What is the average duration that the first version of a game should have?

[User_920791]

Taking into consideration that the game is a standard visual novel, with choices that lead to different routes.

Should this average duration consider all routes combined or just one route?

 

[Retro]

Personally, I don't think you can put a number on it.

 

[passerbyR34]

Imo there's no need to be (too) long but might be better for not being too short, as Retro said, it's indeed kind of difficult to put a number on it to determine the "decent" average
So rather than think about the duration, it might be better to focus on MC and (main) characters intro and the plot, so the players could immediately understand the premise and also the "quality" of the game itself

If it's "interesting" enough, most likely it'll keep attract more and more players even without any sexual contents in the few first updates since initial release

So yeah, introductions

 

[User_920791]

Personally, I don't think you can put a number on it.

Imo there's no need to be (too) long but might be better for not being too short, as Retro said, it's indeed kind of difficult to put a number on it to determine the "decent" average
So rather than think about the duration, it might be better to focus on MC and (main) characters intro and the plot, so the players could immediately understand the premise and also the "quality" of the game itself

If it's "interesting" enough, most likely it'll keep attract more and more players even without any sexual contents in the few first updates since initial release

So yeah, introductions

I'd like to have an estimate in numbers because I'm not sure if I should initially provide a short demo with only a small portion of the planned content (to evaluate the reception of the people) or whether I should wait until I have included all the planned fetishes (delaying the game drastically).

 

[passerbyR34]

I'd like to have an estimate in numbers because I'm not sure if I should initially provide a short demo with only a small portion of the planned content (to evaluate the reception of the people) or whether I should wait until I have included all the planned fetishes (delaying the game drastically).

I can't say that it's applied to every titles, but based on my experience from playing a few (linear style) titles which still in early stages (first/second build), in average it took me around 20-30 minutes to finish with my reading speed, which kinda difficult to described with exact number

The display of (planned) fetishes/genre is surely important, but once again I would think it would be better to focus on the plot/premise explanation and the display of main characters/pair (M/F, M/M, F/F) at first while waiting for the feedback from the player
So u could immediately put the "market's demand" into consideration for developing ur game to be more (potentially) better and even popular

I'm not an expert and I dunno about others, but from my experience for playing around 80 titles, I had to drop some of them in the very beginning due to their lack of appealing in the premise
Some are not clearly explained, some are too much cliche/drama, some are pure bad
I could stand a just-so-so model and animation, but I can't stand a boring premise (it's a VN anyway, if I only looking for the sexual content, I might prefer to download an AV instead, lol)

This is my personal opinion btw, sorry for the roundabout reply
Wish u a good luck for the development of ur game, mate

 

[Brig]

The Length is not the important thing here.
What is important, is that the people playing the game understand what they are getting into.
Plot, Characters, Setting, Features, etc, etc, etc as long you are able to convey this to the player than you are good.