Shadowplay in episodes?

[GarageGothic]

After working on Shadowplay for quite a while now, I've begun to doubt a couple of my own decisions. One was to release it only when the full game was finished, another was to use 640x480 resolution.

1) The story is pretty clearly split up in 10 days, each of which could potentially be released as a separate episode. This would let me release the first part much quicker, but on the other hand, it does break up the gameflow, and it's always a bit disappointing when the drama builds up to a... "to be continued". It's a great teaser, as Bestowers of Eternity showed. But it might be a bit annoying to do this for 9 episodes (although it seemed to work for the Broken Saints flash movies).

2) It would make everything a lot quicker, if I used 320x200 resolution instead of 640x480. I wouldn't have to fiddle as much with details or bother with perfect character textures. AND the download size would be much smaller. GK1, which I'm trying to emulate, used 320x200 and to this day it looks pretty good (at least to me). Still, it might be a waste to put so much work into a game only to have it look like something from the early nineties. And the resolution DOES somewhat work against my drawing style, because the pencil lines tend to disappear in the pixel blur. But that means all errors would be hidden as well.

I'd like your thoughts on this. I know my own opinion, but it would be nice with some feedback from end-users.

[Czar]

1) Well Ninjai series work the same way and still their popularity is way high (for those who know it ),tho' the autors are now doing 3-4 episodes which will be put out simultaneously.
But think about it, for those who want the full game, they will wait as usual, only this way with episodes you can make all thje people feel the game.
I hope you understand my point here(I almost cant).

2)This is simple. Do it the way you feel more comfortable to. And if the game will be in episodes, the better, people wont have big files to download.


That much from me.

[YOke]

1. I would prefer it to be released as a complete game since that is your original vision, and propably will do your game most justice.

However, here are some of my thoughts on structure, and dividing a game in parts:

It's hard to make a big game, and work for a year or so with a game you don't know if people even will appreciate, so dividing could help on motivation. If you decide on dividing it, I think the best place to do it is between Act I and Act II. Act I takes care of introducing the characters, the setting and the plot. Then end it with a cliffhanger (Act II is where the problems begin). Act III is almost pointless to release on it's own, being a payoff to Act II, so they should really be bundeled together. If you have played Act II, and fought the problems, the interest for playing Act III may drop after a few weeks.

Of course there are exeptions to this. To take the most famous one; Star Wars. The story is split in three parts:
- Act I - Introduction (A New Hope: Luke is introduced, and meets up with the other main characters. Also first confrontation with the Empire)
- Act II - Confrontation (The Empire Strikes Back - C3PO is busted, Han Solo is captured and Luke learns Darth Vader is his father, and looses his hand)
- Act III - Release (Return of the Jedi - Luke is now a trained Jedi. The turning point comes when he confronts Darth Vader and the Emperor.)

Theese movies were originally written as one story. The reason they work as three seperate movies, is because they are, again, divided into three parts. One can get into a long discussion about wether or not The Empire Strikes Back has an Act III, (it's still my favourite), but giving it one would be hard without ruining some of the build-up to Act III.

The point of all my rambling can be summed up like this:
Each episode must give the player the satisfaction of solving some sub-plots, and at the same time leave some cliffhangers that will connect it to the other parts (so called arcs). If your story is designed to work as a whole, it will suffer from being divided without being rewritten some.

*exhales*

Now for nr 2.....

Do whatever is best for you. Some prefer this, some prefer that, some don't care. Do what you prefer! Can't please everyone all the time.

Hmm... I think this is my longest post to date. Sorry for cluttering up your thread.

Now... For point 2...
Nah... no big rambling

*small edit to increase readability*

[Crichton]

Full game and 640x480 or highest res you can afford. Take your time with it. Perhaps, if there were no adventure games left to play at all or if you were pressured by a boss with deadlines then you would make compromises but you can afford to take your sweet little time with it. No rush. Personally, I'd rather you had fun making it rather than feeling pressured.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Short answers -

640x480 - Do whatever you want, as long as the game isn't damaged by your choice. Most PCs nowadays can run 640x480 as well as 320x200.

Episodes - Personally, I'd say NO. I think it's always a big NO-NO. I'm still waiting for Bestowers of Eternity to come out, and I kinda lost my interest on account on how long it's taken...

[Vel]

GG, here's my opinion:
1) You shouldn't release Shadowplay in episodes, in my opinion it kind of ruins the story - what if all timeblocks of Gk3, for example, were separate games? The player would forget what happened in the last episode till the next one is released.
2) The art style you work with would be quite inappropriate in 320*200, moreover, its not particularly easier to work with.

Anyway, Im sure that whatever you choose, Shadowplay will be a game of commercial quality.

[Lazy Z]

1) I don't really mind either way. I remember reading in your interview with the Inventory that every day will be able to stand on its own, and would have a cliffhanger ending, so I definitely wouldn't mind if Shadowplay was released in episodes.  Plus that'd mean that I'd get to play at least a part of the game faster, and that's a good thing! ^_^

2) I have to say that you should use the 640x480 resolution. 320x200 just wouldn't do justice to your style, IMO.

[GarageGothic]

Thank you very much for your replies. I'm happy to see that almost everyone agrees that it should be released as a full game. Although it could, in theory, be released in ten chapters - it would really break up the flow of the story, and the cumulative effect of the player's choices would be non-existent, unless I did some sort of QFG-style export-import thing. Also, the character's changing perception of the game world might not be as obvious when playing each episodes with two months in-between.

As for the art, I still haven't designed 100% what I'm going to do. Although the sketch-like style isn't as obvious in 320x200, it still looks pretty good (at times even better than the hi-res, if you like the old Sierra style), plus it makes an enormous difference for the file size. For now I'm settling for 640x480, but it might change somewhere down the line.