I haven't played a platform game since the late 80's and possibly early 90's, but I'm going through a phase that I should have gone through 20 years ago, ie make simple games and complete them. I've done TicTacToe and Pacman (my own less complex version), and now I want to make a platform game. But, I'm not copying any game this time. It's my own game, my own design. If it were to end up good enough, I might try and sell it. That's the level I'm aiming for anyway, if I end up with a good playable game it will have been worth it. Question is, what is the average length (minutes or screens) of an average platformer level, and how many levels are there, on average. Obviously, I know the answer is pretty much "how long is a piece of string", but maybe you guys could tell me what you think would be acceptable, or too short... or too long?

Quote:

Question is, what is the average length (minutes or screens) of an average platformer level, and how many levels are there, on average. Obviously, I know the answer is pretty much "how long is a piece of string", but maybe you guys could tell me what you think would be acceptable, or too short... or too long?

I went on Google, and found some strings for you.

Sonic:

Leaf Forest (beginning of game)
http://www.soniccenter.org/maps/sv2z11.png

Hot Volcano (middle of game)
http://www.soniccenter.org/maps/sv2z22.png

Techno Base (end of game)
http://www.soniccenter.org/maps/sv2z62.png

Mario:

Apparently this is a whole game's worth of maps?
http://ian-albert.com/misc/gamemaps/super_mario_bros/full/mario-all-1600.gif

Sonic games seem to have the most in terms of full images of individual levels. Look around for others.

Awesome, thanks!

I did the rounds on wiki looking at sonic, mario and r-type. It said how many levels and stages, but didn't give any idea of the length of stages etc, hence the reason I asked.

And, if you're curious, apparently this Sonic Center website also has a high-score listing for fastest completion in any level of any Sonic Game.

http://www.soniccenter.org/rankings/sonic_advance/times/ice_mountain_2

If you're looking for how long a level will take to complete, the first run-through for a new player will probably take at least three times as long as these high scores. I speak from experience, having seriously botched some Sonic runs myself. But then, the point of Sonic is speed - perhaps in your platformer, you'll stress something different.

Once again, thanks!

My platformer is a combat game (ninjas vs pirates). Defeat the enemies, collect the ... whatevers, and solve the odd puzzle or two, so there will be more than just physical length that will add to a levels total length.

I see the fastest time on that list is just over a minute, and the slowest over 4 minutes... that's a pretty big gap! If there are only 3 levels, that suggests that the entire game might only last 15 mins for good players. But then, as you said, Sonic is about speed. Mario appears to be quite a lot longer.

Well, that's only one of the levels (second half of Ice Mountain). This has all of them (for Sonic Advance, anyway); if you click on the name of the level, it shows you the rankings.

http://www.soniccenter.org/maps/sonic_advance

I found a review on amazon of super mario world, where the reviewer, after giving it 9.5/10, suggests that by todays standards, the game is a little short at 5 to 10 hours of game play, but in line with games of the day (2003), which by that I guess he means platformers, as Half Life came out before that and was far longer!

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2A45OA5J4SVFQ

But that is a help to me. I guess after 5 to 10 hours of a platformer, you'd probably be looking to play something else!

this is all a matter of perspective.
some games will be really fatiguing, and you won't want to play for a long time.
it's all about goals and challenge.
what can you do to keep the players attention?
a game like sonic 1 on hte master system... doesn't really have much to keep you interested. the levels can't go on for much because the player will soon get bored with repeating the same tasks.
on the other hand look at a game like castlevania symphony of the night, or super metroid.
the more involved the progression, the longer the game can be.
if you mix it up a bit you can make it longer, but if you keep the same formula, you have to keep it short.

it also depends on your target audience.
I can only speak from my own perspective, but there are gamers that want different things.
I used to work in game and there was one lady who only ever wanted games where you collect things.
if you look at more recent mario games, nintendo seems to be taking it that way. in my own opinion, it started from yoshi's island, collecting red coins and flowers in each level. this continued on with the last one i played being mario sunshine, you had to collect blue coins, red coins, stars and more.. I really got fed up of that myself, but some people obviously love it.
i suppose you need to do market research for this kind of thing.