How much can you naturally cram into a game you want to last 30 minutes or so?

Warning: in the description of this post, I talk very briefly (VERY briefly) about sexual content--specifically, of a non consensual nature. It states in the Early Project Feedback Rules, that this is allowed to be talked about, with a disclaimer.

Hi!

I hope I'm doing this right; I'm new here, aha. Anyway, if I'm not, let me know.

But, I'm in the middle of creating my first game, a 30 minute horror game. I'm thinking of making this game more then one part--specifically, making a series of 30 minute games in a collection, regarding first the main character of the first game, and then shifting focus away from him.

I have a lot thought out about the general setting of the first game, but I think I want to cram too much into the beginning.

The general gist of what I'm concerned about:

In the intro, so far, I show why he's afraid of spiders. This is his biggest character trait. A fear of spiders.

The reason why is it's become a bit of a PTSD, triggering deal--three different events, he saw spiders during, and now he associates horrible things happening, with spiders. Specifically, his mother dies, his father dies, and he's raped (this is also sort of a VERY important event, which is why I'm adding it, and honestly, I have no intention on changing it, so please don't say I should). Each time, he sees spiders.

However.

That's a lot, isn't it? Those three events? I mean...the intro lasts maybe 5 minutes, just showing that, yes, these happened, but. Do you think maybe I should have brief flashbacks without actually explaining, instead, through out the game? And then, in one of the games in the series, I explain exactly what happened to him to make him so terrified of spiders?

I'm not sure what to do.

I also have a lot of other things I'd like advice on, but this is the biggest, since it's so vital to the story, so I'm making this thread.

Thank you for any feedback, and I'm sorry if I come off as rude or dumb.

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of flashbacks, but I don't know...

Thirty minutes is not a long time. Especially for an intro where you want to show all that information - the player would be passive for most of it. If you really want to go the thirty minute route, I'd consider showing one 'flashback' each episode, with the rest of the time the player having Stuff to Do.

That would also let you do a slower 'build up' leading to the rape, which I think would make the scene more effective - you're already seen the results, and have been wondering "What could have happened to this guy to cause this?"  Finally, you give them the answer, right before some climactic moment in the present...

Unless you want to make an interactive novel - those can be cool too.

There IS a lot of Stuff to Do. I'm kinda going for...well, a couple of story lines, honestly, though you only see small chunks per game.

This is made a bit difficult by the fact I only have Ace Lite, but, ah well, I'll get Ace soon enough.

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Depends on the game and stuff too... Cutscenes for example can easily be manipulated to either have more scenes in a smaller timeframe or less scenes on a higher timeframe, especially if ur using timed texts... While things that depends on the user is a bit harder to predict...


On my current project for example, I think I have had added a lot of stuff already but when I played it, it only took 15 minutes to reach the last part... I think that me knowing exactly what to do is a huge factor as to the timeframe, and IDK yet how long will a first-time player will take

I think trying to cram all of this into 30 minutes is too much.  Either consider something along the lines of what Mouser has suggested (i.e. a flashback per episode) or consider changing your approach.

This is meant to be a horror game.  A successful horror game builds tension etc. over time, it doesn't just drop it all on you in one go.  If you split this out into separate games you are going to lose that build up, all the atmosphere that you have spent time creating.  You will have to rely on the player remembering all the little details you put in to give the story life.  Do you, perhaps, have 2 incompatible objectives? i.e. a series of short games and a horror game.

If you can get a hold of a copy of it, play Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.

The 'Ocean House' level is one of the best 'horror' levels ever made (it won all sorts of industry awards when it came out). The game itself isn't horror overall, but they do use it in parts (which is another thing you may want to take from that game). If you do get the game let me know, I've got a copy of Tessmage/Acrimonius' patch (much better IMHO than Wesp's 'unofficial' patch for first time players). And yes, you need to put some mod/patch on the game to fix the bugs Troika wasn't allowed to fix.

Well.

It's meant to be horror themed, per say, but more psychological then horror. It has the aspects to it, but I only wish to unsettle people rather then terrify.

Also, I think the plan is to release this game, see how well it does, and if it does well, make an "anthology" of games (6 or so) that all come together. Then they just play like that.

In a way, this is a demo to a bigger thing, I guess.

For a 30 minute game, a 5 minute intro is far too long.   Granted, a 2 hour movie may take 1/6th the movie setting up characters, but a movie is not a game.  A game is supposed to be mostly interactive.  Cutscenes and intros are helpful to set up the story, but I prefer the idea of brief flashbacks to a long intro.

If the main character in your game is the main, or at least a supporting character, in your other expected games, there's no need for the Reveal right away.  The better approach is to have the main character do strange behaviors related to spiders, possibly with a thought bubble (message box) with his thoughts in it.    If the main character is in no other game, then the reveal needs to be at the end:

Good psychological thrillers (think: The Uninvited or Haute Tension) have the psychological twist revealed at the end.  Suddenly, the main character has a breakthrough, or we see the murderer from the victim's eyes.  The best twists make complete sense, BUT the behavior of the main character is self-consistent right up to the twist.

Maybe the character just appears to have a fear of spiders.  Why is it a debilitating fear though?    The fear is so intense, that he starts seeing things that ARE NOT spiders as spiders (hallucinate) --- such as his family.....and he has to kill every spider he sees.... 

And that explains why his family was so afraid of him, because from their perspective, he's been acting very strange...then the killings started...

I love good psychological horrors.

or you can slice up the intro so that some parts will be interactive...