Imports game sales from Steam, Apple, Google, and itch.io to automate revenue-share waterfalls, advance recoupment tracking, and contributor statements for indie studios and small publishers; $99–$299/mo SaaS. · Game Studio Finance
DEAD SLOW · CAUTIOUS
5.6 ShipScore / 10
Productized SaaS is the strongest point; unproven demand in a small niche is weakest.
Condition: At least 5 small publishers or studios managing advances must confirm they would pay $99+/mo to replace spreadsheet waterfalls.
Part I — The Verdict what the instruments read
01 — The ShipScore breakdown
Control
6
Four sales sources plus CSV fallback; no single store can fully cut access.
Entry barriers
5
No tracked game-recoupment rival; the moat is connector depth and contract-logic trust.
Need
5
Unproven: no Reddit signals, near-zero X chatter, and tracked rivals are unrelated.
Global, but limited to indie studios and publishers with rev-share deals.
What the five commandments measure
C — Control
Do you own the customer, or does a gatekeeper stand between you and revenue?
E — Entry
How hard is this to copy once it works? A rival's existence isn't the question — the durability of their advantage is.
N — Need
Is demand proven with money rather than vibes?
T — Time
Can income detach from your hours, or did you buy yourself a job?
S — Scale
How far does it reach without linear cost?
Scored on the evidence below, against CENTS as we've adapted it plus a Buffett-style moat reading of every rival — the same referee for every idea, including the ones we generate ourselves. The verdict follows the arithmetic: we never relabel a score to make it read better, and the weakest commandment is always named. The exact rubric stays in-house so the scale can't be written for.
02 — The pace test — $1M/yr
At $149/mo (assumed category price), you need 560 subscribers for a $1M/yr pace.
Accuracy errors in money statements destroy trust and invite disputes.
Studios may stick with spreadsheets or accountants rather than pay $99+/mo.
06 — Kill switches — what kills this with one decision
Steam partner financial API access — Valve restricting third-party financial data access would remove the core import, forcing manual CSV uploads.
Apple/Google reporting API changes — Breaking report formats or credentials would stall automated imports for mobile studios.
Part III — The Plan if you insist on proceeding
07 — What this scan can't tell you
The corpus contains no game-finance rivals, so true competitive density is unknown.
It cannot gauge how many indie studios actually carry publisher advances or contributor splits.
It cannot verify whether publishers already use internal or ERP tools for recoupment.
Scores judge the market and business model — not your ability to execute. Verified MRR = independently tracked revenue; reviews/upvotes = platform-reported. Judged 2026-10-04.
08 — The wedge & the next step
Small indie publishers juggling 5-30 titles with advances, who need contributor statements without hiring royalty accountants.
Cheapest next step: DM 20 indie publishers on Discord or LinkedIn offering to convert one title's spreadsheet into an automated statement, and pre-sell at $149/mo.
Not quite it? Spin the model
Business-model variations of this idea, engineered to beat 5.6 — different vertical, audience, model, or wedge. Same harsh scale. Pro feature.
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Close — but conditional. Every morning the engine files one mined gap, scored on the same harsh scale as this one. Free at 7am AEST, unedited.
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