Just think about what you’re making as interactive experiences that someone might remember one day. Classifications are useful for marketing, and still important, but also creatively limiting. So, at the core, just make sure the experience you’re creating is a meaningful and interesting one at the abstract level.
Kan Gao on prioritizing making games that are "meaningful and interesting" and that "someone might remember one day" instead of worrying about categories.
Explaining this design choice, the director says, “I’m simply not very fond of dialogue scenes where characters go on and on about trivial matters. I prefer the pacing and atmosphere of films. Of course, I believe games that emphasize dialogue have their own merit, like allowing readers to project onto the protagonist and soak in the atmosphere, so this isn’t about which approach is better or worse. However, I believe that the maximum amount of time a person can concentrate on reading text is about 4 to 6 hours at most, and I’m concerned that if it goes on any longer, more people will start skimming or rapidly clicking though the text.”
Todo Kataoka explaining why he prefers "film" pacing in visual novels over lengthy dialogue scenes. Notable: "I believe the maximum amount of time a person can concentrate on reading text is about 4 to 6 hours at most..."
until now, my approach hasn’t been to create a game around a story, but rather, to develop worldbuilding and narrative within the game system.
Thought on games with notable stories: Focus on game system first and build world and narrative within the system.