Length in games

[Volcan]

When I read Medium (30 mins-1 hr) to complete a game, does it mean the game needs 30 mins-1 hr to complete from begining to the end or the time of the player to complete unless he knows what's to do?

[Chicky]

Good question, i would imagine it's the length of the game on a first playthrough, point and click are typically quite short so i guess the time makes sense for an indie title.

This is why i plan to have a 10 hour intro cutscene, with no skip

[selmiak]

Tactical Espionage Adventure with thousands of lines of codec conversation... I would so play this! 

And yes, the time is for the first playthrough. If you don't screw up badly that is ...

[Volcan]

I can see that:

Daikatana: the adventure game



With 10 hours of intro, we need gems to save your game, 72 hours in cutscenes.




Wait! This is a serious question. It's not supposed to be funny.

[Squinky]

Dude, someone needs to make a game that has a crazy long intro, like 15 minutes or something. Then you get control of the character, solve one puzzle and watch a 10 minute ending

[Andail]

The game length in the database should be the time it takes for someone who knows how to beat the game, but doesn't skip every dialogue or take other short-cuts. Like the let's-play runs you'd find on youtube, or similar. Never truly stuck, but not stressing.

You can't measure it by the first attempt a player makes, since getting stuck just once may consume hours and hours.

[Mati256]

I will make Das Boot: The Adventure Game, 4 hours of doing nothing, and then you die.
Seriously tough, 1h is pretty good in my opinion but a commercial AGS game might take a lot more than that.

[Vince Twelve]

Dude, someone needs to make a game that has a crazy long intro, like 15 minutes or something. Then you get control of the character, solve one puzzle and watch a 10 minute ending

You just summarized my game, Anna.  15 minute intro, less than 15 minutes worth of puzzles.  The ending's pretty short, though!

[Squinky]

Hmmm, I missed that one while I was off impregnating supermodels these last few years. I accept your shameless plug and am downloading now

[Jared]

Dude, someone needs to make a game that has a crazy long intro, like 15 minutes or something. Then you get control of the character, solve one puzzle and watch a 10 minute ending

To the shame of its developers, Space Quest : Vohaul Strikes Back ended up with a 30 minute intro sequence. Unfortunately their was actual content inbetween the 30 minute intro and the 10 minute ending. Maybe there should be a special Squinky Edit?

[Slasher]

Well,

How long does it take to complete a game?

Depends on the person playing it...

To say a game can be completed in 30 mins, 1 hour etc etc is it presumed to be aimed at experienced game players who just seem to know what to interact with and can see things that novice users fail to see immediately.

Dude, someone needs to make a game that has a crazy long intro, like 15 minutes or something. Then you get control of the character, solve one puzzle and watch a 10 minute ending

That's a sure-fire way of killing a game 

So game time should be like: How long will it take you to complete this game?

One could of course run a game timer at start and show timer at the end of the game which would show how long it took to complete the game that inst. One could screen capture and post it and if it's the shortest time you win a SUPER DUPER prize