So let's say I've made a game which is most likely to be over in 2 minutes, but a player choice or two can take as long as the player wants if they so choose. Is that enough to no longer count as a 2 minute game? Would I have to put a time limit on the decision to 100% for sure ensure gameplay doesn't go longer than 2 minutes? My game's a bit unconventional, so what does and doesn't count as "gameplay" is, admittedly, probably a bit debatable to begin with, which admittedly doesn't help matters.

There's also a gameplay segment with a similar problem, if you just hold down a button it'll always be over in like 30 seconds tops but if you purposely do nothing it won't ever end. Does that need a time limit?

My interpretation of the rule is that a run of the game, in which it is properly "experienced" should not exceed 2 minutes. So a game that a player could hypothetically keep running for over 2 minutes would be fine, but not one where to properly play the game would necessitate a more than 2-minute runtime. By similar token, a game with lots to do, but that can technically be rushed through in 2-minutes, wouldn't be okay.

No, I think it is probably fine. My game can technically run for slightly more than two minutes if the player is taking their time, but from what I've seen if it can be played at a steady pace within two minutes it's probably okay. Almost every game submitted from what I've seen has taken me a little over two minutes for me to complete.

We want to keep the rules flexible as much as possible, but the “main” requirement is to make a game beatable within the 2 minutes time frame. Maybe try to add a little something that will “force” the player to move on instead of “doing nothing”?

Ah, yeah, that makes sense.

I considered adding something like that, but I figured that a particularly slow reader might need a bit more time to make the choice, so I decided against it in the end since I don't have an easy way to accommodate for that. I did however place a cap on a certain thing that otherwise could've made the game impossible to clear in 2 minutes under certain circumstances, so there is that at least, it's always possible to beat in 2 minutes barring a particularly slow reader on the choice (it's like, about 4 sentences to be clear).

Heck,  if you never stall at any point and instantly act every time you can, the game would be over in only a few seconds more than a single minute if I recall how everything is timed correctly. I feel like I left enough time that the average player will finish the game in 2 minutes at most. The part where you hold a button (and alternatively can mash a different button), there it maybe would've made a bit more sense to force the player after a certain point, but given the context, automatically finishing that part wouldn't have quite the same impact, so as with the choice I didn't feel it fit the game very well to force the player through faster.