Short games are good games too

We've somehow decided that length equals value, that a four-hour game is worse than a forty-hour one. I want to push back on that, especially on mobile, where your attention is already split a dozen ways.

Hollow Tide is maybe five hours long and I wouldn't change a thing. It says what it wants to say, builds a mood, and ends before it wears out. That restraint is a design choice, and a brave one.

A tight, complete experience often lingers longer in memory than a bloated one you abandoned halfway. I remember the ending of Hollow Tide. I couldn't tell you how half my longer games concluded.

So next time a game looks short, don't hold it against them. Sometimes that's the whole point.