discussion Thoughts on episodic games?

[Balcadian]

Nope. If your game is getting that big, you need to learn better optimization. I have AAA titles on Steam that are smaller than some of the nonsense being peddled as VN's. And if it's not a size issue, just release it normally.

 

[cosicosi89]

episodes are great if the dev can tell a great story. but track record every episodic game takes forver to be updated

 

[leproso04]

is not bad

 

[borregad]

maybe it's just me, but when i see something advertised as "episode 6" with no clear indication of whether the file in question includes episodes 1-5 or not, i just can't be bothered

 

[User_91893]

It really needs to be organized in an easy downloading manner.

Having to hunt down prior chapters can be hell some times.

 

[User_80256]

Why the original developer started breaking this game into episodes is not clear. And you can't ask him anymore, he passed away a long time ago. All the later episodes were released by another group of people and it is unclear how much the development of the game follows the original concept.
But I completely agree that such a split (as well as the split into “seasons” that some people practice) is very inconvenient.

 

[eezergoode]

All the later episodes were released by another group of people

I thought Palmer was actually a member of Love-Joint? A founding member, as well? IIRC it wasn't JUST Palmer working on any of the games anymore, unless he was working on another Emily game on his own.... I didn't know the man well at all, only communicated with him a few times, but he made it sound like he had his whole story mapped out before he started actually producing it...

 

[draslimeil]

I'm fine with episodes if they're either to break up the game size or when there are big events in the story wehere that fits.

 

[User_80256]

I thought Palmer was actually a member of Love-Joint? A founding member, as well? IIRC it wasn't JUST Palmer working on any of the games anymore, unless he was working on another Emily game on his own.... I didn't know the man well at all, only communicated with him a few times, but he made it sound like he had his whole story mapped out before he started actually producing it...

I have not (yet) looked into his projects. All the information I have is crumbs gathered here and there on *95*. And there people are more occupied with the issue of hacking games/VN created by a group of developers known as Love-Joint (Shale Hill Secrets, as an example). But Palmer's death is, alas, a fully reliable fact.

 

[eezergoode]

But Palmer's death is, alas, a fully reliable fact.

That we can agree on, I remember reading the announcement by one of the other Love-Joint members and thinking that it was some sick joke.

But looking at the credits of most of the games, Palmer wasn't even the writer for them, he was usually listed as producer or lead developer. Writing was almost always credited to another member of the team.

 

[WigglyWorld84]

I like what Moonbox is doing with Grandma's House. I like the episodic style with two releases a month.

 

[tyktamsyl]

I don't love the practice, but I kind of understand that it's just the way it is. I know games like poppy playtime wouldn't be as big as they are if the first chapter hadn't blown up. Maybe it gives them a chance to pop off since the game is less likely to be overshadowed by other big releases that happen at the same time.

I know I would hate the FF7 remake if it was episodic and each chapter was paywalled. I acknowledge that it's near impossible to stop the practice.

 

[Silwith]

I recently saw the game Double Homework. Visuals look great, but the motherfucking thing has 19 chapters. Each a different build you've to download separately. Why would anyone play that way? I don't mind a long game, but keep it together. Jikage Rising also has episodic chapters, but each one is a game on their own. Meanwhile Four Elements merged them all together in a peak game.

Am I alone in this? Would you guys play a game in different parts?

Double Homework overdoes it... HARD xD but overall I do prefer it, once a game goes close to 5GB doing a slash and starting a new "Episode/Season" is a smart move in my opinion.

If we take Her Desire as an example, one I really like, the first "Season" is about 3.5gb, there is a good amount of content and then there is a cut and you go on with Season 2, so you dont need to download full xxgb every other month again and I think it is easier to do then make Renpy games "updateable"? Well, Some of the 10gb+ games should take a lesson from that...