Length of game influences buying?

I prefer lengthy games, the bigger the word count the better - because in my mind that usually means an intricate story with branching paths and, with it, replayability and ability to roleplay. It also means the author went and poured their hearts into making something more elaborate rather than contenting themselves with meeting the bare minimum quota.

I know that it would have been wisest to cut their work into shorter sections and sell it like that, they’d make more money that way. But, as a customer, I prefer to get the most of it in a single product. I’m well aware of the fact that length doesn’t always translate to a good game, on the flipside, a short game doesn’t indicate it will be a masterpiece either. But I’ll take my chances with a lengthier game than a short one.

Also, the prices aren’t always equal to the number of words a game has. Tin Star has over 1 million words, costs 5$ on Steam. Meanwhile, we have more recent releases costing nearly as much (if not more) and most doesn’t even hit the 500k mark. With such a discrepancy, I’m going for the one that gives me the biggest bang for my buck.

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lI love Tin star and deserve all praise. However In real reading is not 3/4 of a million a BIG part of that word account is copy paste same paragraphs in lot of places. That makes word account BIGGG . The reason for that is new commands that make copy paste not necessary. This 500,000 would be near the 1,000,000 if the used obsolete coding that needed copy same text over nd over.

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it depends on the commands and where the copy pasting is I would say.
On that note, could someone (dan) maybe give a rundown of about when which function was added?
like when was

*if x
   text a
*if y
   text b

added making extra labels for bits of txt obsolete?
when was gosub added etc?

i remember the time before the gosub mssive use and before gosub_scene lol that’s super new. Having to use startup differently i feel old

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Well … in all fairness… Tin Star really feel like a complete life journey start from beginning till the end , there is no loose ends to anything and the missions are all well design with lengthy solution… most important is that there could be multiple branching, hence this is the experience which set Tin Star apart from others :slight_smile:

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It is, that’s the point. It is not the word account. Imagine that with the new coding techniques account is 600,000 or even less IT WOULDN’T CHANGE anything the game would be exactly same . But people in base only number would think less of it. Or give less note. Is something psychological. If you pick a Coca-Cola and put two bottles one with a fake cheap etiquette and give people a trial and choose the better people in a 90% said Coca-Cola was far vetter than the other even being the same.
Word account makes people assuming game is better and bigger an is more inclined to give better score is unconscious.

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I do agree with points made that Dragon is incredibly fast paced, and has a brilliant power theme that attracts many readers. In a sense, it also may explain why the Aether did so well despite its relatively limited word count (which basically goes against what the polls are saying). To be honest I thought it was a really good game (not sure what that says in terms of my liking of games… power fantasies… mmmm) Maybe for my next game I should try to use the blueprint of dragon… mmmm is there anywhere I can get the code from…

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Yes!
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Hmm. I think I’ll take my word back that the important factor is power fantasy.

It’s the resolution of the plot itself.

CoDragon is basically being a dragon that rules the kingdom. Though essentially the plot is resolved even before fighting the evil wizard, it’s just to add a spectacular epilogue through a high-stakes battle.

Tin Star is about ruling over a wild-west town (which I forgot the name, it seems) with a battle on the railroad as its spectacular epilogue. And then, depending on the player’s decision, they can choose to resolve the loose ends of the story.

Yup, nothing is left hanging out.

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That’s the beauty of Tin Star, Ruling the wild west town is not the only ending, we could become important Governor and rule other important city in America as well as to govern Mexico, or side with Uptons and control the American politic + Economy behind the curtain. i think we can even live a bandit life or retire somewhere :slight_smile:

But for me, the most important part is the opportunity to form a family of my own and live happily ever after :slight_smile:

Tin Star also detail our journey of events in a legacy , which we can re-read our choices that lead to different legendary outcome of ourselves , i especially love the Lightning Marshall Legacy :-):rofl:

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Choice of Games games are priced according to word count. Like that is literally the basis of their pricing.

Tin Star is a Hosted Game.

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There are some outliers, though, presumably according to how successful they are. Like Heroes Rise: The Hero Project a 100k word game being priced at $6.

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It’s not $6, it’s $3.99.

Whoops, I meant The Hero Project.

I can’t speak to the price of The Hero Project; but new games…virtually every game we’ve put out since I started, they’re priced by length. That may be the single game that is not.

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It seems to me that this discussion is becoming a circular argument with the same themes being recycled over and over.

To avoid this I suggest that if you have already stated your position, please take a short break and allow others to share their perspective too.

Please avoid repetitively hammering a single view without adding anything new.

We should also be careful about putting others on the defensive, I’ve noticed a change in tone in recent posts.

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Interesting bit here:
I think HR got cheaper after the release of OS?
Before HR2 and THP:RS where I think 7 bucks in europe, now they’re at 5, and I think they went from 6 to cheaper in $ as well?

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Just plotted the length of games (CoG only) against year… it seems that the trendline is hitting 300,000 already. Basically, the average of the length of the games seems to be increasing by around 50,000 words per year (which to be honest seems to be what I’m doing in my own games, Tokyo Wizard was ~150k, Highway Wars ~200k, and I think Birth of a Hero will be ~250k, as I’m already at around ~200 and I think I still have some way to go…)

image

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In saying that, is it the few outliers that are really skewing the data that way in 2017-18? Or is that wishful thinking on my part?

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With more things possible with the code (e.g. multireplace) and tools like CSIDE or Chronicler writing longer and more complex stories might have become a bit easier and a bit faster.

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