HOUSEKEEPING'S PROFILE

Yeah, two years, I KNOW.

I can tell where the shorter-is-better philosophy is coming from, though. I think for a lot of people here, the idea is either to earn your chops or build up an audience that could potentially support a commercial project. You can do that a lot faster by making solid quality games that are shorter, and people are generally more likely to pick those up because of the short time commitment. Like you, Addit, I wanted to do a riff on the epic RPGs of my childhood; I just didn't outgrow it.

Also, earlier in the thread Lockez mentioned that an RPG's length isn't dictated by its story. I disagree with that to an extent. Early RPGs were obviously not designed around the story, but even many SNES RPGs seemed to be designed around the story--FF6 and Chrono Trigger both stick out as being story-forward. When I made my game, too, I started with a story outline and built gameplay variances around it rather than starting with gameplay ideas and building the story around that. Whether I succeeded or failed is still up to the jury, I guess, so whether or not this philosophy holds any water has yet to be seen.

Personally, though, if I connect with characters, I prefer to stay with them for the long haul. Short games are a good way to get a quick audience and keep them engaged for the duration of the game, but short games are also much less memorable for me. It's the same thing with short stories vs. novels. A good short story can be impactful and have well-rounded characters, but a good novel will still have those things and can introduce a much greater level of complexity. They're both great forms that have a purpose, but, generally, society remembers and cherishes novels.

So, I guess all this is to say that you can add me to the "long games are fine" column. For me, boring gameplay is definitely going to hurt a long game, but, then again, I've played an MMO for years that has very little gameplay variance, and it keeps my interest just from slow progression and the friends I have on there. Likewise, an rpg with a good cast of characters and a sense of progression might be all I need to pull me through to the end. Obviously a GREAT game will do more than that, but that's all I need at any rate.

author=thatbennyguy
Wow. That's fantastic. Congrats all. I'm especially happy for God of the Crawling Eyes, which is an absolutely fantastic first game. I'm jealous.

Well, I guess I should say that that wasn't my FIRST game. My first complete game was A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky, which I just uploaded to the site yesterday. Actually, now that I think about it, my first complete game was a very, very crappy dungeon explorer I made forever ago on the Playstation version of rpg maker, but no one will ever see that embarrassing part of my past. NO ONE.

Anyway--I'm just glad The God of Crawling Eyes got so much attention. Horror's definitely a fun genre to work with.

Make sure that you're running by holding shift. The boulders also hit that break in the stairs and "hop" over you, so you can walk up to that point safely.

I also abstained from voting because I was in the contest, but, yeah, these numbers suck. I think the big barriers to voting were the hidden poll and the huge amount of contest entries. Wouldn't it make more sense to have, like, a top five or so (as selected by the judges) with a link to a forum topic/poll on the main page?

author=SnowOwl
I need closure.

Look, some of us may be checking this site fifty times a day, but...

I could have sworn there was a second half to that sentence.