Do you think episiodic games would work in the GM scene?
Because I've had this idea lately that maybe it could be a good approach to game design.I mean, it can work in the videogame industry right?Half-Life, and Sam and Max (telltale) are examples of commercial games that work in episodes.Maybe GM games could too!Of course I'm not talking about some cheap, rushed piece of rubbish, but maybe a short, but high quality platformer with a good story.The possible advantages of doing this is:- Generally faster creation time- Easier to apply feedback to sequals- Story could be quicker and/or easier to make (as there could be more specific focus on one area of the story, or the story of each episode can be less connected to the main plot)- Easier to keep players attention ( a very difficult thing for a game maker to do is to keep the modern player's attention for extended periods of time, maybe this is why a modern point and click adventure like sam and max is more popular and profitable than the more traditional point and click games of yesteryear (the only example I can think of at the moment is Toonstruck, which was an amazing game, and last for ages, but it was a commercial bomb!)However, I can see some disadvantages:- Pressure. If the 'episode' turns out to be popular, people may expect the next episode to come out soon after the first.- Quality. People will expect the quality of the next episode to be >= the prevoius one. (see Sam and Max for insance, the second and third episode are considered to be worse than the first, and this perception could prevent people from trying them, but personally the difference in quality is very marginal, and all espisodes I've played so far have been excellent!)I might actually try this out!But only if I get a good enough idea, (maybe something lighthearted and cartoony, with a slight hint of crudeness!), and time (time is the most important necessity of game making!).What do you guys think about episodic games?I would be intrigued to know…(P.S. are there any examples of episodic GM games, I haven't had the time to play many GM games recently (because of school), but if anyone could point me in the direction of a good series (not something like WTFBBQ as I don't consider them directly related enough to be episodic), I would appreciate it!)
Do a bunch of Mario games! =) (Dodges incoming bullets)… ;)
Well, another problem with episodic games is that people might find it annoying to download the game in bits and pieces. They might see it's episodic and decide that they don't want to download all the episodes, especially when the episodes are gonna keep coming. But it could work for some games if you have a good enough hook, I suppose.
adding to flashback's:
Then retrieve the ashes, and burn themEpisodic games work well depending on this story. This really has nothing to do with GM as GM really has no effect on the outcome of the game. You should really be asking yourself if you have the ability and the drive to make a good game that people would want to play in episodes.
I like the notion of episodic games but with a one man team you have to have like 3-4 episodes finished before you release the 1st one, otherwise the gaps will be too big between versions… And that kinda beats the purpose of episodic games (ie get feedback after episode 1, implement in episode 2).
Oh and Hi again RetroVortex. :Pyeah switching genres would be a bad idea
adding to flashback's:
Then ingest the ashes, and kill yourself.Why do you think the HL2 episodes are so good? because they offer the same great formula of the previous game that everyone loved, but with new content and a continuation of the amazing story.