Summary
MindsEye’s director Leslie Benzies has defended the game’s shorter run-time and linear approach by noting that “the majority of people” don’t actually play games all the way to the end anyway.
Without a doubt,Build a Rocket Boy’s MindsEye has to be one of the strangest games coming out in 2025. Not only did it start off as an"experience" within the expansive Everywhere creation tool, but it’s also not really the GTA-esque game that many expect considering it’s directed by formerGTAveteran Leslie Benzies.
In fact, despite being marketed as an open world game,MindsEye actually sounds like it’s a lot closer to the Mafia series than Grand Theft Auto, with a big world that’s more set dressing than anything else. We’ve also known for a while now that it’sgoing to be shorter than you might expect, something that Benzies has recently explained in an interview.
MindsEye Will Only Take Around 20 Hours To Beat
The Devs Wanted To “Create Something That Is Finishable”
As pointed out by Insider Gaming, Benzies recentlysat down to chat with GamesIndustry about MindsEye, which included being asked about its more linear approach and shorter length. When asked about why the game didn’t go open-world like GTA, Benzies said that the team didn’t want “freedom to portray a story”.
With MindsEye, it’s set in a specific time of Jacob’s life and even bounces around, which Benzies said would make it “very difficult” to include an open-world. As the director put it, “It had to be a linear game”. That being said,Benzies does point out that you can have open-world experiences in the gamethrough its Build.MindsEye mode.
As for the shorter length, Benzies confirmed that it’s going to be “about 20ish hours”, but that there’s going to be side content and more things added after launch. The director defended the length by noting that he thinks 20 hours is a “good length for a game” and that most people - around 60 to 70 percent - don’t play all the way until the end.
I don’t think you can have filler content in games. I think people want the meat, and they want the potatoes. We’ve tried to make as much meat as we can, if that makes sense. - Leslie Benzies
Benzies finished by saying that the team would rather create something that’s finishable instead of a 200-hour game. Finally, on the price point of $60, Benzies notes that “the world’s in a funny place” and that he thinks players will appreciate the value that they get out of MindsEye and all of the content it offers.
