Game length

[Enerccio]

What is your opinion for game length? (Not in time but in word or screen count)

Likey
a.) for fan game
b.) for NaNoReNo entry
c.) for semi professional game
d.) for professional

well idont know for myself but i think:
a - 500-600 screens
b - 100-500 screens
c - 1500-2000 screens
d - 6000 screens or more

[DaFool]

I prefer time.

Screens...NVL screens? ADV screens? Textboxes? Or number of backgrounds? It could vary depending on font.

At least with time, you only have wordcount and fast reader / slow reader.

[PrettySammy09]

I like games that are least a half an hour long, but only if they've got the content to back up the time. A really good fifteen minute game with action packed content is a lot better than an hour long game that really has nothing to offer.

So for me:

30mins+

is my preference.

[mikey]

I prefer time.

Hmmm, same with me. I count my game length in plain text bytes, but then I play it through and always estimate playtime.

So, to answer the question at least partially, for me generally 6+ hours (4+ for one full path) is professional - meaning if I buy a game for a full price and get less than that much playtime, I'll consider myself ripped off.

I like games that are least a half an hour long, but only if they've got the content to back up the time. A really good fifteen minute game with action packed content is a lot better than an hour long game that really has nothing to offer.

I agree here - musical74 nicely called this "filler text", the sort of meaningless conversations and wordy descriptions that make the game longer, but don't make the story better.

[chisa-chan]

I prefer the game that has minimum playing time around 40 minutes. If it refers to word count, I prefer 38,000+ words since I'm a quick reader

[musical74]

=)


I like a game to flow continuously, without pointless dialouge. If you can pack a game into 20 minutes, do so...I haven't really run into the filler text problem with all of you here...most of the time it's an issue with commercial games (now THAT'S weird...homemade games are better than commercial ones in regards to filler text!)

I'd say about 30-40 minutes minimum playing time for a game for me. There have been games that take less time that do well for me though =)
So long as everything makes sense and it's not *we need to stick X in so the game will be longer* I've happy.

[Scout]

I've been kinda worrying about the length of my NaNo project as I've gone along. I'm still pretty uncertain of what at all would consist of a good length.

Time's probably the best means of measuring, but I read really, really quickly, and I'm not sure what a normal reading speed is actually like, so I don't really know how to figure out how long anything actually is.

What's a good way of figuring out what an hour long game or whatever even means?

[monele]

Run the Lint thingie for Ren'py (if you're using it) and look at the word count. Otherwise, try to get the word count out of your script yourself. And hm... there was a post which gave a word count/time ratio at some point ô_o

[dizzcity]

For fast readers, 1000 words = 3 minutes. (Fast readers read generally around 300 words per minute)
For slow readers, 1000 words = 5 minutes. (Slow readers read 200 words per minute or less)

If you want an hour-long game aimed at fast readers, you'll need to write 20,000 words.

Oh, and you can try this online reading speed test to find out how fast you read.

-Dizzy-

[chronoluminaire]

If you want an hour-long game aimed at fast readers, you'll need to write 20,000 words.

*boggle*
I'd been figuring that my NaNoRenO project would be an hour-long play at most, but... *points to wordcount in sig*
That counts "stage directions" like "show Yurika smiling at centre", but not any other Ren'Py code, so it's going to be >90% of those words that are visible to the player... O.O
(Although not on any one playthrough, of course. But still, the paths aren't that disjoint... gosh, this game may be longer than I thought )

[Enerccio]

[quote="dizzcity"]For fast readers, 1000 words = 3 minutes. (Fast readers read generally around 300 words per minute)
For slow readers, 1000 words = 5 minutes. (Slow readers read 200 words per minute or less)

If you want an hour-long game aimed at fast readers, you'll need to write 20,000 words.

Oh, and you can try this online reading speed test to find out how fast you read.

-Dizzy-[/quote
i got 436...

[Scout]

Thanks a lot, Dizzy, that is very helpful. I think I'm probably doing well-- and it's nice to actually have an idea of what a normal person reads at.

And proving why I can't objectively figure out length, it turns out? That test says that I read at around 1000 wpm. Yikes, no wonder I have to force myself to read slower with visual novels...

[Mirielle]

I got 1106 wpm on that test and 73% comprehension.

...But I've taken a speed reading course before, so it was nothing new.

[frumplstlskn]

I got 100% comprehension and only 346 wpm reading at my regular pace which isn't as fast as I can read. That's is apparent by my comprehension. If I were reading at my fastest possible pace, my comprehension would be looower.

[chronoluminaire]

Surely overall WPM isn't the best measure for a visual novel, anyway? Because the medium splits "paragraphs" over several screens, often quite a number of them. (This is all assuming it's not NVL-mode.)

You can "slow down" a piece of text by splitting each of the sentences across a user-interaction (click or keypress), or "speed it up" by putting them all in the textbox at once. So the WPM rate is going to be slowed down when reading a visual novel.