In defense of the three-hour mobile game

There's a strange pressure for games to be endless, as if value is measured in hours. But some of the most memorable things I've played this year were over in an afternoon.

Hollow Lantern took me about three hours and I wouldn't add a single room to it. It had a point, made it, and got out of the way. The ending stayed with me precisely because it didn't overstay.

Short games are honest. They don't pad themselves with fetch quests to justify a price. They respect that your time is finite and your phone has a thousand other demands on it.

Next time you finish a tight little game and feel a pang that it's over — that's not a flaw. That's the game doing its job.