Adventure Gamers - Forums
You are here: Home → Forum Home → Gaming → Adventure → Thread
Post Marker Legend:
-
New posts -
No new posts
Currently online
AG Theme Of The Week #4- Episodic Games!
Hi everyone,
For week 4 of the AG Theme of the week, I thought I’d venture into the territory of episodic titles. For those of you who don’t know, an episodic title is one that scraps the traditional release schedule of releasing a whole game at once, and instead releases a game in parts, similar to a TV show. (Hence the use of the word episodic. ) Many of these get a bad rap on this website, but I rather enjoy them. Probably the most (in)famous developer of games that use this release schedule is Telltale. Telltale pioneered the genre with titles such as Tales of Monkey Island and the Sam & Max reboot, but is probably best known for their Walking Dead adaptation. Many of the major episodic releases feature dialogue choices that affect the storyline. Many feature multiple endings depending on the choices you make throughout the game (see an example of a dialogue choice in the image below):
(Image from Wikipedia)
Another notable episodic title is Life Is Strange by DontNod Entertainment. This is personally my favorite episodic title (and possibly my favorite game of all time.) Players control Max Caufield, a teenager studying photography at a boarding art school in Oregon, who learns that she has the ability to rewind time. An interesting mechanic of this game is that you have the ability to change your path by using Max’s rewind power, as shown below.
((Image from Paste Magazine) Hopefully they won’t mind since I used to write articles for them)
The final episodic title I will be focusing on is the King’s Quest reboot. This was the AdventureGamers.com GOTY from last year, and it’s easy to see why. The lavish art style, coupled with the professional voice acting, witty puns and poignant story makes this title one of the true standouts of the episodic structure.
(Image from VG24/7)
What episodic games do you enjoy? Let me know in the thread!
“Look behind you, a three-headed monkey!”- Guybrush Threepwood
Love Life is Strange, Kings Quest and most Telltale games (including Jurassic Park which a lot of people didn’t like), but I think my overall favourite like I’ve said elsewhere has to be Tales from the Borderlands.
I’ve enjoyed most episodic games I’ve played (most from telltale of course), but the worst is Sherlock Holmes Crimes & Punishments which is massively overrated imo.
Episodic games really only work for me if the episodes are released regularly, within a couple of months.
Blues and Bullets has so far released 2 episodes; the first in July 2015 and second in March 2016. There’s no sign of a third, over a year on. The story isn’t finished (who knows, it might not be finished at all), but that time gap is just too much, even if the developers are a small team.
Now Playing: Harold Halibut, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Baldur’s Gate 3, Alan Wake Remastered, Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Recently Completed: Botany Manor, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Silent Hill: The Short Message, Under the Waves
Anticipating: Beyond Good and Evil 2
Backing: Asylum
Favorites- Telltale Classic Era - SandM S2; Monkey Island Modern Era - WD S1; Borderlands; Wolf Among Us
Non Telltale - Life is Strange; Kings Quest
I’ve enjoyed most episodic games I’ve played (most from telltale of course), but the worst is Sherlock Holmes Crimes & Punishments which is massively overrated imo.
That one is not episodic.
Episodic games really only work for me if the episodes are released regularly, within a couple of months.
Blues and Bullets has so far released 2 episodes; the first in July 2015 and second in March 2016. There’s no sign of a third, over a year on. The story isn’t finished (who knows, it might not be finished at all), but that time gap is just too much, even if the developers are a small team.
That’s the problem, lots of indies started and never finished so its flawed. Blues and Bullets; Albino Lullaby and others, so right now I have a difficult time investing in indies that adapt this model.
Episodic games really only work for me if the episodes are released regularly, within a couple of months.
Same here but even when it’s released regularly, it frustrates me if the episodes are not reasonably self contained.
So far King’s Quest is the only game that really got it right, I felt that each chapter felt like a smaller game and not like an episode…
My favourites so far of the episodic games I’ve completed are Cognition & The Wolf Among Us but I do have Life is Strange, Kentucky Route Zero & Dreamfall Chapters yet to progress with.
I’m not a fan of games released in ‘bits & pieces’ & tend to wait until a series is complete before I’m tempted although I know it helps the developer if I buy each episode as it comes out. Also if I get really stuck into a game I don’t want to wait! It’s the same with a TV series - I’d rather buy a boxed set to watch the episodes back-to-back if I’m interested enough!
That’s the problem, lots of indies started and never finished so its flawed. Blues and Bullets; Albino Lullaby and others, so right now I have a difficult time investing in indies that adapt this model.
