Good morning everyone. It’s a little south of 8 am, I’m still in my underwear, and my washing machine’s insistence that it’s going to finish its cycle in 17 minutes is as correct as it was 20 minutes ago when it said the same. I want to go to the gym but I am currently bound to the gods of Bosch and their undecypherable whims, so what better time to write a blogpost.

I’ve noticed I play games a lot less nowadays. For someone wanting to get into game design it’s a somewhat embarassing thing to admit, but I just don’t find myself able to sit down and play a nice game for relaxation as much as I could when I was a teenager (not that surprising when I put it like that, honestly). I see other game devs spending just as much time playing the latest releases, so I’m unsure if the fact that adult responsibilities burden me, or if it’s just me managing my time poorly.

I noticed I also tend to spend much less time on any individual title. I used to spend a lot of time on each individual title, and while I didn’t force myself to play anything I didn’t like, I wasn’t averse to longer sessions either. I have over 1,200 hours clocked in on Team Fortress 2, over 700 on Guilty Gear Strive, nearly 300 on The Binding of Isaac and Slay the Spire… One of the first games I really loved, Mark of The Ninja, has 48 hours clocked on it, and it’s an 8 hour game! I replayed that shit like it was nothing! Now? I clocked 7.9 hours into Hollow Knight: Silksong and uninstalled it. Did I dislike it? Not at all, but I felt like I got my money’s worth by that point, even hearing from people that I didn’t even finish the first act (which is considered to be the tutorial area). I loved Hades 2, but I’m 25 hours in and can’t think of putting in even a single additional run.

The games I’m eager to get into nowadays (and the ones I recommend to others) are almost always ones that you finish the main campaign within 8 hours or less. Pizza Tower, Metal: Hellsinger, Fishlike, Thomas was Alone, Pseudoregalia, Orbo’s Odyssey, A Short Hike - some of the best titles I’ve played in years, and clearing them from start to finish took me less than a working day. It took me multiple play sessions to finish them (because after like an hour of gameplay I need to take a breather), but the total time spent on them wasn’t anything gigantic.

Why is this? Maybe it’s something about the games themselves. A shorter game has much less time to cram in more mechanics, so it has to work around a solid set of fundamental gameplay systems. It can work in more things, certainly, but it’s a big gamble that most don’t tend to take. Maybe if the game is shorter they can take more risks with it, because even if it fails it was a smaller and easier project, making this partially a case of survivor’s bias.

But it’s likely just something about me. I’ve never been a big AAA guy, big open worlds and 200 quests were things that made me hesitate rather than consider a new purchase. Like I said before, one of the first games I truly adored was 8 hours long. Maybe it’s just this existing behaviour being driven to its breaking point, now that I have adult responsibilities and try to juggle way too many things at once.

I’m not sure. Either way, armed with this knowledge I know much more about myself and the kinds of games I should actually buy, so I’d play them instead of having my steam backlog get comically larger and larger.

Now that we’re on this topic, (main blogpost is finished, you can go home now,) I figured it’s a great excuse to recommend you all some games that fit the above criterion! Games that you can finish front to back in less than a working day, and that I find to be really enjoyable.

• Mark of the Ninja - Excellent 2D stealth game with a lot of options and viable strategies. Haven’t played it in years, but there’s a reason it’s got 10/10s all over its steam page.

• Gunpoint - Another 2D stealth game, where this time you’re a private detective rather than a ninja. You’re much weaker in terms of 1 on 1 combat, but the game’s comedy and flexibility more than makes up for it.

• A Good Snowman is Hard to Build - Cute puzzle game that’s very pick-up-and-play. You can open it in the middle of a busy day, do some puzzles, and drop it again without much hassle.

• Katana ZERO - 2D fast-paced action game where you play as an assassin with precognition, planning how to take out every enemy in the level without being touched once.

• Pseudoregalia - 3D metroidvania with a playstation-era asthetic. Great movement and music, just ignore the protagonist’s thunder thighs.

• Cards with Personalities - Minimalist deckbuilder. Does just exactly it needs to.

• 4D Golf - No, the 4th dimension isn’t time. It’s a game in mathematically-accurate 4 dimensions, that’s a shocking amount of fun, even if the game itself admits it’s mostly a gimmick.

• Thomas was Alone - Classic 2d platformer. Great lesson in how to merge gameplay mechanics with story and how to make the most out of simple mechanics.

• Strange Jigsaws - Puzzle game where every solution is unorthodox and makes you go “ohhhhhhhhhh” rather than “oh come on, how was I supposed to see that?”, which is a difficult balance to strike.

• (the) Gnorp Apologue - Idle game that can be finished in a reasonable timeframe instead of taking 20+ hours to get to the good part! Who knew?

• Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom - 3D collectathon with a really cutsey visual and excellent movement.

• Pizza Tower - Cartooney visuals, high-octane gameplay, and fun wario-land-esque level design.

I could keep going but I’ll stop here to not elongate this post even worse than it already is. My laundry’s ready for me to pick up, too, so seems like a good place to stop.