[arg_discuss] Project Run Time

[despain at quantumcontent.com]

When I worked with ongoing television shows we thought of our games in
terms of cycles. Each cycle was about 3 months long. They related to
previous cycles, but each cycle had its own path, narrative and puzzles.

We'd keep the cycles going, 4 cycles per year roughly coinciding with some
big dates in the television ratings periods (premieres, winter reruns,
finales, summer reruns, repeat for 3 to 5 years).

Our biggest problem was getting side-tracked with the "meta" community
issues. Having something run that long, with a lot of players with strong
personalities, it can be a rollercoaster ride.

Wendy Despain
quantumcontent.com



> Y'know, I sometimes find myself a little jealous of you guys who have
> run shorter games and don't need to sweat stuff like being consistent
> with a throwaway line in something you put out a year and a half
> ago... and I wonder, from a strictly creative point of view, what do
> you think is the optimal run time for a game? A week? Six? Six
> months? Forever and ever, amen?
>
> The average is between six weeks and three months, isn't it? And I'm
> pretty sure Perplex City has longest-running by now, but what other
> games have had longer run times?
>
> --
> Andrea Phillips
> http://www.perplexcity.com
> http://www.deusexmachinatio.com
>
>
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