The Dickens of Computer Gaming As we near the end of our first installment of SiN Episodes, it seemed serendipitous to recently catch a biography special about Charles Dickens. Dickens is one of the most celebrated English writers, we know, but he is also famed for popularizing serial distribution of novels, ...that's the cool part, ...episodic publishing! The first installment of The Pickwick Papers came out in 1836 during the middle of the Industrial Revolution. This new paradigm in publishing set Dickens apart, and its wide popularity was profound and trend-setting. As a result of this popularity, serial publishing grew remarkably. So much of the biography sounded familiar and fitting to the current conditions of our digital entertainment today. In Dickens' time, many people lived paycheck-to-paycheck and couldn't afford to buy an entire book, typically 21 shillings. They could, however, afford to buy one in smaller, separate 1-shilling sections over an extended period of time. Episodic publishing was also more suitable to Dickens' readers because most of them couldn't find the time to read an entire book. The paced delivery of a series of episodes, though, was more accommodating to their working class schedules. Dickens uniquely added one more advantage to his publishing model which I thought was interesting. While there were a few other novelists writing in serial fashion at the time, Dickens was the only one who wrote his chapters as they were published. The others wrote the entire story before publishing the work in sections. Dickens always felt closely tied to his audience and he was keen to listen to their feedback. He used this feedback to guide future installments, ...which is exactly our plan for SiN Episodes.

Quote:Original post by Nytehauq
Yet most novels are still published in full form...;P

Absolutely! This episodic thing isn't going to replace full-games, just suppliment it.

Quote:Original post by Nytehauq
Yet most novels are still published in full form...;P

ever heard of comic books? Not novels, but when I read the original post they really came into my mind. Comic books are a fairly large industry, I wouldn't be surprised if episodic gaming becomes something like that.

Quote:Original post by Deleter

Quote:Original post by Nytehauq
Yet most novels are still published in full form...;P

ever heard of comic books? Not novels, but when I read the original post they really came into my mind. Comic books are a fairly large industry, I wouldn't be surprised if episodic gaming becomes something like that.

Great example. Again, for me, the cool part was hearing how the reading public back then was finding it difficult to afford an entire book, both moneywise AND timewise.

Makes me think of the Megaman series.

Hope they're thinking of a way to connect it's story line.

I take it that SiN is your company's project. I wasn't aware of it until reading this thread. As for distributing the game in episodes, I'd really rather have the whole thing, but the idea's still interesting if any given episode can be done fairly quickly.

Just tone down the sensation over it, it's really nothing new. Market your game now instead of its distribution model.

Final Fantasy VII: Before Crisis has just finished its release in Japan as a 24 part RPG game for the cell phone. Each episode was sold at between 500 - 1000 yen per download. I would say that the ballpark figure for game time is around 48 - 72 hours. Considering that it is a cell phone game I wouldn't be surprised if the combined game time is 24 - 36 hours.