Kotaku
It's an interesting question. Telltale's own Bone died before its time, SiN did likewise, and most full game sequels come around faster than Half-Life 2's "episodes". So why, the, does Sam & Max stand as the only successful episodic series to date?
For the other companies, Valve and Ritual, they made a lot of the mistakes we did early on. But we stuck to our guns and kept going, while they had so many other things going on at the same time. They bailed out a little earlier. We were all in it together then they dropped off.That was Telltale's Dan Connors basically saying that since all episodic gaming's going to make mistakes, best to make sure your episodes are as cheap and fast to produce as Sam & Max is. Budding episodic developers, take note.
Q&A: Telltale tells why Sam & Max works [GameSpot]
Comments
Adventure gaming is also oh-so-much more appopriate for the episodical fromat...
Because they are fun ;)
Odd. Kotaku usually scoops Gamespot, but this is the second time in 24 hours they've been second to report the same news.
Because there is a rabbit involved, and studies have shown that rabbits are the leading factor for video game purchases. The fact that he fights crime is just a perk.
Are there any other prominent Adventure genre with episodic content?.
Adventure games would work for the narrative-driven folks.
I didn't even remember Sin Episodes until this post. Is it dead? That would be a shame, it was at least enjoyable for what it was.
SiN Failed as it was little more than a poor mod.
I do also suspect S&M succeeded because of the massive fanbase had been waiting for new S&M for years and were willing to put up with the first couple of average episodes before it got better. Also were helped by Lucasarts dropping the ball with cancelling their own version.
@PSWii60-Fanboy: Yup, it's dead and gone.
I wouldn't really call the half-life episodes failures...
@Antihippy:
I was thinking the same thing. Although i must admit i don't know the sales numbers on steam for those...
Let's see...
-A known, well loved IP.
-Thoughtful (if bizarre) storytelling.
-High quality writing
-A format that lends itself to episodic writing
-A quality art team that does wonders with limited resources
-Released on a regular, short schedule (a month or two between episodes) as opposed to two years (cough...half..sputter..life)
The real question is tautological. 'Why does Sam and Max succeed while crap fails?' The fact that it's episodic is neither here nor there.
I think an adventure game will offer a higher 'hours of gameplay' / price ratio than an fps which must certainly help.
Valve failed at episodic content even though the games themselves did very well.
The amount of time and effort that goes into making each one is not comparatively lower in relation to the smaller length of the game (nor the price!).
Each game still has to be planned, developed, QA tested, marketed and released. Episode 2 was buffed up with team fortress and portal to increase the value, but a complete full sized half-life 3 would have still been better value and taken a similar time to develop (I'm presuming that we have a similar wait episode 3 ).
People don't mind waiting for full sized games if they end up being worth it.
Its really simple:
Telltale doesn't take a year and a half to release new content. You get a new episode every couple of months and they're dirt cheap.
Telltales strategy:
Release a 2-3 hour game every couple of months and charge about $10 for it.
Valves strategy:
Release a 2-3 hour game every year and a half to two years, and charge $20 for it.
Hmmm.
@Antihippy: Exactly.
Not to mention that the Half Life games are, I dunno, a BILLION times more complicated?
The next time they put out an FPS episode of Sam & Max with realistic physics, with no delays, THEN they have the green light to talk about Valve.
That was a joke, haha, fat chance.
Shit. To talk SHIT about Valve.
How could I forget to type "shit"?
Well there, I've typed it three times now.
It might be the witty commentary.
Didn't Yahtzee cover the basic concept of how Valve missed the concept of Episodic Content in his Half Life 2: Episode 2 (Manchester United 0) review?
@Antihippy: Episodic content is supposed to come more often but contain less. HL2 Episodes haven't exactly done that.
@TheSmiterer: Try $30 for Valve. Or $50, if you're only able to buy retail.
I'm guessing that the reason why it works and other episodic content fails is because nobody can stand to play Sam & Max for longer than a couple hours in total, and then probably only for a few minutes at a time.
It's worth noting one of the answers in the article: "The audience was right for this." They couldn't find an audience for Bone because it's a kiddy game (or appears to be one and isn't... hard to say, with Bone).
But Sam & Max hits the demographic sweet spot. People who remember the old games from childhood are now in steady jobs and don't have time for 40 hour sprawling game epics, but they DO have time for episodic gaming and they DO have disposable income and odds are good they DO have the technology needed to buy, download, play, and enjoy a Sam & Max game. It's a perfect mix of these factors.
Lemme put it this way. If they charged more than the ridiculously low $35 they do for a season, I'd STILL pay it. Sam & Max is quality stuff delivered in a timely fashion and I can afford to show appreciation. No doubt others are in the same boat, there.
Maybe its because sam and max is actually good.
@Antihippy: The half-life episodes are far too long apart to really be considered episodic gaming. Sam and Max used to come out every other week with a new episode, for a really reasonable price.
How does it fail?
Half-Life 2 series.. win
GTAIV.. seems like its gonna be massive
@BWolf06: The Half Life 2 Episodes are more like expansion packs than what they originally thought the episodic series was going to be. Monthly episodes is a reasonable timespan for this kind of release. HL2 makes up for the longish waits though for being of the highest quality.
We don't even know what the DLC for GTAIV will be, a few gaming sites are talking about it being expansions on the Cops N Crooks gametype. Sam And Max is the only series so far to put out more than 2 episodes and make a tidy living from it. They are already into the second season and have gotten good reviews so far.
duh, because its Sam & Max! Now hurry up and gets these episodes on Live/PSN!
because the game actually doesn't suck? duh?
two words (plus one unnecessary adjective):
Steve Fuckin Purcell
Kind of disappointed it hasn't seen a PS3 release...
I love the series and people always tout its episodic feats, but is it actually financially successful?
How can anyone compare the game design structure of Half-life 2, to an episode of Sam and Max ?
It's like comparing the designing of Maniac Mansion, versus The Legend of Zelda.
Sam & Max succeeds because they recycle just enough content and don't focus on getting that latest shader in. Also, it's a franchise that has a cult following. SiN failed because the original game was overlooked (having been released as a buggy mess next to the awesome Half-Life 1 back in the day). Half-Life just isn't episodic. At all.
The Half-Life Episodes are episodic relative to HL 1 and 2, and to the business model employed by most other people. Is it as episodic as Sam and Max? no. But much more so than any other franchise i can think of. And the HL episodes are so good that i don't care anyway. As long as Valve keeps delivering the goods, I won't complain about the size of the instalments.
I can't speak for all episodic content, but the majority of it is crap. Bone and SiN were pretty bland and it's no surprise they both flopped.
S&M, on the other hand, is hilarious and for the most part lives up to the standard set by Purcell's comics and Hit the Road. Every episode has been well worth the price.
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