Intimidated by Game Length

[catorrina]

There was a discussion on this awhile back:

Length of game influences buying?

I normally look through how games are doing on google, and I’m sometimes surprised to see that certain games that have a high rating see to be downloaded few times (even for themes that I thought would have been attractive). I wonder, is there a certain number of words below which you will not consider downloading/buying a game? poll

To summarize rougly what I said there, I’m explicitly not a fan of short games (<100k) because it’s a sign the game is very linear and lacking in the moments I look for.

I would suggest, however, writing the game at the length you think works, and getting feedback on it before you panic and scrap it, or talk yourself out of it (or pad it). I use length as a quick signifier of quality (in combination with other things), not length for the sake of being long. Maybe you’ll find some places to branch without any fuss. Maybe the game will work fine at its current length.