So, over on this thread, Volcane mentioned games delivered in episodes (last comment on page 1).
I'm interested to get peoples views about episodic games, and in particular whether it's something that would suit minis. Say, for example, there was a game with a twisting turning story, and it was delivered over a number of episodes, would that be a good thing, bad thing, or neutral thing?
Thoughts?
It would most definitely be a good thing imo, I love Widget’s Odyssey, and that was episodic… an episodic RPG would be a good idea. ;)
@ jasper Nikki
what a boring game.
I like the idea. Among my PS2 games, I've got the .hack//G.U. and Xenosaga trilogies (none of which games I've actually finished . . . an issue which the shorter Minis game length might help fix). And for Sonic the Hedgehog 4, the episodic route will allow them to fix the issues in Episode 1 that people are complaining about (*ahem* vehemently) in subsequent episodes.
Of course, I would rather an episodic Minis release not take the multiple years that Xenosaga did. And, I'd rather it didn't get prematurely killed like Xenosaga. As I said in the other thread, the risk is more on the developer side, I think.
volcane
Member
In my mind an episodic title is a game series that has a story which spans several smaller episodes, most likely using similar assets and presentation style. The key benefits would be a shortened development time (with associated faster turnaround for each individual episode) and the fact that the story/game can be tweaked/modified with successive episodes based upon feedback from earlier episodes.
There is also a key benefit that the development costs/investment can be spread over the full series, providing the opportunity to derive revenue from each incremental release. The revenue generated by each episode can be used to fund development of the subsequent episodes.
I think the episodic development model fits the Minis platform perfectly, for all the reasons above. I believe that those are the kind of games that many Minis customers want.
If there is a downside, I guess that it would be that there is not likely to be any major improvements made to the game engine or presentation with each subsequent episode. This is generally OK as it will ensure that there is a consistent look, feel and gameplay experience across the entire series, however people have come to expect subsequent games to have improvements across the board (including the visuals, audio & gameplay).
To counter this issue, the game series will need careful marketing as an episodic gameplay experience, rather than a series of 'sequels' in the traditional sense. As long as each individual episode has a fast development/production turnaround, then I don't think people will mind. After all, customers don't mind that each episode within a given series of Star Trek looks the same, indeed it is expected. It's only when you transition between different series that you expect substantial upgrades to the presentation & content.
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