Which are some of the shorter games this Comp season? I’m talking games that take about 15-30 minutes to play, or maybe an hour tops. I’ve already played Growbotics, Insect Massacre, Much Love BJP, The Speaker, Crossroads, Forever Meow, Duel, and a couple others.
Here are some games I would call short or at least not especially long: A Figure Met in a Shaded Wood, Cape, Darkiss, Ether, Pit of the Condemned, Scarlet Sails, King and Crown, Untold Riches.
Some of these games are replayable, so if you want to see everything in them they are not exactly short, but I am confident that you could finish them in under one hour, though for some it might take some effort.
(I am also tempted to bring up games which are very long, and so you might want to avoid - but I’m not sure it’s good to do that publicly in this context)
Other short games I’ve played so far: The War of the Willows, Arcane Intern (Unpaid), Second Story, Recorded, Seeking Ataraxia, Life on Mars?, Switcheroo, The Man Who Killed Time, Unbeknown. Also FWIW I found Cape and Scarlet Sails to be fairly long, 1.5 to 2 hours for a single playthrough. I think I may be a slower than average reader though.
Midnight. Swordfight. is short but you’ll want to replay, probably more than a couple times.
I found Life on Mars? and Arcane Intern to be fairly long. I’m not a slow reader, but these games have a lot of text, especially the first and if you want to read everything
LoM? in particular has a mechanic which makes some text appear slowly and gradually, making fast reading impossible. But I think that can be turned off, and some interpreters might just not support it.
For Scarlet Sails - I assume it took you long because you wanted to get a winning ending? Well, yes, I should have mentioned that it’s not that obvious how to win, but finishing does not take a huge amoutn of time.
Re Life on Mars?, ah, yes, I forgot that I did not in fact try to read everything (partly because of that gradually-printing effect). It didn’t feel unsatisfying to not read all of it, but I may have missed something important.
Re Scarlet Sails, I wanted to win, but I died in Chapter 9, and then I didn’t have time to start over from the beginning. (I plan to try again after comp is over…)
Back to the original request: I just played Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory, which is also short for a single playthrough, but you’ll probably want to spend more time with it.
Well, Aspel was an entrant in Spring Thing, “Banana Apocalypse” was in a SppedIF if that counts as a Comp, “Best Of Three” was in an IFComp, “Galatea” was in the Art Show…
…huh?
…oh. I read the title wrong. Sorry!
Besides the ones already mentioned, both Grimm’s Godfather and Taghairm are very short games. (Though Taghairm can also be very long, if you go for the alternative ending (sound/speakers/headphones recommended).)
Thanks for your replies, guys! You’ve been a big help.