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Does the 2 hour refund limit on Steam affect game design? (lemm.ee)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

26 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I just picked up the highly hyped Blue Prince. On the other hand reviews have also called it a very niche game. I like puzzle games to a certain extent and roguelikes, but these are subjective experiences.

Anyways, I was hoping to get the gist of it and get into a groove and decide if I like it within the refund period.

The game mechanics are explained through notes in the game at it took me 80 minutes to reach a point where an important mechanic is explained.

This could have been done much earlier, I wonder why the developer delayed the explanation when it's just useful information

Other games also front load the prologue with long tutorials and cutscenes. So by the time you get into the meat of the game the refund window is out.

The other elephant in the room is if steam refunds are meant as a demo for everything or just to check technical issues like FPS and network connection issues

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I haven't heard of the game but see that it's going for $27. For me at least, buying a $27 game, I'd expect 10 hours minimum of enjoyable gameplay, which throws the free refund out the window if it would deliver.

It could be possible that they wanted to increase their game length to justify the price and stretched things if the first 80 minutes were tedious and slow. I'm sure there's some consideration to front load the enjoyment into the first few hours, with or without the refund, but I would assume lesser priced games would focus on that and not one going for this price.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

gotta avoid sunk cost, I used to buy 30$ games and say if I got 10 hours its worth it when I didnt enjoy the game and wouldve been better off spending my time (which is always more valuable than the amountt of money lost on a game 20-70$) elsewhere

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Right yeah enjoyable entertainment is my requirement, why pay for something and waste my time if I'm not having fun