On Game Length

Not also long ago, there was a coordinated blog work with developers like Jonathan Blow, 2D Boy and far more commenting on the length of games. The common consensus of these posts was that games ought to not be judged by their length, but if the expertise feels comprehensive or not. Something that we right here at Frictional Games agree on.

Now that we have released Amnesia: The Dark Descent, game length has once once again come into our lives. There have been many reviews of the game that have stated that the game's length, six - ten hours, was a major negative. Specially thinking about that the game does not have any replayability (despite the fact that that is up for discussion).

This has created us a bit concerned. A main aim with our games is to have no fillers, to have a game where every little thing is focused on producing a specific knowledge. Given that we do not have combat in our games, there is no way to extend length in a simple way (like filling a room with enemies). Just about each and every minute in our games demands lots of time and work to implement. If we are to hold on enhancing the high quality of our games, six - 10 hours is pretty much the maximum quantity of gameplay time we can create.

Particularly now that the first week of sales, in spite of overwhelmingly outstanding response, have been only moderate (more on that right here), this tends to make us a bit concerned. If six - 10 hours for a $ 20 game offers it a negative mark, what if we improve the price tag to $ 30, would this drastically decrease the constructive response? Even much more serious, this unfavorable feedback on the game's length has produced us obtaining discussion subjects like "how do we make this section longer?". We attempt to push this aside and instead concentrate on far more crucial topics such as "how do make this section a lot more engaging?", but it is still nagging at the back of our heads. Focusing on game length, is one thing I find can have extremely unfavorable effect on a game's design (discussed a bit right here).

With this background details, we would like to hear your thoughts on this issue! I have set up a poll in our forum here:
http://frictionalgames.com/forum/thread-4427.html
Please take your time and register and spot your vote.

Also, please tell us what you feel in our forum or here on the blog!