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It is sort of funny to think that a developer that was resurrected from the dead, might somehow, successfully pull off episodic gaming now when they couldn't before they died.
If Valve couldn't do it, I sort of doubt anyone can really do it. Video games are soul-crushing to develop.
Telltale was severely mismanaged. They expanded way too quickly and created incredible amounts of debt based on the idea that all their games would be as successful as The Walking Dead. I do believe that there is a place for episodic adventure games, just with a small enough scope and expectations.
Devil's advocate, it's possible they learned a lot by trying and failing, and now they are better equipped than anyone to figure it out.
Then it's just a question of the audience wanting it.
The issue with valve is not they couldn't do it, it's because how they develop game. If no one pick up the project then the project just die. That's how hl2ep3 die. If they run like how every other company is, we would already finished the series.
The flip side of that is we get stuff like Steam Deck, Index, Alyx, and Proton.
I remember how it never worked in the way devs intended it to - a way to create smaller games in scope, that kept development costs and times low.
It always seemed to spiral out of control after the first episode.
yeah i'm skeptical for the same reason. "Episodic" seems to always end in disaster for devs, but hey, who knows? The market has changed a lot in the past few years, maybe episodic makes more sense now?
With regards to taletells implimentation of it, I found it pretty badly done. IE namely they used it for choice based story games... but I felt them pretty damn weak in that area. (in the sense that 99.9% of the story is pretty set in stone, and usually based on the most common choice, you go back and do the opposite, and everything plays out pretty much identically except maybe one or 2 one liners will change).
IE I remember the walking dead... Kenny was a mostly cool guy, who was always in conflict with a hot head old man, obviously the natural way most people play is to take kenny's side in the conflicts. In the end the hothead leaves you for dead and kenny saves you.
then replaying it... basically with constantly taking hotheads side, being a jerk to kenny at every juncture along the way. so you get the alternate ending, where hothead punches you out, and kenny saves you... but adds in the comment "even if you are an asshole". while rescuing you.
and honestly the episodes just branch that further in story, largely they clearly didn't have the resources to make a wide ever branching story that you think it is... so you just get little bits that all merge back into the same path overall.
I think the only game that really let you branch out with your choices was Detroit: Become Human. You could literally delete fully playable characters and their storylines from the game by the first choice you make with them.
I guess that means I'll buy it when the full story is finished and all the episodes released? 🤷 I just don't have any interest in buying half a story.
Edit: okay, read the article. Kind of odd, in so far as they already have everything finished, but they're doling out the game in pieces. Maybe as a kind of marketing strategy?
I don't really get it, but at least they have the game done and are planning to release it at a reasonable price. 👍
Telltale games were just like that. Its episodes in that each section has an arc and usually a cliffhanger of an ending.
Its part marketing and part way to keep everyone interested and feeling like they get the story at the same time. Its meant to feel like TV where you had control of the story to some degree but it continues forward no matter what.
Gives me HL2 vibes.
Life is Strange, for me.
The Walking Dead! That was the first episodic game I played as it released
Back To The Future was the first one I played as it came out. Love the Walking Dead series. Need more adaptations of the comics rather than the show.
Where's Wolf Among Us 2?
Kings Quest? Poppy Playhouse?
Err...isn't ff7remake episodic as well? Wdym bringing it back
Each game in that series is a full length game. Episodic implies that each entry in the series will be shorter, cheaper, and with more frequent releases.