Jamie: Yeah, I definitely agree that you want time to iterate on your first few levels and they will naturally be what you want to put in front of people the most. Coming back and revisiting them to add great polish after they are "done" the first time is also good. I was mostly pointing out the numerous times in my experience the first few levels get "done" first and then just aren't as tricked out with detailed knowledge of the engine as the later levels. On AOM we revised the tutorial at least 5 times based on fairly methodical playtesting and data from our test lab (which runs real super-inexperienced people through it). I know AOK was similar. Of course those games run into a different but related problem of wanting to convey tutorial info and that being at odds with the ideal pacing of your early levels... Factory: I agree that more people are finishing games now that they are shorter (even if they are finishing them via rental, a rant for another day). Much like good writing, you want to start and end with your most memorable stuff. But even with shorter games, I think you get a lot more mileage out of an awesome start than an awesome finish. I do think shorter games are a great trend though, since often times what is extending game length is just padding that dilutes the game experience -- obviously this is sort of genre-dependant though.