You meant something like MC’s side got 3 persons , enemies got 5 bandits … so when the combat start, it will generates result automatically like , you got hit and -3 hp, your RO got hit and suffer -5 hp… then your 2nd RO manage to kill 2 bandits in round 1 ? hehehe… yupe i know it can be done and fun to play with :-)
can’t wait to play your game in future … i love accompanying potential ROs to an adventure :-)
I think the failed to tie up loose ends/abrupt ending problem isnt about low word count it’s a middle act problem. A lot of games get the 2nd act wrong. They have an overly long first act then an abrupt pivot to the ending. I blame sandbox thinking (doesn’t work imho).
Do people really only play them once or twice? I think I’ve played through the Way Walker series upwards of 20 times, the Infinity Series a similar amount, Study in Steampunk would probably be nearing its 15th play through. Idk maybe it’s cos I’m a bit of a min/maxer, but it seems odd to only go through them once or twice
Yes there are people who play some of the games only one or two times. I´m one of those. My time ist very limited, at least it feels this way. So between work, my family, household chores and hobbies, I don´t have much time hanging on the smartphone, I usually play while on the bus, goingto work, or at night, when I´m trying to sleep. So unless a game is really wonderful, for me( like Wayhaven chronicles)I would play most games only until I got every romance, or game option I wanted to reach. This is one or two playthroughs per normal game( I don´t like playing evil or selfish, so these paths don´t interest me). If I had enough time, I might play more often.
Just seems odd to me, to each their own though
Just to chime in here from across the pond.
At first I used to buy almost every game but after being disappointed a few times I’ve become very critical of what games I buy and which I pass up. I think I’ve went down from 100% purchase rate to maybe 20%?
Now I work full-time so it’s not a question on being able to afford it or not. It’s a question of if I believe the game is worth my money. (For example, I enjoyed Wayhaven Chronicles and Fallen Hero: Rebirth so much that I would’ve gladly played double for it. And their sequels are a instant-buy for me.)
My main reasons for this were inconsistencies in quality. Increased cost for people in Europe, games often cost me 33-50% more then that they cost for people in America. And that I’m also one of the people that mostly plays a game once. Maybe I revisit it again months later, but repeatedly playing through a story I already know to try and get a different ending or read a few different scenes isn’t fun to me.
Now if there was consistent quality then I wouldn’t mind. But there simply isn’t and a few times I’ve felt like I’ve wasted my money.
And thus I’ve become critical about what I buy and pass up. I look to genre, the writer, the quality of the text and how the writer defines choices. A high wordcount often means the story is longer which I enjoy, and for me personally certainly contributes to convincing me to buy a game. And if most of the stars align then I purchase it.
And how could it be constant quality in books made for more than 30 people most of them amateurs and In hosted doesn’t have an editor?
Also constant quality is something subjective. I could consider something of great quality as I can replay and playing lots of different stories and for someone else who doesn’t want to replay Game will be perceived as short and less quality.
Life of Aether ,for instance is a great success and claimed to be a great game and it is, but subjective for me is not. It is probably one of the games books I like less in the catalogue. And that doesn’t make it bad quality.
You are completely right. Quality is subjectieve. Yet there are still a handful of games on here that are almost universally loved by everyone.
Quality is subjective only partially. As several components are objective measurable. As syntax, grammar, style, plotting estructure and stat design. That’s something that Cog and Hosted authors could get better with forum help.
@Samuel_H_Young Sorry to bring your first demo of Demon hunter back here again lol. 
But I think is one of clear example of how forum can help an author to improve their work.
He improved a lot partially, because forum people told him his verbose prose could be a problem…
Return to topic in Hosted author are mostly amateurs, with not edition It is impossible maintain a coherent whole quality when genres, lenth, style authors and polishing is so different. It is what makes catalogue unique. If not all would be Standard like other companies that you read one story about witches and other about vampire and you really realize that is same exactly thing with different names. I really prefer uniqueness even if sometimes you bought something you don’t like all you want.
Agreed.
