Word Length for a VN converted to hours read

[Meneil]

Hi all,

I've searched a little online but no luck so far, so I was hoping someone could help me out here. Basically I was wondering how long it takes for someone to read x amount of words. I've seen that short VNs usually last 2-10 hours, but how many words would be in it? That seems to depend on how fast people read and I'm not sure what the average would be.

I'm on a small team of friends right now and we're aiming to make a short VN, about 5-8 hours long. I was just wondering if anyone knows what word count I should be aiming for.

Thanks for reading~

[Destiny]

Rates of reading include reading for memorization (fewer than 100 words per minute [wpm]); reading for learning (100–200 wpm); reading for comprehension (200–400 wpm); and skimming (400–700 wpm). Reading for comprehension is the essence of the daily reading of most people. Skimming is for superficially processing large quantities of text at a low level of comprehension (below 50%).

(these numbers were taken from the Landerl test, made in Germany, a test to specify the reading ability for the PISA exams)

Since most players don't memorize what they read, don't learn with it, but also probably don't skim it too much, the average player will read about 300 words per minute.
So one hour would contain of 18.000 words.
So for a 5-8 hour game, you should have around 90.000 to 144.000 words.

Side note:
Things like dramatic moments, choices, short breaks for a intense moment, etc of course make a game longer, so you might use lesser words and still arrive at the hour you aim for.

[OokamiKasumi]

...I was wondering how long it takes for someone to read x amount of words. I've seen that short VNs usually last 2-10 hours, but how many words would be in it? I'm on a small team of friends right now and we're aiming to make a short VN, about 5-8 hours long. I was just wondering if anyone knows what word count I should be aiming for.

First of all, some of your definitions are off.
-- A short VN only lasts One Half of an hour, or less. The same size as a TV sit-com or cartoon.
-- Anything over an hour to play --the size of a full TV program, or an entire movie-- is a full size visual novel.

That seems to depend on how fast people read and I'm not sure what the average would be.

Actually, it depends on how much story text you have verses how much Game you have.

A visual novel with no mini-games, that takes roughly one hour to read has (on the average,) 10,000 words of story. This does NOT include coding.

However...!
-- Once you add a mini-game to a visual novel, you ADD reading time. In other words, however long it takes to play that mini-game is ADDED to the time it takes to read your story. So, if you want to keep to a certain time-limit, (say, One Hour,) you'll need to subtract your mini-game's time from your text/reading time. In other words; cut the Story to allow for the mini-game.

Why does 'how much time it takes' matter?
-- Because you are working with the average gamer's Attention Span, which is the same as the average TV-Watcher's attention span --> divided into Half-Hour, action-packed increments.

Never Forget:
When the player gets bored, they stop playing.

Just to add to the frustration, there are a great number of Visual Novel players (such as myself,) that prefer Story over Game. In other words; mini-games are a distraction; i.e. something to get through quickly to get back to the story. If the mini-game is too hard, I will stop playing the game--never to pick it up again.

So the real question is:
-- How long can your Visual Novel hold a player's attention?

What can you put into your VN that will catch and keep the attention span of someone who gets bored in 1/2 hour increments?

• Pretty pictures?
• An engaging story?
• Catchy music?
• Jump-scares?
• 10 minute puzzles?

Think carefully before you answer.

[gekiganwing]

VNDB definition of "short": 2 - 10 hours. It's not clear, but I think that's referring to total reading time (every path and ending).

You can make your story / game as short or long as you want. Compared to writing for TV or comics, you're not too restricted with time. If you want to include lengthy scenes of dialogue, infodumping, or description, you can. Should you? Well, that's your choice...

[Greeny]

You don't want to go too long either. Most novels aren't over 90.000 words, and they can tell their story just fine.

Too much, you risk diluting your storyline.

Not to mention, minigames aren't the only thing that add to reading speed. Just the fact that there are visuals makes a difference, as well as the need to click to continue.

[Meneil]

Thanks all for the responses. I also got some helpful PMs about it. I probably should have mentioned, but this is more for project scope planning than an exact hard number to nail.

I've done some traditional writing before, but I'm trying to adapt to VN writing - so although there are some descriptive points, I'm trying to let the art and sound lead the experience as well, which means my scenes are generally much thinner than what I normally write. And like Greeny mentioned, I wasn't sure how much time to add since text is spaced out, with visuals, and clicking time.

Thanks again for the help all!