Let's Play Video Length?

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I'm new in the Let's Play business.  Very amateur.  I'm trying to get better through experience though and by learning from other players as to what they themselves do.

Before I post up a topic for my Let's Play channel, I wanted to ask a question that's been nagging at me for a while- length!

So, the first Let's Play I've been working on is a game called Sweet Lily Dreams.  It promises to be a 20+ hour game, is an RPG, has turn-based battles and puzzles and such.

My first two playthroughs were only 15ish-17ish minutes long, and that barely covered the intro to the game and just a teeny bit of the first mission.

My third playthrough I made into 30 minutes (essentially it was to be longer, but I cut out 10 extra minutes because I could not, for the life of me, figure out this super simple puzzle and just walked around mindlessly for a bit).  Once I put it up there, it felt too long though.  I mean, I got the first mission done, so there's that, but just felt very draggy.

I can't seem to find that nice little middle ground just yet, where I'm actually progressing smoothly without wasting too much time.  Any tips?

Also, keep in mind, these are first-time playthroughs.  I realize that I'd probably save quite a chunk of time if I played through a segment first and have thought over it a bit.  I know for the Let's Player's that I watch, they play games for the first time- and I like that because I feel for those moments where they get stuck too, and reactions are a lot more real when you witness something for the first time.  I don't know.

Just looking for opinions!

20-30 minutes is good per video, just cut out stuff where you run around aimlessly and it's fine. I did a 1-hour livestream recently, so you could say that individual YT videos are much shorter on average than LS videos.

I don't know if there's a universal "best" length. Some people prefer them to be no longer than 30 minutes while others like longer videos. Mine tend to be around 45 minutes each because you accomplish very little in an RPG in a 15-30 minute time frame. It feels like hardly anything happens in each video if they are less than 30 minutes (20 minutes of dialogue for instance).

I think the frequency in which you upload new videos can be a factor on video length. If you upload frequently, you could probably afford your videos to be 15-30 minutes long because people can watch multiples back to back if they want or just watch one video and move on to something else. If you upload once per week or even less frequently than that...maybe longer videos are more appreciated? I'm really not sure.

As a watcher, I don't really have a preference. It depends on what I'm doing at the time (I'm always doing something else while watching a Let's Play, such as eating dinner, etc).

You know, I'd say it depends on the nature of the Let's Play. I'm currently doing a Let's Play too, though the game I am LPing is not an RM game. It involves more action and fighting monsters and hardly any dialogue, so I tend to mostly make 12-15 minute videos on average. Some parts of the videos are also sped up because nothing too substantial happens in them, so in essence I condense 20+ minutes worth of gameplay into 12-15 minute bite-sized chunks. So if you struggle to fit in enough gameplay into each episode, you can always speed up parts of it, though it will also depend on whether you're making your commentary live or not. I don't do my commentary live, because I find it hard to concentrate on it whilst I'm playing, though again it depends. There are two types of LPs out there - those that show someone playing the game for the first time, and those that show expertise on how to beat bosses and difficult areas. The former ones are all about reactions and so the commentary has to be live, whilst the latter are more about explaining the game mechanics and other important aspects of the game to the player, and this commentary doesn't have to be live.

From what I've seen so far, I think 30 minute videos are fine enough for first-time playthroughs of RM games. Though for shorter faster-paced RM games you can always make shorter videos. That way you could have more videos within an LP and keep each one to a more modest length.

Thanks all for the thorough replies! It really helps a lot. It takes a bit to get used to the flow of an rpg versus something with more action.

Off topic a bit but what do you guys feel about a let's player reading the dialogue versus letting the viewer read it themselves and just vocally summarizing it for those who didn't read?

It's something else I want to experiment with. I don't think my voice is very suited to reading out dialogue. Maybe it just takes a bit to get used to it though.

My next playthrough I want to keep quiet on the dialogue and just try and pinpoint the summary to see if it sounds better. I don't want to be completely silent as that was always a turnoff when I watched let's players.

Like you Harmill, I'm always watching let's plays while eating or multitasking something. Sometimes I'll be in a completely different window and just listen to the narration.

I don't know. It's such a new frontier! I do think I'll try and aim between 20-25 minutes.

The LP'er should generally read it out, so that no confusion occurs for slow readers.

I don't mind it too much either way, though it is nicer when the LPer reads the dialogue out loud and maybe even does their own voice acting on it. However, if they themselves are reading too slowly, it can be a bit annoying. If they are not reading out the dialogue, they should at least keep commenting on it and making funny remarks, so that their LP is fun to watch.

You should aim to make your videos about 10 mins or so. It gives the viewer time for breath and be able to come back to the next episode when they have time. If the episode is too long, they have to end the episode and they may never return back. 

Just do whatever you feel that has an adequate amount of content. If something ends up taking you an hour to record, but you want to cut all the battles, then it may only end up being 30 or so minutes. If you have a real dialogue-heavy scene or some events that can't be skipped or the like, maybe it's okay to go above an hour. I remember the beginning of Okami took someone an hour and a half just because the introduction to that game is soooooooooo long (though I doubt you'll run into the same problems here). Fifteen minutes is far too short of a timeframe unless you were playing something like a short horror game, or if you're doing a side dungeon that isn't really relevant to the main story.

All in all, 30-45 is what other people say, but I say do it up until you have enough content for an episode, and do it that way.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys!  I've taken some of them to heart.  I should be showing off my let's play channel soon enough ^^