Well, I know the idea of an episodic game is old news, but a friend and I were thinking about finally trying to tackle it ourselves. I'd just like to discuss some of the basics of episodic game design with some other individuals. Anyway, so far I've got a few ideas on how to make the episodes flow from episode to episode concerning gameplay. Keep in mind that this is going to be a kind of top-down game similar to Link to the Past sans most of the fighting and what-not. I'm not really sure if I should give away too much, but if you guys need more details in order to get a picture in your head, feel free to ask. Things that could be carried through all of the different episodes could be things like the Main Character, a Special Item, Basic Motives (why are we on a quest? for whom? small details may change, but the basic idea remains), World, Art style, etc.. Things that could be changed throughout each of the episodes could include Location, Characters, Items, Puzzles, Enemies, Mission... I'm just having trouble pinpointing all of the different aspects, and I'd like to have specific ideas so I can actually develop a design document for each episode and use those documents in a portfolio later on. Any ideas? This may just be a very ambiguous ordeal. I guess we'll see once replies come in. All help is greatly appreciated!

First I'd suggest think of each episode as a story. What story do you want to tell during it? If you can plan out an overarching story that ties all of the episodes together I think it'll just be that much better.

So what story do you want to tell overall and how will that be broken up into each episode. I think each episode should have a semi-conclusive end. Babylon 5 (TV Series) is a good example of how they had an overarching story that transcended each season and yet each season was complete in and of itself. If the story has to be cut off and left unfinished for any reason you at least aren't leaving people hanging because of your previous ending. Like in babylon 5. There's a whole couple of seasons between the end of season 5 and the season finale (Finale being the one where they are all old and he disappears) and yet it still felt complete because the season itself was ended.


Second if its going to be RPG'ish consider allowing players to keep their old items and stats / levels from episode to episode. I personally love it when I can keep my characters from game to game. Spellborn did that for one of their expansions and I thought it was more fun to have the option to keep my characters from the previous game.

Well at the moment we're looking at the idea of having the main character be the Inventor's apprentice. The Inventor isn't from anything else, I just don't think he'll have a name or anything. Currently, we're toying with the idea of him sending the main character to pick up a package, drop off a package, or find an item like a book, ingredient, etc.. in a new location every episode. All of the episodes could start out at the Inventor's Laboratory, but you'd mostly just hop in the flying machine after talking to the Inventor and just automatically end up at your destination, go through a series of puzzles, meet several characters, maybe a few action sequences and then head back to the flying machine to end the episode. Currently, we're thinking Flash. Might just construct our own little engine though. All depends.

I do like the idea of transferring items and what-not between episodes. In Flash it could be done like a code. End of one episode, you get a code, put it in at the beginning of the next episode, you're set. If it's a download file, we could just have the save files all in one folder and have each subsequent episode read for stuff like that.