What are your favorite short games?

kfwyre
2019-08-09T14:01:43Z

I don't have nearly as much time to game as I used to, and as such, I tend to prioritize games that are quick to finish over those that want my attention for a long time. Thus, I'm curious to know: what are the best short games you've played?

I'm going to arbitrarily set "short" at a threshhold of 3 hours or less.

Furthermore, I'm referring to games that have a defined start and end, rather than potentially infinite play sessions. That means a game like The Binding of Isaac wouldn't count despite the average play session being much less than 3 hours, but a game like Gone Home would.

If you're not sure about a game's length, check HowLongToBeat for crowdsourced runtime data.

Here's a table of recommendations mentioned in the thread, and their approximate time to complete from HowLongToBeat (using the "Main Story" category).

Game | Length (hours)
140 | 1
1979 Revolution: Black Friday | 2
A Dark Room | 3.5
ABZÛ | 2
Another World | 2.5
The Beginner's Guide | 1.5
Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons | 3
Cave Story | 7
Digital: A Love Story (1) | 2
Analogue: A Hate Story (2) | 3
Distance | 2
Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist | 0.5
Firewatch | 4
Flower | 2
Gone Home | 2
Gunpoint | 3
Her Story | 2.5
Hexcells | 2
High Hell | 1
INSIDE | 3.5
Into the Breach | 5
Jazzpunk | 2
Journey | 2
Kamiko | 1
LOVE (1) | 0.5
kuso (2) | 0.75
Membrane | 3.5
Moss | 4
My Friend Pedro | 4
NaissancE | 4
A Normal Lost Phone | 1.5
Papers, Please | 4.5
Portal | 3
Refunct | 0.5
Rez | 2
The Room | 2.5
The Room 2 | 3
Rumu | 3
Sagebrush | 2
Samorost | 0.25
SEPTEMBER 1999 | 0.09167
Spirits of Xanadu | 3
The Stanley Parable | 1.5
Stories Untold | 2.5
A Story About My Uncle | 3
Subsurface Circular (1) | 2
SUPERHOT | 2
Quarantine Circular (2) | 2
To the Moon | 4
The Unfinished Swan | 2.5
What Remains of Edith Finch | 2
Xeodrifter | 3

Comments URL: https://tildes.net/~games/f4a/what_are_your_favorite_short_games

Votes: 22

Comments: 42