I’m a little disappointed to hear that most consumers don’t replay, for the sake of the fact that I think the game I’m trying to make is supposed to have a lot of replayability 
6 Likes
I have a feeling that game stories are a bit like movies. Most of the time, it’s a one-and-done situation. But when you find one you really like, you might replay it 20 times or more!
16 Likes
Hey, I can’t possibly represent the whole player base, but with the games that I like, I tend to replay them at least 2-3 times initially, and then return to them occasionally. Not only CoG games, too. And not even for variety - I usually tend to make the same choices and even romance the same characters…
11 Likes
My game is 350,000, so that’s … uh … hmm. That’s not an option available in that poll. Anyway the perfect length is exactly 350,000 words. I have spoken.
15 Likes
For me it’s different. I tend to like a good playthrough length. A game can be 1 million words long but if the playthrough is like 30,000 words then I will feel like something is missing. Yes all the word count is buried in how replayable the game is… but for my one playthrough give me good 60 to 80 thousand word count
9 Likes
Word count problem can have different angles to be looked on. We can have pretty long game with almost no choices, or we can have shorter game with very different plot branches. I would prefer latter. But I think it should be balanced.
8 Likes
I think it should be a complete story nonetheless. Replayability doesn’t mean anything if the story doesn’t work as a story.
11 Likes
Oh my god, I managed to not include 300-400k. I am so sorry 
I thought I covered the full spectrum in my poll making but I should have had an editor. Thanks for the input!
2 Likes
I would totally agree.
Splitting also works but you have to be careful with that, leaving people hooked and bot disappointed with vague ending.
1 Like
Agreed. Plus, higher word count doesn’t always equal high word count playthroughs. On games with sequels, I tend to save my runs in a word document to get a general idea of my MC (and also to remind me how things went for them in my last run, though sometimes they don’t make the same choices again, for whatever reason). So it’s easy for me to see word counts–no code, just the word counts with the choices listed in the text, which adds a little to the word count but not much.
Here’s an example of overall word count vs word count for a playthrough:
The Soul Stone War, bk1: 487,000 words
Average playthrough for me: around 88,000 words
Wayhaven bk1: 440,000 words
Average run for me: between 74,000 and 76,000 words
Wayhaven bk2: 788,000 words
Average run for me: between 72,000 and 74,000 words
All three games are “complete” as far as I’m concerned, but vary in word count and playthrough. Sera has a tendency to repeat chunks of choices/dialogue in hers with maybe a word changed here or there (this is also due to how she codes), which is one big difference in her word count vs Morgan’s for TSSW. Book 2 of TWC also exploded due to the sheer number of branches, but the word count for a playthrough decreased by 1-2K overall. My N-route had the highest word count and my M-route had the lowest, so the story itself, and the depth of each romance (since that’s the major focus) is causing some variance in word count.
Anyway, my point is that I don’t think it’s fair to demand a specific word count of any author because, in the end, it doesn’t mean much, especially when you realize a game with over three-quarters of a million words has fewer words in a playthrough than a game with less than half a million words overall. The main question for me is, is it replayable? All three of the above mentioned games are extremely replayable for me, so word count doesn’t much matter as long as I’m getting a good story with some depth, meaningful interactions between the MC and NPCs, and the freedom to shape the MC to some extent, at least.
16 Likes
That is some good insight and data. You are a devoted reader to actually copy and paste your playthroughs, but I would agree that is the only way to really find out about how much words a playthrough really is.
I would also agree that wordcount per playthrough would vary and still offer replayability especially if you have different ROs and they each are written differently. Even some sub plot of the story can branch out and gives you a good replayability, too.
Overall totally agree with you.
