Kotaku: Episodic Gaming

Telltale Games Nabs Law & Order: Los Angeles For Its Latest Episodic Series

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 19:30:00 EDT

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The Telltale Games factory has added one more property to its lengthy episodic games portfolio, NBC crime procedural Law & Order: Los Angeles. With Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, The Walking Dead and many, many more episodic series on its plate, why Law & Order? More »

Episodic Gaming Invades the iPad with Sam & Max

Brian Crecente — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 11:00:00 EDT

We are, for the most part, limiting news of new games hitting the 700 and growing iPad gaming library to our enormous iPad guide. But Sam & Max deserve their own mention. More »

Telltale Designer on Strong Bad, Episodic Gaming

Maggie Greene — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:30:00 EST

Telltale Games has been churning out the episodes of their Sam & Max and Strong Bad series; GameSetWatch talked to Mike Stemmle, LucasArts veteran and current Telltale writer and designer, about the Telltale design process, the veteran-friendly atmosphere (unsurprisingly, the Telltale ranks are full of other LucasArts veterans), and the potentials for non-licensed IP. On the inner workings of Telltale, Stemmle has this to say: More »

Ron Gilbert on Episodic Gaming and the Film Industry

Maggie Greene — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:00:00 EDT

Ron Gilbert is probably best known for his work at LucasArts, where he worked on such favorites as Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island, and Day Of The Tentacle. Most recently, he's worked on Penny Arcade Adventures and has a forthcoming title called DeathSpank. Gamasutra sat down for a somewhat lengthy interview, discussing the episodic model, working within the current industry framework, and moving outside the current studio framework into a more 'Hollywood' type model. On this aspect (shifting to a more 'team' based approach where people come together to work on specific projects), he's got this to say: More »

Why Does Sam & Max Work While Other Episodic Stuff Fails?

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 05:30:00 EDT

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. More »

Kevin Bruner On Why Episodic Gaming Works

Maggie Greene — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 14:30:09 EDT

Kevin Bruner, one of the people behind Telltale Games and their Sam and Max series, sat down with gamesindustry.biz at the Nordic Game conference and talked about the promise and peril of episodic gaming - with mostly really positive things to say. His thoughts on the benefits of episodic games for developers reminded me of John Laurence's comments on the micro-transaction model - essentially, it allows more freedom to the developer to create what they want, since 'risk and cost can be lowered up front': More »

Telltale Scores Millions For New Development

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 19:20:56 EDT

Telltale Games, responsible for the episodic releases of Sam & Max, are on the receiving of a big, fat investment check. The company has snapped up $6 million in venture funding to focus development on new titles, hire new staff and expand its games to "additional hardware platforms." Telltale CTO and co-found Kevin Bruner said of the deal "We're extremely pleased." Who would've thought that 6 million bucks equates to "extremely pleased"? More »

Sam & Max Coming To Wii, 360? Maybe Even PS3!

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:20:21 EDT

Shacknews' Chris Remo caught up with Telltale Games CEO Dan Connors recently to talk about the episodic series Sam & Max. Now on its fourth chapter, the game may be hopping from the PC and the Gametap subscription service over to consoles. More »

SiN Episodes NOT Canned?

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:40:39 EST

After reading that developer Ritual Entertainment had been aquired by casual games house MumboJumbo, I assumed we'd never hear from the SiN crew ever again. I also theorized that SiN Episodes: Emergence was a certified sales failure (fortunately, that's not in print). Turns out I was about 74.2% wrong. More »

SiN Episodes Canned?

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 18:20:10 EST

Is SiN Episodes already done? After making what seemed like a minor splash on the Steam platform with its first episode, the Games For Windows magazine crew sounds down on the future of Ritual Entertainment's episodic title, SiN Episodes, on their weekly podcast. More »

Sam & Max: Episode 2 Hits Before Holidays

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 22:40:24 EST

Sam & Max fans, your new episode is almost ready. The next chapter "Situation: Comedy" is due to hit the Gametap service on December 21st for an early Xmas present, then available non-subscribers and season owners after the new year. More »