When was the last time you actually saw a game’s credits roll?
The average Steam game has a 14% completion rate. Fourteen. That means for every 100 people who buy a game, 86 never finish it. And honestly, I get it. Life gets in the way. The next shiny game releases. The backlog grows.
Short games are the answer to this problem, and they don’t get nearly enough credit.
There’s a persistent bias in gaming culture that equates game length with game value. More hours = more worth it. It’s a hangover from the “dollar per hour” era and it quietly poisons how we think about short games before we even try them.
Here’s what I know: What Remains of Edith Finch gave me one of the most powerful experiences I’ve had in gaming. It took me 2 hours. I’ve played 80-hour RPGs that didn’t come close.
These games are short. They’re complete. And you’ll actually finish them.
A Note on Times
Every completion time in this article comes from HowLongToBeat data. I’m listing main story time for games that have one, and standard completion for games that don’t have a traditional story.
“Under 5 hours” is the strict threshold. Everything here meets it for the main experience.
The Emotional Gut-Punches
What Remains of Edith Finch, ~2 hours
If you played this, you know. If you haven’t, stop reading and go play it first.
Edith Finch is a walking sim where you explore the family home of the Finch family, uncovering how each member died. That description doesn’t do it justice. Each death is told as a different gameplay vignette with its own art style, mechanics, and emotional register. One is a bathtub. One is a swing set. One involves a fish cannery and is one of the most inventive sequences in gaming history.
Two hours. That’s all it asks of you. And it will stay with you longer than games that asked for 100.
Time: ~2 hours | Price: ~$20 | Platforms: All | On Game Pass: Sometimes, check current availability
Florence, ~30-45 minutes
Yes, 30-45 minutes qualifies as a “game” and yes, it belongs on this list.
Florence tells the story of a young woman who falls in love, navigates a relationship, and finds herself. Entirely through simple, tactile puzzles that shift to match the emotional state of the story. Conversations are represented by assembling puzzle pieces. Arguments by different puzzle sizes. It’s clever and quiet and genuinely moving.
Half an hour. That’s less time than an episode of TV. Worth every minute.
Time: ~30-45 min | Price: ~$6 | Platforms: iOS, Android, PC, Switch
Venba, ~1.5 hours
A cooking game about an Indian immigrant family in Canada, told through recipes passed down across generations. You reassemble recipes from worn cookbooks, cook them, and through that process watch a family’s story unfold across decades.
It’s short and it knows it. Every scene matters. The food is central to the memory and the grief of living far from home. I’m recommending this to everyone I know.
Time: ~1.5 hours | Price: ~$15 | Platforms: All
The Ones That Feel Longer (In the Best Way)
A Short Hike, ~1.5 hours
Claire the bird is at her aunt’s cabin on Hawk Peak Provincial Park. She wants to get a signal on her phone to wait for an important call. The only place with signal is the peak.
That’s it. That’s the whole game.
What happens between here and the peak is joyful in a way I can’t fully explain. The island is small but alive. Every character you meet is delightful. The controls feel physically satisfying in a way platformers rarely achieve. The ending is exactly right.
Not every game needs to be long. This one is exactly as long as it should be.
Time: ~1.5 hours | Price: ~$8 | Platforms: All
Journey, ~2 hours
You’re a robed figure in a desert. You travel toward a distant mountain. You might encounter another player along the way, someone also traveling the same path. You can’t communicate except through musical tones.
Journey is one of those rare games that uses the medium to say something that couldn’t be said any other way. The anonymous connection with a stranger. The arc of the journey. The ending.
It’s 2 hours and it earns every minute of its reputation.
Time: ~2 hours | Price: ~$15 | Platforms: PC, PlayStation, iOS
Gris, ~3.5 hours
A wordless platformer about grief and recovery, told through watercolor art and music. You play a girl who has lost her voice. The world starts colorless and slowly fills in as she heals.
I’ve recommended this to people who don’t consider themselves gamers and they’ve come back genuinely affected by it. The art direction is extraordinary. The gameplay is gentle enough to be accessible to almost anyone.
Four hours of your time. That’s the ask. Worth it completely.
Time: ~3.5 hours | Price: ~$17 | Platforms: All
Unpacking, ~3 hours
A puzzle game about moving into a new place and unpacking your belongings. No dialogue. No character model. Just objects and what they tell you about the person whose life you’re inhabiting.
It sounds like nothing. It’s actually a surprisingly emotional story about identity, relationships, and what we keep with us through every stage of life. The ending hit me completely sideways and I was not expecting that from a game about unpacking boxes.
