Vertical Slice: A Game Dev Story

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Vertical Slice: A Game Dev Story

Short description

From nobody to famous game producer in 3 years: that’s the journey you will live! Experience the trials and tribulations of game development in this life simulation game: live through the process of founding a small team and learning how to work together to develop a successful game.

Developer
DarkKnight
Publisher
2P Games
Release
Thu, Jun 24, 2021
Price
$9.99
$1.49
85%
best price ever
Reviews
288
Positive
66%
Followers
1,264
Owners (estimated)
0 – 20K
Concurrent players
n/a
Genres
Indie, Simulation, Strategy
Tags
Simulation Cute Story Rich Singleplayer Casual Life Sim Time Management Management Visual Novel Dating Sim Anime Comic Book Survival Drama Emotional Funny Game Development Romance Economy Capitalism
Revenue (estimated, gross)~$123ksomewhere between $55k and $190k · roughly 6K–20K copies

Review count and SteamSpy's owner range agree well enough to narrow the estimate down to this band. Multiplied by $9.48, the average price these copies actually sold for — weighted from the price history rather than taken from the $9.99 launch price. That is 5% below list price on average. Before Steam's cut, VAT and refunds. How these numbers are calculated.

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History

2 data points since Aug 19, 2026. Gaps mean nothing changed — the value carries forward.

Revenue (est.) ~$123k → ~$123k
Reviews 288 → 288
Followers 1,263 → 1,264
Price $9.99 → $1.49
Positive reviews 66.0% → 66.0%

The revenue curve is an estimate, not a measurement. It is the only calculated series here: each interval takes the review growth of that period, multiplies it by the sales-per-review factor and by the price actually charged at the time, and adds the result to the running total. That is why it climbs more slowly through discount periods than the review curve next to it. The last point is the same figure quoted above — gross, before Steam's cut, VAT and refunds. How these numbers are calculated.

The blurred area is the rest of the history. 159 further data points reach back to Feb 1, 2021 — your plan shows the last 90 days of it. How far each series in particular reaches is written on its own chart; not every one of them goes back that far. The shape in the blurred area is decoration, not data: the figures are not in this page at all. Plus unlocks the complete series.

Lowest recorded price: $1.49 on Oct 20, 2025. That is the current price.

How crowded is this niche?

How full the niche around Vertical Slice: A Game Dev Story is — measured on the tags it leads with, against every other combination on Steam.

±?? Simulation + Cute + Story Rich

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Similar games that found an audience

Games sharing at least 3 of this title's leading tags, with enough reviews to have gone somewhere. Ranked by how much they overlap, not by how big they are. − missing and + extra mark the tags each one does not share with Vertical Slice: A Game Dev Story. Studio counts the titles that developer has released — the closest thing to production scale that public data allows. It is not a budget, and nobody publishes those.

Image Name Studio Shared Tag difference Price Reviews Positive Released Revenue (estimated)
Youtubers Life Youtubers Life UPLAY Online 11 titles 4 − Cute − Story Rich + Management + Character Customization $19.99 13,746 78% Thu, Feb 02, 2017 $10.7m
$8.7m – $17.3m
Streamer Life Simulator Streamer Life Simulator Cheesecake Dev 14 titles 4 − Cute − Story Rich + Nudity + Sexual Content $19.99 7,057 78% Fri, Aug 21, 2020 $5.6m
$3.5m – $8.8m
School Days School Days 白雨工作室 2 titles 4 − Cute − Singleplayer + Early Access + RPG $14.99 5,899 77% Wed, Jan 28, 2026 $2.2m
$1.3m – $2.2m
Cinnabunny Cinnabunny Reky Studios 3 titles 4 − Story Rich − Singleplayer + RPG + Family Friendly $24.99 405 96% Wed, Feb 19, 2025 $440k
$196k – $483k
Tiny Life Tiny Life Ellpeck Games 2 titles 4 − Cute − Story Rich + Relaxing + Sandbox $14.99
$11.24
25%
best price ever
340 88% Wed, May 03, 2023 $221k
$98k – $289k

There are more like this. Your plan shows the 5 closest neighbours; Plus and Pro show up to 100 — enough to see the shape of a niche instead of a sample of it.

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