How long do you like your screens?

Game Development
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Whereas, some people play on laptops/computers and other people play on phones or tablets, and people play on a mix of different devices.

Whereas, even amongst mobile phones, screen sizes can vary.

Whereas, some players change the size of the text on the screen.

Whereas, “short” means that the narrative text and the choices text does not fill the entirety of your screen.

Whereas, “full” means that the narrative text and the choices text more or less fills your screen without any scrolling up/down necessary.

Whereas, “long” means that you have to scroll down to see the entirety of the narrative text and the choices text.

Whereas, nobody wants to see an excessively long “wall of text.”

Whereas, this question is directed towards players/readers.

I’d really love to hear all of your opinion on how much text you prefer to see on your screens, short, full, or long.

Do you prefer if all the screens are the same length?

Do you think that some scenes warrant an exemption? For example, a prologue scene might be better displayed as long but an action scene might be better displayed as short?

Or is it a fairly irrelevant issue to you, and what counts most is the quality of the story/game?

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I would say a “page”, options excluded, should not be longer than 200 words, on any device.

More and we enter “wall of text” territory.

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For reference, these are the threads where these ideas have been mooted before.

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Thanks!

It’s always interesting to see what the Grandparents had to say nine years ago (seriously - it’s a great link!), but I’d really love to hear what some of the newer players/readers have to say, especially since the majority of games are being read on phones now.

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Ha! Grandpa’s not objecting to the request for new discussion, but it’s worth noting that CoGs were mostly read on smartphones back in the good old days of 2012 too, kiddo. :slight_smile:

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I would say long. You of course have to make choices, and those choices must affect the story, and for that to happen a “Next” or “Continue” button is needed, however I rather enjoy a wall of text than 5-15 buttons moving pages along.

Next time you play a book, while youre inmersed in your character, imagine that whenever you find a button to go to the next page, a very loud, booming voice reads its content over your character. Like youre helping some doctors to treat some patients, and you decide to inject the patient with a vaccine, and suddenly you hear a booming “NEXT” or “CONTINUE” as if god is talking to you or something. It kills the immersion xD

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