How many hours of play?

[Xaeyr]

So my recent "999 maps?" post has raised another question...when you are designing a game, do you have a certain number of hours of play time in mind? And if so, how many hours? 10 hours of play? 20? 50?

 

[bgillisp]

So my recent "999 maps?" post has raised another question...when you are designing a game, do you have a certain number of hours of play time in mind? And if so, how many hours? 10 hours of play? 20? 50?

Until it is done.

Seriously, that is my answer. I started the game with only a set story in mind, and whatever the play time is, is what it is. If that ends up being 5 hours, fine, if that ends up being 120+ hours, fine.

 

[Makio-Kuta]

Same as bgillisp. I never had a target amount of gameplay time in mind. I just write my game to do what I need it to, and the time clock can be whatever it wants to support that.

 

[Kes]

Same here.  It takes as long as the game requires.

I don't think that one can take length of game play as a serious objective.  If you're running short of that time, do you just put in padding to bloat the time until it reaches your target?  If you're running over time, do you cut your story so as to stick to the limit?  You only have to ask the questions to see the problems.

 

[Indinera]

I have an overall idea, in general. Short, 10 hours, mid-sized, 20-30 hours, big from 40 to whatever length that fits the magnitude of the game.

 

[Xaeyr]

I don't think I'd really have a target time in mind, but some point I'd probably ask myself "Is this getting too long?"

 

[Fernyfer775]

I'm with Bgillisp. There was no real thought on how long my game would be, I just wanted to get the story out there and then let everything else fall into place. After all is said and done, my game looks like it'll average 15-20 hours depending on if the player wants to do the side quests or not.

 

[Dragnfly]

Until it is done.

Seriously, that is my answer. I started the game with only a set story in mind, and whatever the play time is, is what it is. If that ends up being 5 hours, fine, if that ends up being 120+ hours, fine.

bgillisp speaks much wisdom. "It's done when it's done and it's as long as it is long." If it's too long or feels rushed, by testers will tell me. Not like can clock playtime properly now anyway. According to my save file I've been playing Chrome Wolf for... 73:41 hours. I haven't. There's a whole lot of leaving the game on when I'm doing laundry, making food or even going shopping. I'd say don't worry about hard numbers with playtime. Everyone will clock different anyway. I just know one of my friends is going to break the 100 hours mark on my game just because he doesn't consider a game beaten until every is level 99 with maxed stats.

 

[bgillisp]

I'll admit I'm going from a little experience on that too. When I was 12 I had a DOS program that let me make an RPG, and I had just played a game that had a main world and an alternate world. So I thought I could one up it by making a game with TWO alternate worlds.

It was garbage.

I still have that game sitting somewhere on 5.25 inch floppies somewhere. Maybe its for the better that no one has the tech to run this game, as it probably belongs in the landfill by the ET cartridges. On the other hand, I did learn a lot from making that game, mainly that length or numbers of worlds =\= quality of the game.

 

[Dragnfly]

Bigger doesn't always mean better. Ask any porn star who's ever been with... nevermind. But yeah making a game short for the sake of short or long for the sake of long is just going to ruin your overall quality. Xenogears and Rhapsody were both very enjoyable to me and are polar opposite durations

One of my projects which might some day get made (but likely not, and certainly not in RM) is a space opera. Factions factions and more factions, enough characters to make the Touhou cast stare blankly and more twists and sudden deaths than a roller-coaster covered in chainsaws. But even being a space opera doesn't mean it needs to be long. That's just usual the nature of the beast. But it'll be as long as it needs to be to tell it's tale.

 

[EatYourBeetS]

I'm still making my first game(10% after one month), I've planned for it to last about 15-20 hours with a lot of replayability, up to six different storylines(so around 40 hours when played fully). Considering this is my first game I think I will spend a lot of time with minor tweakings.

My general idea of game duration is 3-5 hours for short games, 10-20 for average games, 40+ for long games, not counting replayability(which can by all means be 0).

 

[Wavelength]

It differs somewhat by the type of game.  My current project is going to clock in at about 2 hours of play time in the main adventure (compare with literally thousands of hours spent making it), with the potential for a lot of replayability.  I initially aimed for a longer adventure, but found that to keep things at the level of novelty, detail and quality that I think players deserve, it's not worthwhile to make the game too long.  It's better to sacrifice length than to sacrifice quality.

One of that game's core qualities, though, is that everything is a new experience fundamentally different than what came before.  Not all games need this.  For a game where a lot of content equates to variations on the same theme, and more content doesn't require building it all from the ground up, I think anywhere from 5 to 20 hours is a good target, ideally somwhere in the middle of that range.  Below 5 hours, it can be hard to tell a complete story (although great storytellers can do it in less than 5 and heavily gameplay-focused games don't need to tell a big story anyhow).  Beyond 20 hours, you're likely to wear on your player's patience unless your storytelling or gameplay are incredibly compelling.

 

[lolshtar]

I have noticed that on my prologue, new players tend to take over 4 hours to complete it while an experienced player can take only 1 hour.

The duration of a game always change for each player so it's hard to tell how long a game will usually take.