Time: ~3 hours | Price: ~$20 | Platforms: All | On Game Pass: Yes
The Narrative Thrillers
Firewatch, ~4 hours
It’s 1989. You’re Henry, a fire lookout in a Wyoming wilderness preserve who spends the summer talking over radio with your supervisor Delilah. Then something strange happens.
Firewatch is a slow burn (no pun intended) that’s more interested in the two characters on either end of that radio than in whatever mystery is unfolding around them. The writing is exceptional. The Wyoming wilderness is genuinely gorgeous. The conversations between Henry and Delilah are the best-written relationship in a game I can name.
Four hours. Very good four hours.
Time: ~4 hours | Price: ~$20 | Platforms: All
The Forgotten City, ~5 hours (runs can overlap)
This one technically pushes the threshold for some players but I’m including it because the structure is worth understanding.
The Forgotten City is a time-loop mystery set in ancient Rome. You’re dropped into a small community with one rule: if anyone breaks the law, everyone dies instantly and you reset. Your job is to figure out who broke the law and how to stop it.
The game’s genius is that every run through the loop (each lasting maybe 30 to 45 minutes) teaches you something new. You can’t “finish” it in one pass. You learn, you reset, you try differently. Individual sessions are very naturally contained and very satisfying.
If you want mystery, excellent writing, and a structure built for short sessions, this is your game.
Time: ~5 hours (main resolution) | Price: ~$25 | Platforms: All
Mouthwashing, ~2.5 hours
The 2024 horror hit you might have heard about. A psychological horror game set on a drifting spacecraft, told non-linearly through the perspective of a crew slowly unraveling.
It has a 79% Steam completion rate, which is remarkable for any game and especially remarkable for a horror game in a genre notorious for players bouncing off early. It’s disturbing, clever, and does things with the horror genre that much bigger games don’t attempt.
Not for everyone. Excellent for the specific person who is exactly the right audience for it.
Time: ~2.5 hours | Price: ~$8 | Platforms: PC
The Pure Fun Picks
Superhot, ~2.5 hours
“Time moves only when you move.” That’s the whole mechanic. You’re in slow-motion until you take an action, at which point everything else catches up. You dodge bullets, grab weapons from enemies, chain kills together in ways that feel like a choreographed action sequence.
Superhot is one of those games where every level makes you feel genuinely cool. The story wraps around itself in a weird, clever way. It’s done in under 3 hours.
Time: ~2.5 hours | Price: ~$23 | Platforms: All
Portal, ~3 hours
If somehow you’ve never played it: this is one of the most inventive puzzle games ever made. You have a gun that creates portals. The entire game is built around exploring and subverting that mechanic. The writing is funny. The ending is memorable.
Three hours. Completely timeless. If you own it from some ancient Steam sale, today is the day.
Time: ~3 hours | Price: ~$10 | Platforms: PC (SteamOS Deck verified)
The Quick Reference
| Game | Time | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| What Remains of Edith Finch | ~2h | ~$20 | Emotional experience |
| Florence | ~45 min | ~$6 | Very short, meaningful |
| Venba | ~1.5h | ~$15 | Story about family, food, loss |
| A Short Hike | ~1.5h | ~$8 | Pure joy |
| Journey | ~2h | ~$15 | Atmosphere and emotion |
| Gris | ~3.5h | ~$17 | Art, accessibility |
| Unpacking | ~3h | ~$20 | Quiet emotional story |
| Firewatch | ~4h | ~$20 | Best video game writing |
| The Forgotten City | ~5h | ~$25 | Mystery, time loops |
| Mouthwashing | ~2.5h | ~$8 | Psychological horror |
| Superhot | ~2.5h | ~$23 | Feeling very cool |
| Portal | ~3h | ~$10 | Classic puzzle game |
Short games are complete games. They ask less of your time because the developers made choices. They cut the filler. They made sure every hour mattered.
That’s harder than making something long. And the results speak for themselves.
You’ll actually finish these. And you’ll be glad you did.
What short game has hit you hardest? Drop it in the comments. I’m always looking for recommendations in this category.
About the Author: Fred is one half of Two Average Gamers, a community-focused gaming site dedicated to helping regular folks enjoy gaming without the toxicity. He cried twice playing What Remains of Edith Finch and isn’t embarrassed about either time.
More from the Busy Gamer’s Guide
This article is part of our Busy Gamer’s Survival Guide series, the complete guide to gaming when life won’t let you.
