I''d say you''d need a fairly powerful scripting language and editing tools to pull this off. After all, if there''s you''re thinking of producing something every week, you need the actual scenario creation to be as smooth and painless as possible. If you decided to use the polymorphic approach I mentioned, you''ll need some kind of search engine built in. Adding something along the lines of character histories or roles wouldn''t hurt either. Basically, if you want the system to pick a preexisting character for it''s script you want to make sure you get the right reaction from the player. Having little Jimmy become the evil overlord might be an interesting twist, but I''d rather have something like that by design rather than accident.

The first thing I thought of when reading through this was Star Trek: TNG episodes. Each week was a different adventure, and it could be watched independently from the others and be enjoyed, but if you watched an entire season, there were back stories and such that sort of tied them together...sort of.

Anyway, I don''t see why it wouldn''t work.

I dunno... I can''t say I associate with this idea at all.

For one thing, the overall idea would feel pretty pointless after a while because I''d see little to no progress. It really IS just new weekly scenarios. Personally, I prefer a long, drawn-out, well-crafted story where characters progress, stuff happens, people die, and power is gained. It''s a little difficult to have a climatic battle if you only have 30-45 minutes to build your team up, have a story going on, and end up being reasonably challenged by the end without having a really steep progress curve.

On the other hand, persistant changes to the game world and to characters would probably make this work. Take anime, for instance. A few years back, most series had 26 episodes (Escaflowne, Evangelion, Cowboy Beebop, Outlaw Star (IIRC), etc..). For the most part, characters didn''t progress too much in terms of power (Shinji gained better control and understanding of his Eva and it ended up growing in power, but Spike never ended up becomming any stronger or better, for instance). Most of the time, the episodes were not linked (particularly with Evangelion and Cowboy Beebop) BUT there was still an underlaying storyline that DID progress and in the end, the episodes were partly dependant on each other. It made for dramatic conclusions where all that progress finally caught up and resolved itself.

The point to this is that without an form of permanent alterations to the game world or to the characters, and without an eventual conclusion, you''re just pumping out weekly short scenarios the player can start a new game with...

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Original post by RuneLancer
The point to this is that without an form of permanent alterations to the game world or to the characters, and without an eventual conclusion, you''re just pumping out weekly short scenarios the player can start a new game with...

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An episodic format still allows you to change not only the characters and the story in the game but also the gameplay as the series progresses. It''s not quite a new game because the characters still remain the same, and the gameplay would probably be similar as well. So it''s basically just new levels every week. Narrative elements like characters and game world can be changed as much or as little as you''d like.

While boolean and myself are supporting episodic stuff similar to Saturday Morning cartoons in order to appeal to people that would just like to pick up random episodes and play them through in 30 minutes to an hour, you could also make games for people that want more dramatic soap opera style stuff. You could build a series that has to be played in order to be appreciated, or you could do something in between, like with Cowboy Bebop.

The thing is, this whole conversation is extremely story-centric, which implies an episodic game has to have a deep storyline. Really you could do something like episodic Warioware and release random minigames every week, maybe with some very lose plot tying them together.

I agree with that summary of the idea, Impossible. I don''t think that it''s a new idea in episodic delivery, but I definitely wish I could d/l professionally-made episodes of Halo or Unreal 2 every couple weeks.

My desire for KOTOR is quite different, however. While I do enjoy it as a single unit, it would feel less like a harmful addiction if it were available in episodes. As you''ve pointed out, one could bring more than just weapons and armor into the game.

The next question that comes up, then, is what would the technical delivery schedule for such a game look like? My vision would be of a completed engine at day one, with a release cycle thereafter which only delivered new tech if it passed a certain (high) standard of stability.

ld

Aside from the arc of character development you need to also consider the arc of player skill. How would you intend to keep the eppisodes intersting for skilled veteran players, but at the same time simple enough that new players can jump in at any episode? Perhaps you could ramp difficulty dynamically, but this would essentially create a game that is always of the same difficulty relative to the player and would also be quite boring. Perhaps a modification of this system where difficulty increases "ahead" of the player, but plateus off until they can cope before ramping again?

I''ve always liked the idea of episodic games. I wanted to do an RPG in this fashion, releaseing 2-4 hours of gameplay bi-weekly or monthly but it''s a ton of content to create. I figured the only good way to keep the plot coherent and without holes would be to essentially write out the story ahead of time and withold each continuation for a time period. I think the reason episodic games are uncommon is because they represent a large commitment to develop new content on a regular basis, and with slips in the schedule the only sane way to maintane schedule would be to build up a buffer of episodes before releasing the game.

Ravyne, NYN Interactive Entertainment
[My Site][My School][My Group]

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Original post by NeoMage
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!

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Why not use a file to store data from previous episodes? Or make it so linear that it''s impossible to avoid getting the items and experience needed and then start the next episode from there?

I''m planning on making a weekly RPG in a persistant world. My implementation of it will be incredibly linear, but it''s more to draw attention to my company so I can sell some of my better games, assuming I ever get around to finishing one.

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Original post by Ravyne
Perhaps you could ramp difficulty dynamically, but this would essentially create a game that is always of the same difficulty relative to the player and would also be quite boring.

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I find myself disagreeing with this more and more as time goes by. Games don''t need to be hard for those of us out of our teens (more and more the dominant market), they just need to be interesting. Including a difficulty setting wouldn''t hurt, but let the player do what they please, if it''s an episodic game the internal arcs are more important than some illusory skill grade.