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With the familiar summer lull upon us, I've turned to all those unread books sitting on my shelf which in turn got me thinking about the Green Mile, written by Stephen King. This was originally released in the shape of 6 small books over the space of about 6 months and drew a lot of praise at the time and was a bit of a gamble on King's part (not to mention his publishers). Couldn't this same sort of approach be used for videogames?
Take for example Zelda OoT , which quickly followed up Majoras Mask, using the same engine. Take this a step further with small games offering maybe 10 hours gameplay with your character advancing through the game furthering his/her skills and obtaining and keeping objects and able to transfer them across into the latest installment. I can only liken it to when we all obtained the original demo of Metal Gear Solid and because we knew that the total amount of gameplay was quite limited we took our time, fleshed it out and explored every last nook and cranny instead of rushing through it in order to complete it. It could be quite successful as an RPG, in my view, much like that of Legend of Mir or Phantasy Star Online, just episodic, instead.
Its an interesting idea, but that said, not a new one, Shenmue anyone? I like the idea but at the same time, how long would the space be between chapters? If its in rapid succesion then the game needs to be pretty much done, we all know the pain of waiting for releases only for development time to be increased beyond the release date! If it's all done then why can't I buy it (and play it) when I want, not wait for a new chapter? If its all done, why am I paying for the packaging each time when it could all be done in one release? It sounds like a system which could be destined for abuse by greedy companies. I bought the Green Mile and frankly would rather of not had the wait or the burning need to get to the shops to make sure I didn't miss an instalment.
I wouldn't mind, as long as the shortness of the episodes was reflected in the price. But '10 hours', I say? Half the games I see these days are shorter than that and still cost £45...I'd like to see a monthly, 2-hour-long episode game. 12 episodes (or 13?), £5 an issue - might work. I suppose that sounds pretty good (although somewhat more expensive than the standard title, with shipping, packaging, mark-up, etc) but I can't see it happening, maybe in a downloadable form. This could work - the developer has already done the hard work with the main game engine and it might even be possible for the gamers to influence the final outcome or the direction the story takes. You could limit the player to a day/week etc in a town with certain objectives to be met in the time frame.
What do you all think?
Thanks for reading,
LF.
Take for example Zelda OoT , which quickly followed up Majoras Mask, using the same engine. Take this a step further with small games offering maybe 10 hours gameplay with your character advancing through the game furthering his/her skills and obtaining and keeping objects and able to transfer them across into the latest installment. I can only liken it to when we all obtained the original demo of Metal Gear Solid and because we knew that the total amount of gameplay was quite limited we took our time, fleshed it out and explored every last nook and cranny instead of rushing through it in order to complete it. It could be quite successful as an RPG, in my view, much like that of Legend of Mir or Phantasy Star Online, just episodic, instead.
Its an interesting idea, but that said, not a new one, Shenmue anyone? I like the idea but at the same time, how long would the space be between chapters? If its in rapid succesion then the game needs to be pretty much done, we all know the pain of waiting for releases only for development time to be increased beyond the release date! If it's all done then why can't I buy it (and play it) when I want, not wait for a new chapter? If its all done, why am I paying for the packaging each time when it could all be done in one release? It sounds like a system which could be destined for abuse by greedy companies. I bought the Green Mile and frankly would rather of not had the wait or the burning need to get to the shops to make sure I didn't miss an instalment.
I wouldn't mind, as long as the shortness of the episodes was reflected in the price. But '10 hours', I say? Half the games I see these days are shorter than that and still cost £45...I'd like to see a monthly, 2-hour-long episode game. 12 episodes (or 13?), £5 an issue - might work. I suppose that sounds pretty good (although somewhat more expensive than the standard title, with shipping, packaging, mark-up, etc) but I can't see it happening, maybe in a downloadable form. This could work - the developer has already done the hard work with the main game engine and it might even be possible for the gamers to influence the final outcome or the direction the story takes. You could limit the player to a day/week etc in a town with certain objectives to be met in the time frame.
What do you all think?
Thanks for reading,
LF.
