If I knew more about programming and had more time, I would start this project myself. Seeing as I don’t, I figured I might post it here and MAYBE someone else will get an idea from it. Basically, I was thinking of having an weekly/monthly episode type game. Its the same game world with the same main character, and each week you log onto the website and download a new part of the game. Now, before you jump up and down and post links to past articles that are discussing this, let me explain it a bit more. Each episode has only around 30-45 minutes play time. Each game episode runs much like a TV show where ''this weeks tale'' is told. Now, you may say ''But Boolean! This is no different from separate missions in a game! You are stupid sir!''. Well, unlike missions, the last mission has really no bearing on the next. You don’t keep items, the character seems to always have no effects from the last episode; just like a TV show. Players could log onto the site, read descriptions of the episodes, and download one that they think sounds cool and play that. Its kinda a bit hard to explain without making it sound shit, but what do you think of this idea?

Its a nice idea, but my only concern would be the amount of content you''d need to be pumping out each week, unless you do it within the same settings, which would be rather boring.

And I''d actually be for continuation, with cliff hangers to get the player to "tune in" next week. But with definite story arcs and seasons, like 24.

Well-timed, I was just planning to post a thread on games that make me wish for episodic delivery (KOTOR, Halo). The idea has come up numerous times before, and a bunch of people are already doing it. Episodic gaming hasn't really found success yet, but there are many games that might benefit from the model, especially if the experience is unique enough, as with Halo. I also think production values on this type of game will not soon be on par with those of full-scale boxed games, much as television and movies are very different in terms of production.

ld

edit: last link

[edited by - liquiddark on April 27, 2004 7:48:47 AM]

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Original post by Syphoon
And I''d actually be for continuation, with cliff hangers to get the player to "tune in" next week. But with definite story arcs and seasons, like 24.

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Original post by liquiddark
... and a bunch of people are already doing it...

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Actually, these were what I was trying to avoid. Instead of being a long continuos story which could really be done in just one game, this would be more ''once off'' stories.

Say for example the game was based on a superhero. One episode you might have to stop the city being blown up, the other you might have to rescue the police chief. I could play both or just one of these.

Although there might be a bit of continutation (character might get new powers), it should not be required that you have played any previous missions. Much like I can turn on an episode of Spiderman and just watch it without knowing all the back story.

To another extent, I suppose this is much like a web-comic. I can log onto pvponline.com and read a strip on its own and it still makes sense. Thats kinda what I was aiming for. Being able to browse through episodes, seeing one called ''Generic boy versus the terrible space beings from outer space!'' and thinking ''that sounds like fun'' and playing that episode.

I would actually like to see this done on an actual platform, because then you could keep your items and such. Basically, games could be sent out kinda like PlayStation Underground sent out their magazine. They could be previews or something, or they could be used to unlock bonus material.

By now, I''m pretty much babbling on about what I''d like to see. To put it simply, I like the idea.

Orion

"Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own."
-BRUCE LEE

I posted this topic a while back and its seem to go over well.

http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=170032


I think episodic games will become a market in the future. It will open more oppertunites in game industry for writers and scripters since with monthly episodes these will become nessary to keep the content interesting and well thoughtout.

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"Fate and Destiny only give you the opportunity the rest you have to do on your own."
Current Design project: Ambitions Slave

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Original post by boolean
Actually, these were what I was trying to avoid. Instead of being a long continuos story which could really be done in just one game, this would be more ''once off'' stories.

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This isn''t a good idea, in my opinion. The first thing you learn, classroom and real-world both, about writing in general and dramatic composition in particular is that your characters need an arc, which leads to your plot needing an arc. Even in news stories, which ostensibly report objective facts, the challenge is always to find the arc inside the story.

Character arc may not be something incredibly complex, and may in fact be encapsulated in the development of the character power-wise, but players are consumers, and consumers show over and over that they almost always want a visible, meaningful development. Even the Simpsons, relative paragon of stateless entertainment that it is, ended up with Abu''s children, lisa''s saxamaphone, etc. You can start in any one place, but you''re not likely to appreciate or (more importantly) stay loyal to a series unless you can see a world inside it.

ld

One off stories doesn''t necessarily mean the characters don''t develop. Basically he''s saying you would have a monster\boss of the week type series, something like a Saturday morning cartoon. Remember, a game, even a heavily story based game doesn''t rely 100% on storyline. As long as the gameplay and the gameplay oriented content (levels, enemies, etc.) is interesting people will be interested in the game even if the characters are extremely 1 dimensional.

So while each plot is self contained, and you don''t really need to be familiar with what is going on in the plot line to play a new episode, that doesn''t mean the main characters can''t change and grow.

I''m interested in episodic games, especially as a way of selling a downloadable story based game without having to worry about generating tons of content before you can sell the game (something that stops most indies from producing RPGs.) With a good toolset it wouldn''t be that hard to create levels\stories\characters on a weekly or biweekly basis, although I would probably do it comic book style and release once a month.

What if you made these episodes modifications to a persistant world? In short, the players can go around and visit the various locations and people in the world, they just won''t be doing much. In short, make some standard content for the players to explore in the basic set. Players will probably burn through a lot of this comparatively quickly. That''s when they''ll start looking at your "story in a can" modules...
What would be really great is a kind of polymorphic module, that adapts it''s content to the game world it''s applied to. For example, when setting up the story, the game might have certain roles it needs filled. The program could use some search criteria to look through the game world for a certain kind of character. If it found on, it rewrites some of their script and casts them in the new role. If it doesn''t find anyone, a new character is introduced. Similiar things could be done with locations. This means the world would continue between stories, but the stories would provide most of the action. For example, instead of "generic boy x" you could save little Jimmy from down the street, who might have given you an important tip on a previous mission...

Hmmm... sounds like it''d be cool. In fact, I''ve been wanting to do something much like that, but instead of a ''new game'' every week, it''d be like an expansion or add on, cuz losing everything I gained in the last "mission" would piss me off!