Do I ship it?

Games › Tactical › Tactical + Traditional Roguelike

Specimen · observed

Should I ship a Traditional Roguelike Tactical game?

Tactical + Traditional Roguelike

Of 38 developers who shipped a Traditional Roguelike Tactical 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.. 57 more are announced.

Verdict: fair, for a 6 / 10 build.

The middle developer here made $990, ×1.6 the market's $630 for a 6 / 10 build, with 3 in 10 under $270. Revenue is up 230% on the market; 57 games are announced against 31 developers who shipped in the last year.

Deciding numbers: median 1.6 times the market baseline, revenue up 230% on the market, 57 announced, ×1.8 per developer who shipped in the last year.
Nobody has said they are building this yet.
Tactical + Traditional Roguelike
Fig. 1 · this niche among 16,100
Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr n = 38
Median est. gross by half-year cohort, 2023 H1 to 2026 H2: $66k → $4.8k → $4.3k → $2.2k (still earning) → $359 (still earning)
The last cohort is still earning.
Outcomes for Tactical + Traditional Roguelike: Plate 1 · outcomes, 2 yr, n = 38
Bottom 30% $267 (exactly $267)
Median $987 (exactly $987)
Top 25% $5.4k (exactly $5,396)
Top 5% $55k (exactly $55,172)
Developers, 2 yr 38
Released games 64
Announced 57
Effort 6 / 10
AI-buildability Medium
Typical price $6.00

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 230% on the market, supply 345% more developers than the period before.

Free games: 8%, 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.

Tactical
effort 6 / 10 · medium · effort 6 sits in the medium band
Traditional Roguelike
effort 3 / 10 · high · effort 3 sits in the high band

How the rubric works →

Plate 3 · the cost side

What it takes

Effort
6 / 10 · full 3D single-player, physics sims, content-heavy RPG
Systems
Tactical, Traditional Roguelike; 6 in 10 of the top 25% also carry Roguelike, Strategy, RPG
Price point
$6.00 typical · top 25% priced $17.99 or above
Art
4 in 10 of the top 25% ship with Top-Down
Plate 4 · demand

Why players buy here

The top 25% priced at $17.99 or above; the middle game at $6.00.

The top 10 games average 92% positive over 1,428 reviews.

Plate 5 · the loss side

What kills games here

Developer outcomes in the last 2 years by share: 3 in 10 under $270, median $990, 1 in 4 over $5.3k, 1 in 20 over $55k.

3 in 10 developers made under $270. 9 in 10 of the 9 games released 1 to 2 years ago have fewer than 100 reviews. 57 games are announced against 31 developers who shipped in the last year.

Plate 6 · same mechanic, other settings

Adjacent niches

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

  1. + Football (American)Strong odds12 devs · median $5.8k · 8 announced
  2. + Mystery DungeonStrong odds20 devs · median $2.5k · 15 announced
  3. + Dating SimFair13 devs · median $11k · 9 announced
  4. + 6DOFFair14 devs · median $2.4k · 19 announced
  5. + Word GameFair23 devs · median $1.8k · 12 announced
  6. + TypingFair16 devs · median $1.2k · 9 announced
  7. + DwarvesFair7 devs · median $1.0k · 10 announced
  8. + Dynamic NarrationFair13 devs · median $899 · 16 announced
  9. + Farming SimFair12 devs · median $897 · 10 announced
  10. + SolitaireFair25 devs · median $479 · 22 announced
  11. + LGBTQ+Fair20 devs · median $479 · 21 announced
  12. + PuzzleFair282 devs · median $449 · 311 announced

All 226 pairs on the Tactical page

Plate 7 · comparable specimens, by est. revenue

Comparable games

Tales of Maj'Eyal 2013 · $1.3M Tangledeep 2018 · $483k Approaching Infinity 2025 · $390k Rogue Fable III 2021 · $217k Endgame of Devil 2023 · $202k
Capsule Game Released Price Reviews Est. copies Est. revenue Developer
Tales of Maj'Eyal older $6.99 6,320 94% 190k $1.3M (exactly $1,325,304) Netcore Games
Tangledeep older $14.99 1,075 82% 32k $483k (exactly $483,428) Impact Gameworks
Approaching Infinity $17.99 723 95% 22k $390k (exactly $390,203) IBOL
Rogue Fable III older $9.99 725 92% 22k $217k (exactly $217,282) Pixel Forge Games
Endgame of Devil older $6.99 964 88% 29k $202k (exactly $202,151) MiniWhale
Sproggiwood older $14.99 326 79% 9.8k $147k (exactly $146,602) Freehold Games
Rogue Fable IV · EA older $11.99 236 94% 7.1k $85k (exactly $84,889) Pixel Forge Games
Terra Randoma older $14.99 146 87% 4.4k $66k (exactly $65,656) Deniz K.
Lost in Prayer · EA $19.99 92 80% 2.8k $55k (exactly $55,172) Nine Dots Studio
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.
Silly Survivors $2.99 262 93% 7.9k $24k (exactly $23,501) DenaZ, SillyWorks
Lucha Chess · EA $8.99 60 86% 1.8k $16k (exactly $16,182) Jorge T.V.
Dice Dice Baby $4.99 78 88% 2.3k $12k (exactly $11,677) Nugget Games Studio
Dungeons of Freeport $7.99 28 89% 840 $6.7k (exactly $6,712) Funtime Electrics
Poker TD $9.99 19 63% 570 $5.7k (exactly $5,694) ViralCloud
Ricave $14.99 12 100% 360 $5.4k (exactly $5,396) Rogueatic Games

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