I’m working on a story game, and have had a number of testers in it, the past couple weeks, and I’m gathering their feedback. One of the points made among this small group of testers is about the story itself, and the time it takes to tell the story before there’s more action.
Some of my testers don’t mind that there’s more dialog and say things are reasonably paced, while a few of my other testers say there’s too many lulls, they get bored after awhile. The complete game take about 45 minutes to complete, if you win.
I was wondering, should a story game be less wordy, and simpler and more action, perhaps?
I personally love a lot of story/dialogue.
Some people prefer more action in games, it depends on the player.
The task for you is to find the balance between those two to make the game enjoyable.
Most of story-based games do their game’s story like telling the story a with few words so that it become lesser boring. I suggest you to decrease some unnecessary words and make it more action so you can tell the players the story easily tell the story with a few words. But the choice is yours… I hope your game will be a great work!
Yes, it’s possible for a game to tell too much story. Consider integrating it with your gameplay or cutting out some of the script so the story is more concise to follow. Lore tidbits should be acquired as you play through the game, through non-obstructive elements (e.g. out-of-stage location to access story) or completely external material. Some things can even be left up to player interpretation.
45 minutes is way too long unless you have the gameplay saveable.
Majority of players aren’t going to stay for 45 minutes.
Making a single play through too long is not going to make it replayable as people won’t have the energy to sit through another 45 minutes of the same thing. Whereas if a game is only 10 minutes long, they’d want to replay it to see if there are other possibilities.
If your “story” game is taking 45 minutes, I suggest you make it more of a singleplayer/ teambased RPG game with a story. Have the player have an inventory system and a system to save progress. Do not expect your average player to play for 45 minutes.
Since new players are new and don’t know where to go, chances are they’ll probably take far longer than that.
You mentioned lulls in gameplay. Make sure you intersperse action with dialogue. Too much dialogue will make your game too niche to be accessible to the wider market. If you add 15 more minutes of action into the game, it’ll at least even it out to make the game perceive to be shorter as players are actually having to do something.
There have been so many time perception research studies done both in the gaming industry and outside. You can make a long game seem short by making it more enjoyable, while you can also make a short game seem long by making it boring.
To conclude. 45 minutes is far too long for a story game, most players won’t finish it and stay to the end. If you want to keep it long, then make sure you have checkpoints and progress savers. Add more action and interesting aspects to the game to make it seem shorter.
Oh you’re right - if there’s more activities, the perception of time is lost a bit and the game does seem shorter, to me at least, as there’s 3 mini games in it. I didn’t realize it took 45 minutes till I look at the clock. I also have a clock in-game for testing, that tells how much time has elapsed. You make some great points here though. I suppose maybe I’ll just tweak a few thing shorten up some dialog, do some more camera work, and see what happens.
I do give options to skip some of the dialog in 2 spots and that probably shaves off 10 minutes.
I’d recommend making some sidequests. This would encourage players to explore the gameworld some more, and allow you to provide more action outside of the main storyline so you don’t have to make much changes to the work you have already done.
Yes, I was just discussing with one of my advisers and idea for some necessary sidequests, not needed to finish the first chapter, but they may need to go back to, in order to complete the second chapter - to find hidden “Easter Eggs”, so to speak.
I guess there are some sidequests, in a way. I give badges if certain events occur, that may not happen, first time through the game.
I don’t think a game can tell too long of a story as long as the story keeps the players interested, some games have basic/boring storylines, which most of the time causes the player to skip through dialogue or leave completely. In short, I think a game can’t tell too long of a story, but can have a boring story, so if you want to make a long story based game, make sure the story is captivating and sure to keep players to the end.
