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Does the 2 hour refund limit on Steam affect game design? (lemm.ee)
submitted 3 months ago by delitomatoes@lemm.ee to c/games@lemmy.world
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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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[-] ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago

You can always request a refund while outside the 2 hour limit, it's just going to be manually reviewed instead of automatic.

The time limit is arbitrary. There are lots of games that can be finished within a few hours. I've heard some devs say their short games are refunded at much higher rates than longer ones and recommend ensuring a game is at least 2 hours long. It's like YouTube paying more money to creators who make videos that are 10min+. Now you have videos that could have been 2 minutes stretched out for meta reasons.

I doubt Blue Prince specifically tries to hide game mechanics for 2 hours to prevent people from refunding it. It's just a slow burn puzzle game.

[-] SoloCritical@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago

This is the answer.. the 2 hour “limit” is just the window in which it will almost certainly be automatically refunded.. anything more than that 2 hour limit and they will actually look into your reason why.. I’ve refunded games over the 2 hour limit for reasons like “game isn’t what I thought it would be” or “just not very fun” and I’ve never been turned down over it.

[-] MajesticElevator@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 months ago

Most of my requests after 2 hours or 14 days have been denied

[-] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Yes, the two hour limit affects game design. Based on what I've read about Blue Prince, it probably didn't affect that one much at all. The business model always affects the game design. When games were expecting to be rentals, the first few levels would be front loaded with the best that the game had to offer, and then later levels would be more phoned in. In the arcades, games would be louder to catch more attention, they'd be harder to make you put in another quarter, they'd reduce downtime to get the next person on the machine, etc.

[-] icecreamtaco@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

When games were expecting to be rentals, the first few levels would be front loaded with the best that the game had to offer, and then later levels would be more phoned in

Still happens today. First impressions matter, budgets are finite, and sometimes reviewers only play the first few parts.

[-] PapstJL4U@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Yeah, the theory if front-loaded design is just reality of game development reality. No, D2 Ac4 wasn't limited because of rentals - it was bad,because one year of crunch and still nit enough time does this to a product.

Halo1 last third is bad, because they did not have enough time, nit because they cared about rentals.

Game content dev generally starts at the beginning.

[-] imecth@fedia.io 1 points 3 months ago

sometimes reviewers only play the first few parts.

Not just the reviewers unfortunately, games shed players at every step, it's why most games are front-loaded and fall off the further you get into them.

[-] JakobFel@retrolemmy.com 1 points 2 months ago

I love Steam but I've always felt like the refund policy was a bit of a joke. I feel like the time limit should be flexible, being a bit longer for games that have long tutorials or a bunch of intro cutscenes.

[-] mohab@piefed.social 2 points 2 months ago

I agree. Like, you know what's gonna happen if I'm close to the 2-hour limit and haven't decided yet? I'm gonna refund and move on.

[-] zipzoopaboop@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 2 months ago

Alternatively you can have Sonys policy of did you boot it? Yes? Fuck you

[-] JakobFel@retrolemmy.com 2 points 2 months ago

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong, I know it can be worse. I just think it could also be better.

[-] tal@lemmy.today 0 points 3 months ago

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

I'm pretty sure that the refund window isn't primarily intended to create an ad-hoc demo of games, but to let you return a game that doesn't function correctly on your system.

Game developers who do want to create a demo can (though I'll admit that it's a less-common route than one might expect).

https://store.steampowered.com/demos/

I usually read review content, maybe watch a YouTube video of someone playing the game if I want to see gameplay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KePY3IfxqOQ

[-] TyrianMollusk@lemm.ee 0 points 2 months ago

I've seen many devs cite the refund window as why they don't need to bother maintaining a demo. They're wrong about not needing a proper demo, but people definitely do treat the refund window as a demo phase, not merely a technical test.

[-] MajesticElevator@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 months ago

Cracked versions are the real demo 😌

this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2025
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