Games Should be Allowed to be Short
I’m the writer and designer of the indie game Dead Horizon. It’s VERY short. It takes only ten minutes to play through. A lot of people wish it was longer, even though it’s free. They want to know why it’s so short. Well…
The game took six months to make. It’s also named after a line from the song ‘Bushes of Love’. It’s exactly as long as it’s supposed to be, because I think that sometimes… fiction is most powerful when it’s brief.
Much of my favorite fiction is short. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is one of the greatest films of all time. The Lottery, the Yellow Wallpaper, I Robot, these are just some of the amazing short stories that have been written. Kirby’s Dreamland is one of the best games I’ve ever played and it takes about an hour. Don’t even get me started on poetry. My favorite poem of all time is by Edna St. Vincent Millay and it’s four lines long. It is also included in the game.
Every element was carefully constructed. The music and every frame of animation was designed with a specific purpose. The gameplay, a quickdraw duel where you have to pull the mouse cursor below the frame and back up, was specifically chosen to give the feel of drawing a gun.
There is an entire story bible, hundreds of pages of lore and background to make sure every element, even something like twin moons, exists in a grounded reality, even if the player never catches more than a glimpse of the edge of that.
There’s extras like a lore book in game and a instruction booklet done up in the style of the old Master System booklets that expand on this. But in the end it’s meant to be fleeting. The focus is on one character and her life flashing before her eyes. The game is about a single moment in time.
Every line in the game was written and rewritten dozens of times. Trying to match the proper tone or create the impact needed. Every object in the game has lookat text written for it even though most players will never click it.
Of course, there’s also plenty of stuff in there I just think is cool.
In the end it’s a short meditation on a lot of things. Gender, death, violence, love, redemption, the permanency of mistakes. I’m trying to say something. To connect with the people who play the game.
Most of all, I’m probably trying to connect with my grandfather. Who showed me westerns as I grew up and taught me a lot about what it meant to look someone in the eye and promise them a thing. Then do that thing no matter what.
I guess what I’m saying is it wasn’t a mistake that the game is short. It wasn’t a lack of business sense that made me release it for free. No lack of funds forced it to be the mini experience it is. I wanted to try and capture a mood, evoke an idea, and I wanted to do it quickly and get out just as quick.
It’s possible that this post took longer to read than the game does to play. Still, it’s free. It’s up over on Steam , Itch.io, Gamejolt, and even Newgrounds. If you agree with me that a story should be as long as the story needs to be… you should play it. Or, go play some other game people claim is too short and enjoy the experience while it lasts.
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