A few years ago seemingly everyone pulled out a tape measure and frantically typed “howlongtobeat X game” while it awkwardly sat in their Steam cart. “60$ for a 12h campaign? That is 5$ per hour!” said John Doe. “I’ve clocked over 500h on Skyrim for the same money, that is much better value”, he added. The discourse could be positive, too. Hollow Knight was universally praised for, among many other reasons, offering almost unmatched value when it came to $ per hour.
But I am squarely in the opposite side of this argument. Should videogame size matter when bigger is often worse in this industry? The open world era ushered by Bethesda, Ubisoft, and Rockstar back in the early 2010s filled many titles with enough bloat to make my Crohn’s flare-ups feel mild. I’m here in defence of the two to twelve-hour experiences, be they polished or janky (complimentary). Here’s why.
Why I’m Writing About This Now
While I do think about this every time any sort of quantity versus quality argument comes into the fray (like it has with Crimson Desert), the reason why I’m finally putting this in writing is because of Ricardo Cesteiro. Ricardo is one of the co-owners of Camel101, alongside his brother, Bruno. They’re a three-person indie studio based in Portugal who’ve published six games on Steam, an average of one every three years.
I interviewed Ricardo this week and questioned him about their small development cycles in comparison to the industry average, and the reason behind them. Ricardo laughed and said that Beneath, their latest release, took five years to develop and “that’s too much”, he told me. There are financial and business incentives behind smaller development cycles, but Ricardo wanted to highlight that it was also a decision based on Camel101’s personal preferences.
Like you, like me, and like the average global videogame player, Ricardo is an adult with a job and with personal responsibilities. This means that he simply doesn’t have as much time to play games as he used to. While he has always loved RPGs, he confesses that the last one he’s finished is Dragon Age: Inquisition (released in 2014), a feat that took him an entire year to accomplish.
You can probably relate to this, as can I. Baldur’s Gate 3 has been sitting on my Steam library (shameful, I know...) for almost three years now because I simply cannot fathom devoting over 100h to a videogame outside of work. Instead, I’ve been cherishing smaller, contained experiences that end quickly, but stick around even after the credits roll.
Ricardo and Bruno at Camel101 excel at just that, short but intense horror experiences that immerse you into a terrifying world that you’ll remember for a while. Syndrome took me around 6h to complete and Those Who Remain can be finished in under 5h. Their next game, Dead Stop: No Vacancy, will be the first of a collection of episodic horror stories, even shorter than their previous titles.
Put The Measuring Tape Back In Your Pocket
As players buy fewer and fewer full price games, F2P and legacy titles eat the majority of the cake, but a door opens for smaller, cheaper experiences. While expensive and extensive games still dominated leaderboards and The Game Awards, 2025 was a year of successes for titles that were either short, cheap, or both.
Hades II, Blue Prince, Hollow Knight: Silksong are squarely in the impossible category of being both cheap and massive, but they’re also accompanied by some short kings and queens as some of the best games released last year.
Despelote- 13,99€ on Steam, takes around 2h to finish.
Rhythm Doctor- 19,50€, 4h to 8h.
Sword Of The Sea- 28,99€, around 3h.
Lumines Arise- 39,99€, 4h to 7h.
Dispatch- 28,99€, around 9h.
Players want value, but that doesn’t just equal playtime. Most players will wince if you ask 69,99€ for a game with less than 10h of playtime, but even Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 was well received despite its 49,99€ asking price.
This isn’t new, mind you. Some of the most legendary and revered games of all time took less than 10h to complete: Portal 1 and 2, Silent Hill 1 and 2, Shadow of the Colossus, Uncharted 1. And when you compare videogames to other mediums, as you so often do, the whole argument seems dumb.
Do you measure a book by the thickness of its spine? Do you judge a movie by its runtime? A series by how many episodes it has? Do you refuse to listen to music albums that fail to reach 1h of playtime? Then stop pulling out the measuring tape as you prepare to buy your next videogame. Enjoy the hundred-hour behemoths as much as you want, but give the short kings and queens the opportunities they deserve.
You might bump into a What Remains of Edith Finch, play it for 2.5 hours, and think about it for the next 25 years. How’s that for value?
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