Yes, the other problem for me trying a ‘pilot’ is there have been so many Episode 1’s of games that look interesting enough but with no further episodes seeing the light of day. E.g I played the first two chapters of Reversion as the 1st one was free but alas the story was never concluded.
......... it frustrates me if the episodes are not reasonably self contained.
My thought for smaller independent developers that can’t be sure of delivering as Telltale have done so far is to make sure that episodes encompass a complete story within it even if there’s a greater plot to pursue & make sure that aspect is advertised!
....... but the worst is Sherlock Holmes Crimes & Punishments which is massively overrated imo.
McCoy97, this is not an episodic game - it’s a complete game that features 6 independent cases within it so not quite the same!
Favorites- Telltale Classic Era - SandM S2; Monkey Island Modern Era - WD S1; Borderlands; Wolf Among Us
Non Telltale - Life is Strange; Kings QuestI’ve enjoyed most episodic games I’ve played (most from telltale of course), but the worst is Sherlock Holmes Crimes & Punishments which is massively overrated imo.
That one is not episodic.
It’s not? Oh I thought each episode was released separately. I actually see it as episodic because of the episodic format.
Anyway as for actual episodic games, I always wait for the full season before I buy. Never actually played an episode as soon as it became available.
McCoy97, this is not an episodic game - it’s a complete game that features 6 independent cases within it so not quite the same!
Yea my bad, I thought it was
Interesting topic br305893 
Like you, I also feel that Telltale gets a lot of unnecessary hate here in these forums, when they have contributed so much to the genre. They pioneered the idea of episodic games, and many titles would probably not exist today if it weren’t for that formula.
Obviously there are the narrative-heavy, puzzle-light, choose your own path, type of games like all the Telltale games that came after The Walking Dead. Out of these, my favorites are Telltale’s The Walking Dead season 1, The Wolf Among Us(my favorite Telltale game of all time), and Game of Thrones (I hope they will announce season 2 after season 1’s cliffhanger). I have not yet played Tales from the Borderlands, and I hear that one is very good too.
Of the non-Telltale story-driven games, my favorite is Life is Strange and Kentucky Route Zero.
But episodic content has also found its way to other more traditional point and click, puzzle heavy adventure games. Of those, I really enjoyed the Sam and Max series, Tales of Monkey Island, the new King’s Quest (another underrated game by our forumites), the Journey Down, and Broken Age.
There are many more examples of episodic adventure games like The Dream Machine, Bertram fiddle, Adam’s Venture,and Supreme League of Patriots.
Overall, I think that episodic gaming is great if it allows developers to deliver us games if they can’t afford to do that otherwise.
Edit:
That’s the problem, lots of indies started and never finished so its flawed. Blues and Bullets; Albino Lullaby and others, so right now I have a difficult time investing in indies that adapt this model.
That is actually a very good point that I didn’t think of before. It really sucks if a game never finishes its episodes or its story. I tend to circumvent that by waiting for the release of all the game’s episodes. I tend not to like waiting in between episodes, especially if the time between them is long. Another drawback to waiting, is that if there was a long enough time between episodes, sometimes I tend to forget some details that happened in the prior episode.
Episodic games really only work for me if the episodes are released regularly, within a couple of months.
Blues and Bullets has so far released 2 episodes; the first in July 2015 and second in March 2016. There’s no sign of a third, over a year on. The story isn’t finished (who knows, it might not be finished at all), but that time gap is just too much, even if the developers are a small team.
Yes, this is a big problem for the more indie episodic games.
“Look behind you, a three-headed monkey!”- Guybrush Threepwood
That’s the problem, lots of indies started and never finished so its flawed. Blues and Bullets; Albino Lullaby and others, so right now I have a difficult time investing in indies that adapt this model.
Yes, the other problem for me trying a ‘pilot’ is there have been so many Episode 1’s of games that look interesting enough but with no further episodes seeing the light of day. E.g I played the first two chapters of Reversion as the 1st one was free but alas the story was never concluded.
Yes, reversion is one example that comes to mind when I think of a promising episode based game that was never finished.
......... it frustrates me if the episodes are not reasonably self contained.
My thought for smaller independent developers that can’t be sure of delivering as Telltale have done so far is to make sure that episodes encompass a complete story within it even if there’s a greater plot to pursue & make sure that aspect is advertised!
Yes, advertising it is key. And King’s Quest failed to advertise the fact that is self contained and that each episode is enjoyable in itself. So a lot of people waited for the game to be finished when they could have enjoyed it earlier.
