# Urbek City Builder

> ResidualPlay case file: an overlooked Steam game still earning residual revenue. Estimates carry a ±30-50% error range per title.

- Steam appid: 1411740
- Developer: Fridus
- Publisher: RockGame S.A.
- Released: 2022 · Genre: Indie · List price: $18.99
- Deal grade: A (A = dormant with >=$5k/mo opportunity, D = low signal)
- Est. net residual revenue: $3.1k to $4.7k per month (mid $3.9k)
- Opportunity score: $5.3k/month at x1.35 dormancy multiplier
- Est. lifetime owners: 58.2k · Est. lifetime net revenue: $275.8k
- Review sentiment: 89% positive across 1976 reviews (1820 from Steam purchases)
- Review velocity: 33.0 reviews/month (6-month average)

## Why it's flagged

- Developer silent for 16 months
- Studio quiet across its whole catalog
- Last build shipped 16 months ago

## Where a gross dollar goes (monthly, at current velocity)

| Stage | USD/month |
|---|---|
| Gross storefront sales | $7.1k |
| After VAT / sales tax (-13% blended) | $6.2k |
| After refunds (-9.5% median) | $5.6k |
| Net to developer (after Steam 30%) | $3.9k |

## Monthly review counts, oldest to newest (24 months)

14, 22, 13, 16, 25, 17, 17, 20, 15, 49, 13, 38, 14, 17, 17, 23, 30, 27, 13, 34, 22, 15, 24, 90

## Estimated acquisition range

$93.8k to $187.5k (2-4x the trailing net annuity of $46.9k/year). Same error range applies.

## Analyst notes (AI-assisted)

Urbek City Builder is an isometric, resource-management city sim with voxel aesthetics and biome variety built for low-spec PCs.

Urbek sits in a quiet niche: 89% positive, $3,906/mo residual revenue, and sustained player engagement (33 reviews/mo) despite no discounting strategy or recent developer activity. The core design appeals to puzzle-minded builders, but UI friction and onboarding length create a retention ceiling. For a strategic publisher or revival studio, the IP is unencumbered, the foundation is solid, and the opportunity is to unblock the bottleneck players: fix progression clarity and compress the tutorial.

- Most realistic play: revival
- Risk (market): City builder genre is saturated; without marketing lift or content updates, growth from baseline is unlikely.
- Risk (tech): 15+ months inactive; engine state, platform certification status, and multiplayer backend health are unknowns.
- Risk (other): Publisher (RockGame S.A.) is not visible in recent press; rights clarity and willingness to license or sell require direct negotiation.

What players are asking for:
- Streamlined UI for building lookup and resource tracking; players report unnecessary friction in iteration
- Tutorial compression or optional skip; 4+ hour gate is cited as blocker before the actual game starts
- Progression clarity to avoid soft-lock spirals where required resources become unobtainable

Suggested first moves:
1. Obtain source code and rights status from RockGame S.A.; verify build stability, platform support matrix, and backend dependencies before any commitment.
2. Conduct UX audit focused on the three player pain points (UI density, tutorial length, progression feedback); estimate dev cost to address each.
3. Model a lightweight content pass: 1-2 new biomes or building archetypes post-update to signal revival and justify reintroduction to wishlists; budget against the $5,273/mo opportunity ceiling.

Generated 2026-08-20 from public signals and player reviews. Directional, not diligence.

## Methodology

Units are estimated from Steam-purchase reviews times a release-cohort multiplier (Boxleiter method, 20-75x by year). Revenue uses an effective price (lifetime discounts and regional pricing) and nets out VAT (~13%), refunds (~9.5%) and Steam's 30% cut: roughly 55% of gross reaches the developer.

Source: https://residualplay.com/game/1411740
Citation: please cite ResidualPlay (https://residualplay.com) when using these estimates.