Recommended playtime for a horror game?

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#1

Hello everyone,

So I’m making a chapter horror game called “Zail Park” that’s about an investigator who goes out to an abandoned amusement park. I don’t want the chapters to feel short neither long. I need it to be just perfect, how much playtime would you recommend me to make it? Last thing I need is someone to be like “Oh my gosh, this game takes forever” or “Wow, this is too short for a game”. I’ve been hyping this game up for the past 2 months and I don’t want to disappoint my fanbase that’s been so patient with me. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!!

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#2

How many parts are you thinking? Chapters? Full-length game? Sequels?

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#3

Chapter horror game, but I want the playtime from each chapter to have a satisfying length by the time they complete it. Like I said, neither too short or too long.

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#4

well let’s say that, as a ballpark number, there’s 10 chapters. To get a successful story while compressing it info a reasonable amount of time, I’d estimate around 20-30 minutes per chapter

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#5

I like your suggestion of 20-30 minutes but I feel like if it’s a bit too long for a chapter game in ROBLOX. The horror game “The Mimic” released a new chapter not that long ago and people complained that it was WAY too long (around the length you recommended) and the owner had some people furious because they had disconnected and didn’t want to do it all over again. This is why I don’t want to make it too long neither too short, I was thinking perhaps 13-15 minutes of playtime? What do you think about it? Something that’s just perfect and people will stay satisfied is what I’m looking forward to making.

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#6

Here’s an idea: The time I suggested, in total for the ballpark 10 chapter amount, Is roughly 5 hours in total. You can always add auto-saves at key points in the game so if someone disconnects they don’t have to replay 3 hours of gameplay

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#7

No such thing as a game that is too long. Only reason people would say it’s too long is because the plot is bad. Players love a good, long, engaging game.

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#8

True that. I wouldn’t know though since most of my games are free-roaming inside a nuclear facility pressing buttons like an ape and making a reactor go boom

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#9

So as long as the game keeps it interesting throughout the gameplay, the playtime shouldn’t matter?

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#10

I would say for a horror game , the regular playtime is about 30-40 mins

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#11

LOL. I absolutely concur with that. Never has the words bespoken so truly. Well spoken.

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#12

Yes. Make it interesting and nobody will complain about it being long.

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