Talking about marketing and sales, another badly mismanaged marketing for an episodic game was Dreamfall Chapters. There’s a percentage of players that will not buy a game until all episodes are released. So, an episodic game should never have a huge sale before it’s completely released. Yet, Dreamfall Chapters did exactly that by being in a bundle before the last chapter was released. This devalues the game, it also means that people who bought the game to support the developers but haven’t played it yet because they are waiting for all episodes to be released will feel shafted.
Oh, forgot The Journey Down which does episodes perfectly. Each episodes is self contained and works as a game by itself but there’s on overarching story across episodes.
Oh, forgot The Journey Down which does episodes perfectly. Each episodes is self contained and works as a game by itself but there’s on overarching story across episodes.
I don’t think the story needs to be contained all the time. If the episodes take years between releases sure but if it’s something like Life is Strange or Telltale games (although they get delays sometimes) I don’t mind a serialized story and playing as they get released.
Back in ye olden days I actually used to love episodic games, like the TT Sam & Max games or other pre-JP TellTale games. You got a small game with about 5-6 hours of enjoyment, and then one or two months later you would get the next episode, basically dragging the whole experience out for a whole year, with all the anticipation of waiting for the next episode like a small child waiting for Christmas 
The problem is than in order for this to work, each episode has to be a self-contained game in their own right, and they need to be released relative quickly after another - and neither is really the case anymore 
Instead they tend to be more like a single game that has just been cut into pieces, which is why I now always wait for the whole game to be released before buying.
Incidentally we have seen the same evolution in TV-shows. Where they used to mainly be self-contained episodes, where it didn’t really matter if you skipped half the episodes, then they and especially HBO shows like GOT and Westworld, are now basically 10 or 20 hour movies, that are much better suited for binge watching than suited for TV-transmission.
Some of my favourite episodic titles are:
Pretty much everything pre-JP from Telltale especially Sam & Max
Life is Strange - Despite LiS having THE worst ending in the history of gaming! (Seriously, everyone who has ever complained about the ending of ME3, should be forced to play the ending of LiS over and over again for all eternity 
)
Cognition
The Journey Down - Despite the long wait between episodes.
Dreamfall Chapters - Oddly enough, even though there were both massive delays and the episodes weren’t self-contained, then it didn’t really bother me here?!? Perhaps because I was so invested in the game and greatly anticipating each episode?
DC however did highlight another problem with the episodic format: They completely changed direction of the game midway through development!
You might get away with something like that in a normal game where you can simply scratch and remake earlier parts, but when you have already released the first 2 episodes, then it will stand out like a sore thumb!
You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ
Talking about marketing and sales, another badly mismanaged marketing for an episodic game was Dreamfall Chapters. There’s a percentage of players that will not buy a game until all episodes are released. So, an episodic game should never have a huge sale before it’s completely released. Yet, Dreamfall Chapters did exactly that by being in a bundle before the last chapter was released. This devalues the game, it also means that people who bought the game to support the developers but haven’t played it yet because they are waiting for all episodes to be released will feel shafted.
Yeah - Another problem with episodic games that DC has highlighted.
Ragner has actually commented on this, and supposedly when you are invited to be part of a bundle, you only get to say Yes or No, not “Yes, we would like to be part of a bundle, but not now. Please ask again when the whole game is released”, and they couldn’t afford to say No!
You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ
Having played Siren,Hitman and Alanwake i think this model is great but failing by many Devs, either release all together
Or release when the game is finished and you just have to release episodes
Even then momentum breaks up and gamers cannot play to set their pace…
Most of the time the mentality of release> make money > use money > rel another destroys tempo
The only episodic game I have played before all episodes were completed was King’s Quest. I bought the complete collection when only the first 2 episodes/chapters were released. I really enjoyed the anticipation while waiting for the other 3 and the epilogue. I bought Dreamfall Chapters after all episodes/books were completed but unfortunately lost interest at book 2
So I can’t really say whether or not I like or dislike episodic games. I guess it would depend on if they are stories within themselves or something as a whole in which too long between releasing each one would be an issue due to forgetting things from previous ones.
For example: INFRA, a game that was originally intended to be released as one large game has since been split up into 3 parts, not so much episodic but it has worked well for the indie developer and the players. The developer has gotten more time and funds to make the game bigger and better. While we the players have been able to play 2 large parts of the game that we would still be waiting on if it was released as a whole. The only downside is it has been 9 months since the 2nd part was released so chances are a lot of people will need to play thru the first 2 parts again once the 3rd part is released in order to get a refresh of the story. But that’s not always a bad thing, kinda like playing a sequel so you gotta brush up on the original.
This message will self destruct in 3… 2… 1… BOOM!!!
You are here: Home → Forum Home → Gaming → Adventure → Thread
