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Should I ship a Procedural Generation Traditional Roguelike?
Procedural Generation + Traditional Roguelike
Of 71 developers who shipped a Procedural Generation Traditional Roguelike 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.. 93 more are announced.
Verdict: fair, for a 4 / 10 build.
The middle developer here made $2.0k, ×4.2 the market's $480 for a 4 / 10 build, with 3 in 10 under $600. Revenue is flat on the market; 93 games are announced against 50 developers who shipped in the last year.
| Bottom 30% | $599 (exactly $599) |
|---|---|
| Median | $2.0k (exactly $1,978) |
| Top 25% | $7.7k (exactly $7,670) |
| Top 5% | $390k (exactly $390,203) |
| Developers, 2 yr | 71 |
| Released games | 158 |
| Announced | 93 |
| 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 flat on the market, supply 125% more developers than the period before.
Free games: 3%, 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
- Traditional Roguelike
- 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, Traditional Roguelike; 6 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Roguelike, RPG, Strategy
- Price point
- $6.99 typical · top 25% priced $19.99 or above
- Art
- 6 in 10 of the top 25% ship with 2D, Pixel Graphics
Why players buy here
The top 25% priced at $19.99 or above; the middle game at $6.99.
The top 10 games average 93% positive over 23,084 reviews.
What kills games here
3 in 10 developers made under $600. 8 in 10 of the 24 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 93 games are announced against 50 developers who shipped in the last year.
Adjacent niches
Procedural Generation with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.
- + SnowFair
- + DetectiveFair
- + Word GameFair
- + TypingFair
- + IdlerFair
- + LogicFair
- + Walking SimulatorFair
- + Precision PlatformerFair
- + Hidden ObjectFair
- + Open World Survival CraftPoor odds
- + TrainsPoor odds
- + SailingPoor odds
Comparable games
| Capsule | Game | Released | Price | Reviews | Est. copies | Est. revenue | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Caves of Qud | $29.99 | 11,892 94% | 357k | $11M (exactly $10,699,232) | Freehold Games | |
| | Elin | · EA | $19.99 | 8,406 93% | 252k | $5.0M (exactly $5,041,078) | Lafrontier |
| | Soulash 2 | · EA older | $18.99 | 2,382 85% | 71k | $1.4M (exactly $1,357,025) | Artur Smiarowski |
| | Jupiter Hell | older | $24.99 | 1,795 91% | 54k | $1.3M (exactly $1,345,712) | ChaosForge |
| | Tales of Maj'Eyal | older | $6.99 | 6,320 94% | 190k | $1.3M (exactly $1,325,304) | Netcore Games |
| | Cogmind | · EA older | $24.99 | 1,560 95% | 47k | $1.2M (exactly $1,169,532) | Grid Sage Games |
| | Path of Achra | older | $9.99 | 3,166 98% | 95k | $949k (exactly $948,850) | Ulfsire |
| | Dungeons of Dredmor | older | $7.99 | 3,702 94% | 111k | $887k (exactly $887,369) | Gaslamp Games, Inc. |
| | Shattered Pixel Dungeon | older | $9.99 | 2,106 95% | 63k | $631k (exactly $631,168) | Shattered Pixel |
| | ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery) | older | $14.99 | 1,253 86% | 38k | $563k (exactly $563,474) | Thomas Biskup, Jochen Terstiege, Zeno R… (Thomas Biskup, Jochen Terstiege, Zeno Rogue, Krzysztof Dycha, Lucas Dieguez) |
| | Rift Wizard 2 | $19.99 | 744 91% | 22k | $446k (exactly $446,177) | Dylan White | |
| | Approaching Infinity | $17.99 | 723 95% | 22k | $390k (exactly $390,203) | IBOL | |
| | Rift Wizard 3 | · EA | $19.99 | 308 88% | 9.2k | $185k (exactly $184,708) | Dylan White, Khoops, Jacob Martinez |
| | Kādomon: Hyper Auto Battlers | $9.99 | 543 65% | 16k | $163k (exactly $162,737) | Dino Rocket | |
| | Jupiter Hell Classic | · EA | $14.99 | 230 95% | 6.9k | $103k (exactly $103,431) | ChaosForge |
| | Infinite Cards | $15.99 | 96 93% | 2.9k | $46k (exactly $46,051) | Tubby Turtle Studios | |
| | Dragon Front: Adventures | $19.99 | 58 89% | 1.7k | $35k (exactly $34,783) | High Voltage Software, Inc. | |
| | HoloDungeon: Koyori vs HollowLive in Honsha Tower | · EA | $12.99 | 84 72% | 2.5k | $33k (exactly $32,735) | VELUX STUDIO |
Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.
Five niches a week, one death, one deep dive.
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