On that note, I really like the itch.io system of ‘pay at least this, but you can pay more if you would like to’.
For me, to buy anything below 100k words would be a no-no unless I know the author and/or the demo is to my liking as, other than that I’d expect the game to be too linear or short and thus leave me unsatisfied.
True, but it’s free. That does kind of influences purchase habits.
Looking at this, I literally don’t know why I bother.
Hopefully because your story would be fun as IF.
Seriously though, I always see people getting discouraged on these threads (not just blathering at Hazel or about the wordciunt thread TBH…) and I don’t think this kind of broad spectrum market poll should make or break it for anyone.
Yes, if you’re commercializing, be aware that you’ll lose sales by going “off-brand”: not including common mechanics, making the game significantly shorter than average, trying a different type of game entirely… Of course it sucks and is frustrating but that’s the logical result of publishing with a company that has an established fan base. We’re all here because XYZ was fun about a game and we want something similar. We’ve, conversely, had bad experiences with NMO in games so we’ll be wary.
That’s something to keep in mind, but the only way to functionally change that is to publish enough games under the CoG/Hosted titles that are markedly different from the current model, so that more people who like THOSE mechanics will want to come in. (I’m honest on here: I won’t buy games that lack specific mechanics or writing flow. But that doesnt mean others won’t play it. You just need to be the one to draw them here, kicking and screaming)
But honestly focus on the “why” aspect when people gripe on these. Instead of “people won’t play games under 150k. Crap I need to add 80k or I won’t sell” focus on the concerns people have–is your game paced well enough? Does it have a reasonable amount of branching? Is it experimental and does something else entirely and therefore doesn’t need 200k to give a worldbuilding experience? If the answer is no, then maybe do some rewrites. If yes, you might not have to. And if unsure, post a WIP and ask us!
If you can get it to fit comfortably into the branding, that’s great and probably makes everything easier. But don’t avoid writing your story because it doesn’t fit a poll or the opinions of the pickiest of us.
Everything @catorrina said, which is all so great and eloquent! Also, forum-users represent a smaller-than-you-would-expect portion of COG’s market, and on top of that, the people voting in this thread represent an even smaller portion of that. Writers and artists can never please everybody, and catering a story entirely to the stated preferences of this tiny fraction isn’t necessary to sell well (or be happy with your work)! I would take everything said here with a grain of salt 
It’s fun to read the opinions of others and discuss, but I’m personally not letting it “affect” how I do anything!
Yes, but for all I see in market critics or in other nit related forums sadly word account is a part of that.
Even worse, I am Spanish and I always found someone who knows Cog Always whining about WHY IS NOT translated. I even had a small discussion in a direct video on YouTube.
Saying about How hateful are for not providing games in Spanish. … Blah blah a lot of entitled speech
My answer is always clear How much do you think it cost in hours and money? Not only writing it, in testing, editing it… Launching it.
Big games translated and edited even if for a semi professional people would be thousands and lot of time. Then How many people here Really bought games…
Answer is clear not enough. Choice of Dragon has sadly shown that.
Hispanic community in general are first in whining and last in buy games instead of piracy them.
With lengths are same people want more length but that means more money in making more time. But same time they criticized cost. You cannot have both author need an amount of money even if working on day jobs.
I am a very passionate and pessimist about the situation. Big publishers with get bigger and use copyright laws hard in websites and everything. While smaller will crunch due the market freemium policy.
It’s the same with portuguese speaking people too. Every time I go to the play store there’s someone complaining about it not being translated. 
I can’t imagine the amount of time and energy it would take to translate games like these. Just thinking about translating one of my short stories gives me a headache.
Yeah both Hispanic cultures Spanish and Portuguese are very similar in that regard. Then most of people who complain about haven’t paid a gamein their lives lol. Why don’t they shut up .
I understand it more when it comes to languages like spanish which are spoken in many countries. But I get annoyed when I see hungarians complaining about the same thing. Like come on, it’s just one small country where people speak hungarian they can’t seriously expect everything to get translated to hungarian…
In Germany it is the same.