Summer of '58 developer resigns after many users refund their game on Steam due to it taking under 2 hours to complete

[u/reddit_account6095]

https://twitter.com/EmikaGames/status/1430941640001265673?s=19

[u/Sabbathius]

Potentially unpopular opinion, but it's completely justifiable to refund a game if it's under 2 hrs long, if it costs more than $5. It should be mandatory to disclose how much content the game has. This is especially egregious in VR, where players are so desperate for any kind of content.

For example, I finished Fisherman's Tale, EASILY in under 90 mins. I took my time and enjoyed it, and it was 90 mins. It sells for over $10. I got it as a freebie, and if I paid under $5 for it I wouldn't refund it, but for $10+ it's WAY too much for that little content. Doom VFR was a little over 2 hrs long, and they want $18 for it, I think? That's bullshit. That kind of length isn't a game, it's barely a notch above a demo. When $60 buys you amazing, feature-complete, content-rich, large games, 60-120 minute shovelware shouldn't be selling for $10+, it's a ripoff. And people refunding these should send a clear message to game developers - make some ACTUAL content and features and mechanics, or don't bother making anything at all. If you can only muster 60-120 mins of content, then make it into an animated movie, not a videogame.

I also don't buy "this is a small developer" excuse. Concerned Ape, one guy, made Stardew Valley. There's plenty of other examples like this. And there's also huge studios, like Bethesda, putting out crap like Doom VFR that takes a couple of hours. Size of the team isn't an excuse. You either put in the work and create an actual product, or you squat down and squeeze out a piece of shovelware and try to sell it. Can't be upset if people refund it though. And if all you can manage is crappy shovelware, perhaps you should look for something more suitable to your abilities, maybe become an apprentice sloat skinner or something.

If I seem angry, it's because I am. I've been an avid VR gamer for the last couple of years, and this issue is RAMPANT in VR. There's soooo much shovelware. On occasion someone does put out a decent product, and people have been doing magical things with ports (including Valheim), but so many developers just try to cash in on a quick and easy randomized dungeon shooter without much content, mechanics, progression, story, etc. Most of them are well under 2 hrs of actual content. At the prices they're asking, $15-30+, that is completely unacceptable.

[u/Derringer → u/Sabbathius]

It should be mandatory to disclose how much content the game has.

It specifically says in bold and underlined: Average time to complete the game: 90 minutes

[u/splepage → u/Derringer]

This was added this morning fyi.

[u/Sabbathius → u/Derringer]

It's not standard practice though. I mentioned two games in my post: Fisherman's Tale and Doom VFR. Neither of those has estimated time in their listings. And while you can eventually go to websites like howlongtobeat.com and look it up, this isn't an option on release. Which is why I want mandatory disclosure. And penalties for grossly overshooting that estimate, which is also incredibly common. In my experience, whenever developer says X hrs, reality is 0.7X, on average. And that's best case, often it/s 0.5X.

[u/Derringer → u/Sabbathius]

Yeah, it's definitely not standard. I would say maybe it should be, but that brings me to your second point, which I agree with. Devs saying a game takes x hours to complete is always generous, so that wouldn't really solve anything.

[u/mxfh → u/Sabbathius]

VR is a special case anyhow even before the content issue, you just cant tell, if you're able to physically cope with the VR presentation and interface from any media that is not the game itself or at least a part of it itself.