Page:
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With the familiar summer lull upon us, I've turned to all those unread books sitting on my shelf which in turn got me thinking about the Green Mile, written by Stephen King. This was originally released in the shape of 6 small books over the space of about 6 months and drew a lot of praise at the time and was a bit of a gamble on King's part (not to mention his publishers). Couldn't this same sort of approach be used for videogames?
Take for example Zelda OoT , which quickly followed up Majoras Mask, using the same engine. Take this a step further with small games offering maybe 10 hours gameplay with your character advancing through the game furthering his/her skills and obtaining and keeping objects and able to transfer them across into the latest installment. I can only liken it to when we all obtained the original demo of Metal Gear Solid and because we knew that the total amount of gameplay was quite limited we took our time, fleshed it out and explored every last nook and cranny instead of rushing through it in order to complete it. It could be quite successful as an RPG, in my view, much like that of Legend of Mir or Phantasy Star Online, just episodic, instead.
Its an interesting idea, but that said, not a new one, Shenmue anyone? I like the idea but at the same time, how long would the space be between chapters? If its in rapid succesion then the game needs to be pretty much done, we all know the pain of waiting for releases only for development time to be increased beyond the release date! If it's all done then why can't I buy it (and play it) when I want, not wait for a new chapter? If its all done, why am I paying for the packaging each time when it could all be done in one release? It sounds like a system which could be destined for abuse by greedy companies. I bought the Green Mile and frankly would rather of not had the wait or the burning need to get to the shops to make sure I didn't miss an instalment.
I wouldn't mind, as long as the shortness of the episodes was reflected in the price. But '10 hours', I say? Half the games I see these days are shorter than that and still cost £45...I'd like to see a monthly, 2-hour-long episode game. 12 episodes (or 13?), £5 an issue - might work. I suppose that sounds pretty good (although somewhat more expensive than the standard title, with shipping, packaging, mark-up, etc) but I can't see it happening, maybe in a downloadable form. This could work - the developer has already done the hard work with the main game engine and it might even be possible for the gamers to influence the final outcome or the direction the story takes. You could limit the player to a day/week etc in a town with certain objectives to be met in the time frame.
What do you all think?
Thanks for reading,
LF.
Take for example Zelda OoT , which quickly followed up Majoras Mask, using the same engine. Take this a step further with small games offering maybe 10 hours gameplay with your character advancing through the game furthering his/her skills and obtaining and keeping objects and able to transfer them across into the latest installment. I can only liken it to when we all obtained the original demo of Metal Gear Solid and because we knew that the total amount of gameplay was quite limited we took our time, fleshed it out and explored every last nook and cranny instead of rushing through it in order to complete it. It could be quite successful as an RPG, in my view, much like that of Legend of Mir or Phantasy Star Online, just episodic, instead.
Its an interesting idea, but that said, not a new one, Shenmue anyone? I like the idea but at the same time, how long would the space be between chapters? If its in rapid succesion then the game needs to be pretty much done, we all know the pain of waiting for releases only for development time to be increased beyond the release date! If it's all done then why can't I buy it (and play it) when I want, not wait for a new chapter? If its all done, why am I paying for the packaging each time when it could all be done in one release? It sounds like a system which could be destined for abuse by greedy companies. I bought the Green Mile and frankly would rather of not had the wait or the burning need to get to the shops to make sure I didn't miss an instalment.
I wouldn't mind, as long as the shortness of the episodes was reflected in the price. But '10 hours', I say? Half the games I see these days are shorter than that and still cost £45...I'd like to see a monthly, 2-hour-long episode game. 12 episodes (or 13?), £5 an issue - might work. I suppose that sounds pretty good (although somewhat more expensive than the standard title, with shipping, packaging, mark-up, etc) but I can't see it happening, maybe in a downloadable form. This could work - the developer has already done the hard work with the main game engine and it might even be possible for the gamers to influence the final outcome or the direction the story takes. You could limit the player to a day/week etc in a town with certain objectives to be met in the time frame.
What do you all think?
Thanks for reading,
LF.
Page: