Do I ship it?

Games › Programming › Programming + Sokoban

Specimen · observed

Should I ship a Programming Sokoban?

Programming + Sokoban

Only 8 developers shipped a Programming Sokoban in the last 2 years, too few for firm odds: the middle one made est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.; the top game by est. revenue, Signal Maze, made about est. revenue: est. copies × today's US list price; gross, before Steam's cut, taxes and refunds. See method.. 10 more are announced.

Verdict: fair, for a 4 / 10 build.

The middle developer here made $600, ×1.3 the market's $480 for a 4 / 10 build, with 3 in 10 under $300. Revenue is down 30% on the market; 10 games are announced against 5 developers who shipped in the last year.

Deciding numbers: median 1.3 times the market baseline, revenue down 30% on the market, 10 announced, ×2.0 per developer who shipped in the last year.
Nobody has said they are building this yet.
Programming + Sokoban
Fig. 1 · this niche among 16,100
Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr n = 8

not enough cohorts to draw

Outcomes for Programming + Sokoban: Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr, n = 8
Bottom 30% $300 (exactly $300)
Median $599 (exactly $599)
Top 25% $1.5k (exactly $1,498)
Top 5% $11k (exactly $10,793)
Developers, 2 yr 8
Released games 31
Announced 10
Effort 4 / 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 30% on the market, supply 65% more developers than the period before.

Free games: 3%, excluded from money figures.

See every window in the explorer →

Plate 2 · systems and tooling

Can AI deliver it?

AI-buildability for this niche is medium: the lowest rating among its tags.

Programming
effort 4 / 10 · medium · effort 4 sits in the medium band
Sokoban
effort 2 / 10 · high · grid pushing rules and level files

How the rubric works →

Plate 3 · the cost side

What it takes

Effort
4 / 10 · mid 2D, writing-heavy, or simple 3D
Systems
Programming, Sokoban
Price point
$9.99 typical
Plate 4 · demand

Why players buy here

Fewer than 10 games in the last 2 years; sentiment and price figures use the all window.

The top 25% priced at $14.99 or above; the middle game at $4.99.

The top 10 games average 97% positive over 21,461 reviews.

Plate 5 · the loss side

What kills games here

Developer outcomes in the last 2 years by share: 3 in 10 under $300, median $600, 1 in 4 over $1.4k, 1 in 20 over $10k.

3 in 10 developers made under $300. 10 games are announced against 5 developers who shipped in the last year.

Plate 6 · same mechanic, other settings

Adjacent niches

Programming with a different second tag, ranked by verdict then median.

  1. + Base BuildingFair13 devs · median $53k · 21 announced
  2. + Auto BattlerFair14 devs · median $14k · 14 announced
  3. + RogueliteFair24 devs · median $9.3k · 28 announced
  4. + SandboxFair60 devs · median $7.0k · 71 announced
  5. + Time ManagementFair15 devs · median $7.0k · 26 announced
  6. + AutomationFair84 devs · median $3.8k · 102 announced
  7. + Turn-Based TacticsFair14 devs · median $2.4k · 16 announced
  8. + SimulationFair132 devs · median $2.2k · 174 announced
  9. + RobotsFair24 devs · median $1.8k · 29 announced
  10. + CrimeFair12 devs · median $1.8k · 13 announced
  11. + Sci-fiFair56 devs · median $1.7k · 63 announced
  12. + FuturisticFair19 devs · median $1.2k · 25 announced

All 57 pairs on the Programming page

Plate 7 · comparable specimens, by est. revenue

Comparable games

Baba Is You 2019 · $9.4M Roody:2d 2023 · EA · $22k SOKOBOT 2022 · $19k ALAN-13 Reformation 2022 · $16k Signal Maze 2025 · $11k
Capsule Game Released Price Reviews Est. copies Est. revenue Developer
Baba Is You older $14.99 21,011 97% 630k $9.4M (exactly $9,448,647) Hempuli Oy
Roody:2d · EA older $14.99 48 97% 1.4k $22k (exactly $21,586) redinator2000
SOKOBOT older $13.99 46 91% 1.4k $19k (exactly $19,306) Alexander Taylor
ALAN-13 Reformation older $15.99 34 82% 1.0k $16k (exactly $16,310) Viktor Kovács
Signal Maze $14.99 24 95% 720 $11k (exactly $10,793) theArkitect
Chess Brain: Dark Troops older $2.99 64 93% 1.9k $5.7k (exactly $5,741) Caio Flavio
Unit 404 older $4.99 34 88% 1.0k $5.1k (exactly $5,090) [OneManBand]
Chess Brain older $0.99 156 89% 4.7k $4.6k (exactly $4,633) Caio Flavio
BQM - BlockQuest Maker Remastered older $24.99 6 83% 180 $4.5k (exactly $4,498) Wonderland Kazakiri inc.
Tiny Traffic older $2.99 38 100% 1.1k $3.4k (exactly $3,409) Virtual Turtle Games
Pragma Twice $9.99 5 100% 150 $1.5k (exactly $1,498) Bryan Gillespie
Merge It $4.99 6 100% 180 $898 (exactly $898) Fewjix
excellent $4.99 4 100% 120 $599 (exactly $599) cip
TAU-09 $3.99 3 100% 90 $359 (exactly $359) axsys_crash
Logic Foundry $9.99 1 0% 30 $300 (exactly $300) AJ Kaddoura
Command Reboot $6.99 1 100% 30 $210 (exactly $210) 厦门必虎网络科技有限公司
CTR $9.99 0 0% 0 $0 (exactly $0) Pisuke

Estimates: copies = reviews × 30, gross = copies × list price.