How long is too long?

The recent explosion of free to play games has got developers rethinking about length of their games and gameplay time as their economic model is based on the purchase of features that make the player win. As a result, many paid games have also shortened their play time to avoid the risk of running out of content,  monotony in gameplay or having the player lose interest from not being able to complete his game.

According to annual research conducted by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) released this April, approximately 35 percent of gamers play video games on their smartphones.

Despite their brief play time, mobile games tend to be unending and often suck a great deal of time from our lives. 

Ron Carmel, Co-creator of World of Goo talks about the evolution of Subterfuge, a mobile version of Neptune's Pride, a PC strategy game. Carmel says they wanted to create "a short-burst experience that was also deep and engaging and meaty, something we could sink our teeth into.” Thanks to Apple's recent "Replay Kit", and some neat features of the game, it's easy to review your gameplay, build strategies when offline and effectively "distance yourself" more from your smartphone.  The trailer below along with several other videos on youtube show the well crafted strategy behind the game.

Incidentally the guys at World of Goo are not the only ones who are trying to bring the "PC like " experience to mobile formats. Spacetime Studios recent launch, Call of Champions is a Multiplayer Battle Arena (MOBA) game that brings gaming experiences like League of Legends for the iPad and iPhone. Spacetime Studios made an interesting presentation at the 2015  Apple Worldwide Developer's Conference to showcase their integration of the Replay Kit available for iOS 9 and above. Watch the video here:

At RGB Game Studios, we are deeply inspired by the richly detailed and realistic games that dominate the PC and Playstation offerings and we love how these games have an un-rushed and immersive gameplay experience. However, their length and time demanding nature require a large amount of commitment from the player. During the development of Chase & Hunt, we worked to bring the same experience in a shorter condensed form so that the player can reach the end of a mission with a sense of completion, akin to watching a good movie, and importantly, achieve all this without interruptions or frustration.

However making an open world game with excellent graphic quality is tough when you are contending in the mobile and tablet sector and achieving the right balance is something we hope to excel at along the way. Thomas Henshell's article for Gamasutra on Sid Meier's Pirates! breaks it down to us on why it's possible to achieve it and how.