5 Likes
personally, the only reason I can’t typically get down with games under 100k is the same reason I prefer series over films. If I really love a movie, I just never feel like I’ve had enough time in it—I don’t want it to end. On the flip side of that, if I end up disliking a movie or feeling neutral about it, I feel much more like my time was wasted.
it might also have something to do with… how to put this… If a short game has plenty of routes, this will inevitably mean more potential variations but shorter playthroughs. I don’t think I read all that fast (tho that could be wrong), so it’s not an issue of playtime for me—but I am a writer who tends to string together, like… 10 to 14k length chapters when I write. So anything around that will always feel extremely short to me in an unsatisfying way. I wouldn’t have an issue reading a short story of that length or shorter but I always want IF to feel longer than a short story. And then if a short game has longer playthrus, that p much always means less routes, may mean less impactful choices, and a more linear plot. Again, that’s fine for a traditional book for me… but that isn’t why I got into IF!
that being said, reading interactive fiction of at least 100k words is 100% a matter of my personal preferences. Certainly that number doesn’t determine the quality of a story or gameplay experience (and I find it slightly distressing that some portions of the ChoiceScript audience have come to expect giant stories more often than not). I just like to spend hours in a story or a world, especially if I’m playing in it. prob cus I’m a Gamer™️ and a glutton
4 Likes
consumers don’t replay… but fans and devotees do!
8 Likes
I am curious… how important is it to people that you actually play as one first person POV character you can customise and not anything else (eg multiple established characters with specific genders as part of a team who you all make decisions and stats for)? I do have some ideas in that vein…
- Essential
- Not essential
- Depends on the game
0 voters
1 Like
I put essential but there are a very few exceptions but they are in the major minority. I’d say especially with IF, a self insert in the story is very important to me. I like being able to fully immerse myself in the story and imagine events are actually happening to me, something you can’t do if the story has set characters. If I wanted to read about a pre-established character with a set name, gender, backstory etc. I’d most likely just pick up a regular novel, it’s just one of the reasons why I prefer the IF medium to regular stories. 
8 Likes
I’m working on a romance game with cast of 4 romance interests. Currently, I’m giving players four options to determine the gender of the ROs:
- Set all the ROs as the same gender.
- Choose the genders of ROs as you play.
- Randomise the genders of the ROs.
- Play with a set cast (the genders I had in mind for the ROs before making them gender-selectable)
However, I’ve seen some games that let players determine the cast’s genders based on their sexuality – if a player is attracted to women only, then all the ROs will be women. If a player is attracted to men and non-binary people only, then half of the ROs will be men, and the other half will be non-binary.
So, I was wondering: as a reader, which method of determining the gender of ROs do you prefer?
You prefer to…
- Choose to set all the ROs as the same gender
- Randomise the genders of all the ROs
- Choose the gender of ROs as you meet them
- Let the game decide the gender ROs based on your sexuality
- Play with a set cast of ROs with fixed genders
0 voters
1 Like
I prefer pre set RO’s I can’t control whats in peoples pants IRL, so I don’t like being able to choose for in the story. I know magic isn’t realistic either, but sex choosing takes me out of the experience. If it was pure romance, then I would be more open to it, but I mostly play these games to see what I’d do in these situations, or play as someone else. Choosing something I could not, isn’t something that I enjoy. So romance isn’t my genre of choice, but I definitely understand that if the whole point is romance, denying it to people isn’t worth it probably.
5 Likes
Wow, Im really in the minority here so far. I prefer pre-set but failing that I’d take random. The two lowest options lol
1 Like
If you had not said this, I would have voted for another option. I feel that authors who already decided on genders beforehand made it rather obvious in their writing because they don’t really account for it outside of pronouns. I know for myself that I tend to have this nagging feeling that I had “picked the wrong choice” while playing, so to speak.
So for this example specifically, I’ve picked “play with a set cast”.
7 Likes
Yeah I prefer ROs with set genders. I feel like your gender/the way you present yourself has a profound effect on who you are or the experiences you live. I also feel like certain ROs have genders that more accurately fit them. For example, I tend to prefer male ROs but sometimes I meet a character and I’m like…OK this character is clearly nonbinary coded and I’m really not about to change that.
If the ROs are gender selectable though, I prefer choosing as the story progresses.
2 Likes