OK, lemme try this again. I''m wondering if anyone out there has tried selling their game in peices. Have any of you read that article about the GDC this spring? Francois talked about the idea of developers completing part of a game, selling it for like 20 bucks, and then going on to complete the rest in similar "chapters" or "episodes". The upside? You get games sooner and cheaper(?). The downside? The company flops or the project gets canceled, you''re left with an unfinished game and basically screwed. Since the chance of this happening is always out there, that leads me to beleive that not a lot of independant developers have tried this. please correct me if I''m wrong - love to hear it. ? = $20 * 5 episodes equals $100. So something like $5-$10 would be more appropriate, but would that really produce enough income over a staggered period to be worth it? ============================== \\// live long and prosper; \||/ die short and rot. ==============================

Well..."episodic" games, unfortunately, don''t have a faster development time. After all, the full game engine has to be finished in order to run the "episode." It''s not like you can only create "half" or "one-fourth" of the game and then ship it. The underlying game mechanics have to be completed.

You do gain a bit in that you don''t have to create *all* of the content. But the sub-set necessary just for the first episode is likely 60%-80% of what is going to be needed for every other episode. So the savings (in regard to the first episode) aren''t *that* substantial. You don''t see the savings until the later episodes.

If you want to sell "episodes", I would say that you have to keep them relatively inexpensive. After all, you''re trying to garner additional sales from someone who has already paid you once. And since you have to keep them cheap, you want to be able to develop them with a minimum of effort. In which case, that 60%-80% of duplicated "content" is a Good Thing.

In addition to re-useable content, you would want a Very Stable underlying technology. And that essentially eliminates anything *too* cutting-edge. But you still have to look and sound "modern" enough that anyone notices the game in the first place.

In any case...do I think someone can make money with that sort of setup? Of course I do. But it''s something that has to be part of the game from the beginning. Not some mid-project tack-on idea that''s supposed to magically cut down on the budget and/or development time.


DavidRM
Samu Games

Oooohhh. I got a reply from a Moderator. Cool. Valid points Dave, and I agree with the fact that this would have to be with the project from the start. And I have to admit I never even thought about haveing to have a completed game engine (a prime example of what your brain turns into at 2 in the morning). So you could theoretically charge like 15 bucks for the first episode and since the rest will come out relativley quick, charge only like 5 bucks. Oh yeah - another thing: wouldn''t storage be a pain in the ass? Imagine your CD rack half filled with ONE GAME! And more game boxes would be made, so cheap packaging would have to take its place.... wow, a lot to think about....(unfortunatly, I am unable to, thanks to the current state of my brain... oh well)

However, my question remains unanswered. Has anyone tried this at all to some extent? Technically the idea is close to a year old. Some daring person must have given it a go.

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I don''t know that it''s been done on a retail game, per se, but it''s a common enough shareware game tactic. That''s how Id made their money back in the early days...release the game with only 3-5 levels, and sell additional "level packs."

I don''t know that it would work well if you want to do a full retail release of each episode. That is, it would work (there are 4 Tomb Raider "episodes", after all), but the expectations on it would be pretty steep. The overhead of a full retail release would push the minimum price up to rival that of any other CD-based game. And if it''s going to cost that much, why not just do a full game?

So I see this kind of episodic release being useful primarily for low-overhead distribution methods...such as download from the Internet. Not to say the first episode (the "base" game) couldn''t be sold at retail, though, because selling the additional episodes could done via a web page.


DavidRM
Samu Games

right, OK. Now that I''ve thought about it and listened to your responses, it does seem a bit plagued. I guess for a small company this would be easier than for a large game developer with a publisher pushing it along. Thanx, just wanted to clear that up ever since I read about it long ago and never heard of it again

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hmmmm.... never heard of it either, If anyone knows about it I''d like to check it out.

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I think I''d do it a little bit differently.

First make one, full, game. See how it sells.
If it doesn''t sell, make a completely new one. If it does sell, make a sequel.

It should work for most games (you can sequel RPG''s, adventure games, 3D action games. Even chess would be possible to sequel considering extra character sets and improved AI - though this gets close to an expansion pack - which is really the same thing anyway)

Considering the investment in a lot of modern games, I think it would be logical for a company to see if it works first, and then ''milk'' it for all it''s worth by releasing relatively cheap sequels.

That''s the way I''d do it anyway (or at least try ;-)


Kind regards,
Maarten Egmond.

uh yeah, RM, don''t listen to him! he''s my step bro....

and keep up the great work on Artifact!!!



Everyone should live a little.
Even if they get killed in the process.