Game Length

tim-cain game-design game-length short-games long-games replayability player-experience

Abstract

Problem: How long should a game be? Players increasingly debate the merits of short vs. long games, and developers need to decide what length to target.

Approach: Tim Cain examines the distinct advantages of both short and long games, rather than framing it as pros-vs-cons, to help developers understand what each length offers and how to choose.

Findings: Short games excel at fast feedback, dynamic content, and rapid-cycle replayability driven by player skill and choice. Long games provide comfort, deep character growth, high perceived value (hours per dollar), and slow-burn consequences. Neither is objectively better — the right length depends on your design goals and feature set.

Key insight: Game length isn't a quality metric — it's a design decision that should emerge from your goals and features, not from market pressure or tradition.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mMdNjiGdnY

Short Games: Fast Feedback and Rapid Cycles

Short games are built around the idea that players want to explore and resolve things quickly. This demands very fast feedback — players need to immediately know if they're doing well, making the right choices, or winning. These games require obvious, specific goals.

Short games appeal to "one-and-done" players who want to experience a game, finish it, and move on to the next thing. They might play for a few days or a week, then they're done.

Replayability in Short Games

Short games do have replayability, but it's rapid-cycle replayability where player choice and skill matter heavily. There's also significant randomness — the game needs to feel different each playthrough.

Dynamic content is critical for short games because players churn through replays quickly and will notice if the same content appears every time. This means:

  • Different level configurations and arrangements
  • Varied enemy types and encounters
  • Different plot points and character abilities
  • Unexpected combinations that surprise the player

A 15-minute playthrough needs to be exciting, fast-paced, and full of choices with immediately visible consequences. When players have seen all the variations and played every way they want to, they declare the game "done" and move on.

Tim notes that players frequently praise these games by saying they "respected my time" — a phrase he never heard 20 years ago but hears constantly now.

Long Games: Comfort and Slow Growth

Most of Tim's own games have been long games. These offer a ton of things to see, do, and choose from, but at a slower pace. Changes occur over the long term — in many of Tim's games, you make a choice and don't see its consequences until the end slides.

Long games appeal to players who want to create a character and watch them grow and change over tens or even hundreds of hours. The game must be designed with rich, slow growth in mind.

The Comfort Game

Many players describe long games as "comfort games" — games they enjoy logging into and simply living in. These games also offer high perceived value: a $60 RPG with 100 hours of gameplay objectively delivers more time-per-dollar than a $10 game played for 10 hours. MMOs with monthly subscriptions can deliver even more value per hour.

Replayability in Long Games

Long games have replayability too, but it requires patient players who want to see how all their choices add up over time. Different skill and perk selections create significantly different characters, and end-game slides reveal the long-term consequences of decisions made hours earlier.

Dynamic content works here as well — dynamic quests and responsive systems let players stay with one character and keep experiencing new things, seeing how their evolved character interacts differently with familiar content.

How to Choose Your Game's Length

Tim recounts that game length used to be a major marketing point. Publishers would ask about expected play hours as literally the first question after a game presentation. Players treated hours played as a badge of honor — "I have 200 hours in this game."

That culture has shifted. More players now prefer shorter games because:

  • They want to play many different games
  • Life demands compete for their time — jobs, school, family
  • They appreciate games that deliver everything in 5-10 hours

Still, plenty of players want long-term comfort games. There is no majority consensus on whether short or long games are better.

Tim's Recommendation

Rather than chasing a trendy game length, developers should look at their design goals and feature set — which they wrote down before starting development. These should naturally indicate whether the game calls for:

  • A short game with rapid-cycle play that players finish in a few weeks
  • A long comfort game with slow, satisfying character growth

The length should emerge from the design, not the other way around.

References