priced $24.99 or above
- Art
- 5 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Story Rich, 2D, Atmospheric
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $24.99 or above; the middle game at $8.99.
The top 10 games average 83% positive over 4,962 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $660. 6 in 10 of the 14 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 29 games are announced against 21 developers who shipped in the last year.
Adjacent niches
Point & Click with a different setting or mood, ranked by verdict then median.
- + JRPGFair
- + Job SimulatorFair
- + Party-Based RPGFair
- + Life SimFair
- + Local MultiplayerFair
- + MiningFair
- + CookingFair
- + Escape RoomFair
- + UnderwaterFair
- + Local Co-OpFair
- + Online Co-OpFair
- + Word GameFair
Comparable games
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Life is Strange: Before the Storm | older | $16.99 | 33,504 93% | 1.0M | $17M (exactly $17,076,989) | Deck Nine, Feral Interactive (Mac), Fer… (Deck Nine, Feral Interactive (Mac), Feral Interactive (Linux)) |
| | Zero Escape: The Nonary Games | older | $29.99 | 7,007 92% | 210k | $6.3M (exactly $6,304,198) | Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd. |
| | Five Nights at Freddy's: Into the Pit | older | $19.99 | 10,164 95% | 305k | $6.1M (exactly $6,095,351) | Mega Cat Studios |
| | Twelve Minutes | older | $24.99 | 7,408 73% | 222k | $5.6M (exactly $5,553,778) | Luis Antonio |
| | The Sexy Brutale | older | $19.99 | 2,895 91% | 87k | $1.7M (exactly $1,736,131) | Cavalier Game Studios, Tequila Works |
| | Deponia Doomsday | older | $19.99 | 2,873 84% | 86k | $1.7M (exactly $1,722,938) | Daedalic Entertainment |
| | Day of the Tentacle Remastered | older | $14.99 | 3,536 97% | 106k | $1.6M (exactly $1,590,139) | Double Fine Productions, Shiny Shoe |
| | Truberbrook / Trüberbrook | older | $29.99 | 1,473 73% | 44k | $1.3M (exactly $1,325,258) | btf |
| | Rue Valley | $14.99 | 1,905 69% | 57k | $857k (exactly $856,678) | Emotion Spark Studio | |
| | D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die -Season One- | older | $14.99 | 1,724 80% | 52k | $775k (exactly $775,283) | Access Games |
| | Old Skies | $19.99 | 969 93% | 29k | $581k (exactly $581,109) | Wadjet Eye Games | |
| | The Posthumous Investigation | $19.99 | 554 94% | 17k | $332k (exactly $332,234) | Mother Gaia Studio | |
| | Yet Another Killing Game | $16.99 | 242 96% | 7.3k | $123k (exactly $123,347) | Soulseer Studios | |
| | My Fav Chill Streamer Dies a Million Times|ゆるゆる生配信する推しは100万回死ぬ | $34.99 | 114 92% | 3.4k | $120k (exactly $119,666) | VELUX STUDIO | |
| | Carpet Cleaning Simulator | $6.99 | 508 87% | 15k | $107k (exactly $106,528) | daimaGAME | |
| | The House of Da Vinci VR | $24.99 | 126 93% | 3.8k | $94k (exactly $94,462) | Blue Brain Games | |
| | Mosaic of the Strange | $12.99 | 226 92% | 6.8k | $88k (exactly $88,072) | Mark Ffrench | |
| | Whirlight - No Time To Trip | $19.99 | 127 93% | 3.8k | $76k (exactly $76,162) | imaginarylab | |
| | Pyramids and Aliens: Escape Room | $12.99 | 191 81% | 5.7k | $74k (exactly $74,433) | mc2games |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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