Hook Them In

Alright, so I've been working on a game of mine for VX called, Grace of Vil. I've really yet to get to intense work on the game, and playing through is about 1 hour without doing sidequests. I've written everything down, and I have a fairly decent amount of patience, and I kind of made of a rough guess of the length of the game. I got around 40-50hours doing everything. I have tons of things to be put into the game along with the game being open world, there are 15 extra characters, and side dungeons, along with Ultimate Weapons. I'd say I'm pretty decent at building a story, but is this going to be too big for a VX game? I myself can't really finish rm games that are longer than 5 hours, I don't really know why. Do you think there's any chance people would spend the time to play it through, or should I try to make it shorter?

I dunno, man. I mean, FF IV II is pretty long and involved, but I'm making it for my wife, not the general public. If I was gonna make one for just anyone I'd guess like, 10 hours MAX of play.

You also need to consider filesize, too; most anything over 80 MB I won't download.

Filesize, won't be a problem, It's not audio heavy, it just has a lot of characters and pictures. I was thinking that as well, I thought I was pushing it a bit, but I've started multiple projects yet never finished them, this way I thought I'd be able to keep getting ideas and instead of giving up on the project for those, they could all be in one game. It's very risky I'd say, but I want to finish an actual game since I've yet to do so.

A great example would be Dragon Quest IX, Sentinels of the starry skies for the DS. I've played it for like 6 hours now, and I don't even have any party members and I've been to only one city. The game is SO immense, but also SO awesome.

But Dragon Quest is of an insane quality. Everything seems rigt, the graphics are totally awesome, there's a little bit of retro in it, nice music, beautiful animated cutscenes, great variaty in monsters, a lot of sidequests, one big story with smaller stories in it... I couldn't name it all.

What I'm trying to say is that your game has to have something really awesome in order for me to really play it that long. The fact is with RM games that they get checked on how well you made all that stuff rather than really playing it.

Making a good RPG is really hard. Me myself, I'm usually not very interested in RPG's, but Dragon Quest instantly got my attention and it didn't let go. So if your game's just an average RPG, I think I wouldn't go for the 40 hours, but if it had something that would REALLY attract me, like Dragon Quest has (which I'm about to find out what that specific thing is), I would defenitely play. The hardest thing to do is just creating something that makes people continue playing your whole game.

I would say just keep in mind that not everyone's going to be doing everything in your game. Having it there available is nice, in case the game is good enough for a second playthrough, they find out new ways to beat it second time around.
It all falls on you, really. Are you the type of person who drops a project because of the overwhelming size of it? Make it how you imagined it to begin with.

The size isn't overwhelming for me, as I have a vast amount of time on my hands. I'm going to keep working on the game, it may take a while but I have nothing else to do..

The length of the game depends on how well the games are designed. If a game is not made well, nobody wants to play 40-50 hours of any game. However, if you design it as well as you are stating you are, people will love to play it.

The longer the game you're designing, the bigger the chance that it will be abandoned and unfinished - if not for lack of motivation down the line, then for life getting busy or for finding a more interesting project to work on. It gets a little easier if you have a committed team, as you can try to motivate each other. But being on a team can create other issues that can lead to a project being scrapped.

If you're working on a game by yourself, I think 10 to 15 hours is more than reasonable in terms of game length. Having a shorter/closer goal allows you to see results faster and to spend more time polishing your game. I find that it also makes you more selective about the features you'll include in your project. A list of 5 features might feel bare for a 40 hr game, but it's appropriate for 10 hours. This will encourage you to make more use of each feature, rather than adding variety through multiple systems.

The other point I think is important to bring up is that there's no reason you can't have multiple games in the same universe. Things like sequels and prequels are a possibility - and very appropriate, especially if you have a complex story. Also, you can always add "updates" to your completed game, akin to down-loadable content in commercial games. You don't have to complete a game and then never look at it again.

What benefits does completing a game give you?
- It's a really great motivator. It's especially useful when you're stuck with writers' block or feeling uninspired.
- It gives you credibility and reputation, so when you need help or want to form a team, people are more likely to be there. A lot of people hesitate to help someone with a really ambitious project because it might get abandoned. Seeing projects through is a way of saying "I'm serious about this."
- You're less likely to have to redo entire sections because your mapping (or art, or eventing, or scripting, and so on) got better. There's a vicious circle where the developer with more experience goes back to rework older areas because they're not of the same quality as the later areas. While you still might encounter this with a smaller project, it will be significantly less work.