SHORT GAMES VS LONGER GAMES

Just cut them up into Acts, and make them each like full game into parts. Which is what I'm doing with
Dreamwalker.

Dream A Little Dream Pt.1/2. etc.

My current work: Amulet of Fate. Is both a short and a long game. You have 12 summons to collect, only 6 are needed for the story. The rest are optional. You have technically 10 areas to 'really' explore to finish the game. The other 15+ areas are simply there for extra content and other quest related stuff. So in reality, Amulet of Fate can be either a short game or a long game, however you want to slice it. As such, I'm implementing a New Game+ so those who rushed through it the first time, can keep a good majority of their work and go back and collect/explore everything else and even get to know/level up/try the other characters they neglected to use the first time around. So it all works out in the end.

From a developer's point of view I would probably prefer to work on a shorter game. Mostly because I am still a beginner and making a shorter game would increase the probability that I actually complete it. Focus would also be put on less things which could result in a higher quality game.

From a player's point of view, however, I enjoy long games more than short ones. Even more so when the game at some point feels like it's going to end, but continues on for an even longer amount of time. I have played some good short games though.

author=SorceressKyrsty
Long games are ok, but they take forever to make single-handedly, tend to take a while to test, and are harder to find bugs in. From a game-making perspective, that is- I think any game around 60+ hours is getting ridiculous on a commercial level. 20+ is the ridiculous and obscene on an amateur/indie level.

I still think 20 hours is somewhat short. I could buy that it's perhaps a "normal" length, for amateur games at least, but it's sure as hell not long. Sadly, the majority of the RPG Maker cesspool is made up of games that never got finished, or that the designer cut major content out of because they were tired of making it, or that just were never intended to be good games to begin with.

Obviously any sizable software is going to take a long time to make and a long time to test. That's something you expect going in. Any worthwhile game takes a few years to make.

There's really not much reason for an amateur game to be any shorter than a commercial game. I think of the main differences between amateur and commercial games as being graphics and sound. Not anything to do with the gameplay, except I guess to the extent that paying for professional testing affects the gameplay quality.

Medium length games for the win!

author=Versalia

author=LockeZ
There's really not much reason for an amateur game to be any shorter than a commercial game.

Is this why Vindication has 80 hours of gameplay?

I think Vindication is about 20 hours - well, that varies from person to person, but it's more or less the same length as the World of Balance in FF6. I'm sure the fact that my own game is that length is a big part of why I think it's a normal/acceptable length! I guess that's how personal bias works. Ha ha.

I actually wish it were longer, but I have to admit that at one point during my game creation, after losing months of work to a corrupted hard drive, I gave up and just tacked on an ending. So I guess that falls under "the designer cut major content out of because they were tired of making it," though I'm ashamed to admit it. Years later I got back into RPG Maker and recreated a lot of that lost content a second time (better, faster, stronger!), but the game still isn't as long as I originally planned. After getting back into it those years later, I only stopped a second time because I decided that 2K3 was no longer good enough, and that my other games were more worthwhile ways to spend my time. (I've been creating and adding to the same MUD for 8 years, and I'm now making an RMXP remakquel of Vindication.)

@eplilepswitch: If making a good game for the world to enjoy isn't a big enough benefit on its own, why do people make amateur games at all? If that's not a good enough reason to spend 2500 hours of work, why is it a good enough reason to spend 500 hours of work? It seems to me that if it's enough of a reason to spend a long time on the project, then it's enough of a reason to spend a longer time on the project.

I understand, I'm just wondering why/how those other people make games at all. I understand why they don't make long games. I just don't understand why they *do* make short games. Even a very short game is still a big time investment.

FYI, I was using 500 hours as my example of a short game, as that's about how long I think it would take to make a 2-4 hour long game. Maybe I am still overestimating people?