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[Sethbacca]

I really liked the Telltale Walking Dead games, it was a great concept and gave the players something to look forward to progressing the story a bit at a time in focused couple hour play sessions. I really think if a dev spent the time creating the set and set pieces in which the story takes place there's no reason you couldn't adapt this type of experience to other genres. Studios could probably license some literary IPs or create new IPs that would play to the strengths of the story focused format. Get a couple of these running concurrently and releasing a new episode every couple months and boom you're plugging gaps in release schedules and ensuring a steady stream of content to keep up user engagement once you're up and running. If you could get any of the bigger IPs you could really create the gaming experience of a Mandalorian or Game of Thrones where people tune in week after week to get the next drip of content.

I'm not sure why we're not seeing more of this if the "Netflix of gaming" experience is really what they're aiming for.

 

[Punished Miku]

I'm hoping that's what As Dusk Falls turns into. Better than a lot of TV I've watched recently.

 

[SeraphJan]

That would be an interesting idea, especially allow indie developer with less fund to make those game exclusively for Game Pass or PS Plus, so the revenue from the first episode could be used to fund the second episode.

 

[feynoob]

Because games take time. It's better to make full game.

 

[Sethbacca]

Because games take time. It's better to make full game.

Yeah, you'd have to frontload some of the asset creation at the start of dev so that way you can just focus on scripting and such for ongoing episodes. But with asset libraries like Quixel and stuff coming into play even that should get easier as time goes on. Think of it more like creating a tv series where all of the filming is done at the start of the season, then you go into a post production mode where all of the editing and stuff is done.

 

[feynoob]

Yeah, you'd have to frontload some of the asset creation at the start of dev so that way you can just focus on scripting and such for ongoing episodes. But with asset libraries like Quixel and stuff coming into play even that should get easier as time goes on.

But you get more benefit with full game.
An episodic game could take 2-3 years to make. While full game takes 3-5 years.

 

[Sethbacca]

But you get more benefit with full game.
An episodic game could take 2-3 years to make. While full game takes 3-5 years.

Full games you can only release once, plus maybe some DLC. If you setup an episode game, you can have multiple years worth of content for the same amount of work.

 

[feynoob]

Full games you can only release once, plus maybe some DLC. If you setup an episode game, you can have multiple years worth of content for the same amount of work.

But the problem with episodic is the timeline production. It's why MS is not focusing on it.

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

Full games you can only release once, plus maybe some DLC. If you setup an episode game, you can have multiple years worth of content for the same amount of work.

Games or game development doesn't work that way though.

Even if you were doing this, your game pretty much would be like 90%+ complete by the time the first episode comes out. Especially if you plan on releasing a new episode every month.. or even every 3 months.

If released monthly, the first 6-8 episodes would be mostly complete and just need polishing and bug fixing, if quarterly then maybe you can get away with only having the first two episodes to that level of completion.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

But the problem with episodic is the timeline production. It's why MS is not focusing on it.

This pretty much. You have to finish most of the game and release it episodically instead of just releasing each episode when it's done.

 

[Sethbacca]

Games or game development doesn't work that way though.

Even if you were doing this, your game pretty much would be like 90%+ complete by the time the first episode comes out. Especially if you plan on releasing a new episode every month.. or even every 3 months.

If released monthly, the first 6-8 episodes would be the most complete adjust need polishing and bug fixing, if quarterly then maybe you can get away with only having the first two episodes to that level of completion.

I agree with you to a point, but UE5, Quixel and other asset libraries, AI, etc could really streamline a lot of this to a more TV like production consistency.

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

I agree with you to a point, but UE5, Quixel and other asset libraries, AI, etc could really streamline a lot of this to a more TV like production consistency.

Nope... they would make it easier no doubt... but you still would be tasked with the same problem. Most of the game would still have to be done.

Don't get me wrong, it has its benefits, but it's nowhere near as plug-and-play as you may think.

A good example of something like this would be say a game like FF16/Uncharted because its world is basically broken up into sections. But everything that works across all the sections must be completed and tested against everything that it needs to interact with. Before you even release the first chapter of the game, you have to have enough chapters completed or in a state of completion that allows you to be able to serialize your releases.

 

[killatopak]

Just wait until the whole season is released then.

 

[Represent.]

Because gamers scoff at any game thats less than 20 fucking hours long.

And I was nearly laughed out the forum when I suggested a few devs try 3 hour games, with this exact episodic approach.

 

[Robb]

I don’t really like that model so I’m glad it isn’t a big thing, but I guess it’d be a good fit.

 

[onQ123]

Every game is episodic now I wish the PR team didn't spoil the next episode of Red Fall ' 60 fps patch'

 

[Sethbacca]

Because gamers scoff at any game thats less than 20 fucking hours long.

And I was nearly laughed out the forum when I suggested a few devs try 3 hour games, with this exact episodic approach.

As an aging gamer with a waning attention span, it's exactly why I like the short hyper focused experiences. I guess to each their own but I think it would work for a lot of us.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I think Sony will probably explore that as part of their GaaS model and not doing things like everyone else.

The problem is they have to ramp up the model.

You really don't want to do that with a game like Spider-Man which does so well as a stand-alone piece. The DLC for Spider-Man 1 was also trash.

You have to find the right game for it.

 

[onQ123]

Hopefully next generation has ReRam or something like it so game data could be streamed directly into memory instead of storage that would probably lead to some cool stuff happening.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

If eps one bombs, eps 2,3,4,5 are gonna be much harder to sell

Was thinking bout this recently - kinda miss it tbh.

Enjoyed TWD, kings quest, strongbad. Etc

But i get why its a difficult business model for gaming

 

[Fbh]

I think the way game development works doesn't allow for the consistency you need for en episodic release schedule.
Look at how often games get delayed, and even when they release you get the feeling most of them needed a couple of extra months in the oven.
Telltale and Dontnod both ran into issues with that. They either had inconsistent releases or were forced to make people wait 4-5 months in between chapters which is too much

IMO for episodic stuff to work you really need to release consistently and frequently enough to keep people engage. You'd need something like "a new chapter on the first friday of every other month" or something like. And the only way to really achieve that consistency is to complete the whole game at once and then just split it up into parts. But at that point I'd rather just the get the whole game.

 

[Evil Calvin]

Tales from the Borderlands was 4 episodes. That would have worked great. Like an episode each month.

 

[DrFigs]

I'm sure MS will be doing seasonal battle pass type games in the future. but they're having some problems putting games out right now.

 

[brian0057]

Because videogames are neither movies nor TV shows.
They're toys.

 

[Sethbacca]

Because videogames are neither movies nor TV shows.
They're toys.

I don't think this has been true for a while. You can play them on what might be considered toys, but at the end of the day entertainment content is entertainment content. If they were toys then MS wouldn't be making a play for a content platform.

 

[brian0057]

I don't think this has been true for a while. You can play them on what might be considered toys, but at the end of the day entertainment content is entertainment content. If they were toys then MS wouldn't be making a play for a content platform.

That's because videogames are not a service. They're products. Regardless of how much Microsoft says otherwise.
Treating them as the former has been a disaster for the both industry and the medium.
Also, I hate how everything these days (not just games) is treated as "content".

 

[AJUMP23]

Valve proved that episodic content will get abandoned and leave you hanging.

 

[DeepEnigma]

We are definitely seeing sold betas early access on Game Pass.