Steamberry Studio
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Episodic schedule
🕑 Added 2024-04-30 03:57:53 +0000 UTCWhen it comes to episodic style releases, which do you prefer? (To be honest, I may have already asked this. But I'm asking again).
When Stars starts to release I need to decide exactly how the episodes are going to be structured and how many there will be. This will determine how often I can update.
Remember that Stars is going to be 100% written and revised when I start releasing. This fact alone is going to help me maintain a much more consistent (and potentially shorter) release schedule than some other episodic releases because I won't be writing the content between each episode.
Rather, the gap will be for coding (things like expressions), artwork (I do kinda want CGs in every chapter), and beta testing.
I am already expecting the gap between episodes to be comparatively short. But that also depends on how I structure the releases.
One option is to do shorter episodes (1 chapter long each) that release more frequently. This way would mean about 10 episodes most likely because I think I would still release the final three chapters together. These comprise the ending sequences and story climax and breaking it into multiple updates feels weird.
The other option is to make each episode consist of at least two chapters. This would reduce it down to 6 episodes.
Shorter episodes (as in one chapter) that happen more often
pros
the updates happen more often without lengthy gaps which will help people retain the plot threads. Probably 2 months between each episode. Maybe less.
cons
there would likely be updates where not much happens in the story because some chapters are less focused on plot and more focused on character moments
update amount would be more inconsistent as chapter length varies from 25k to 80k
more cliff hangers to deal with
players who are playing 1 character at a time may end up with very little playtime. There are chapters that are 60,000 words in length but playing through only 1 character is going to give you only about 20k of that.
update schedule may also not be 100% consistent as a 25k chapter will definitely take less prep than an 80k chapter...
longer episodes (as in two chapters) that happen less often
pros
the updates have more content (often close to or more than 100k) and will likely be a little more consistent in length.
there will be plot developments in every update since character chapters will likely be paired with plot/action chapters
cons
the updates will take longer; there will be more expressions to code and more beta testing to be done. So could take more like 3-4 months between each episode.
Is consistency more important than length?
I do acknowledge that, for some people, it's less about the length between updates and more about whether or not the updates happen predictably. I know some episodic releases go six months to a year between updates and it's hard to predict when they'll happen.
I think the biggest enemy to consistency is probably drafting which, in my case is already done. But still.
Anyway, yeah! I'm curious about preferences here.
Comments
Rebecca Anne Betzold
I'm 90% here for the characters and 10% here for the plot, so you do whatever feels best to you and I'll continue to support you :) <3
VS
And because I didn't see this when I posted my, "This!" under Faith's original comment: much as I've enjoyed your plots (and I have - congrats on making the VERY short list of games I've 100%'d), I'm just as here for the characters as the big world shattering events. I think the sort of players who enjoy your games will mostly be in my camp on that front, with the characters being as important as the story. Chapters about them may not be as action packed, but that doesn't mean they won't be just as interesting.
VS
This is, essentially, what I came down here to say, so rather than typing up a small book of my own, I'm just going to chime in with an enthusiastic, "What they said."
Steamberry Studio
Yeah, keeping everyone in the loop is a given. 😌💗 As I get closer to finishing the revision (LoL. My dream. To be finished writing 😭) I am looking at the chapters and wondering how to divide them up. My main reason for wondering is less about gaps and schedules and more about story honestly. But that feels like a very Developer Thing (tm) to worry about. But I think about things like....episodes where not much happens or episodes with huge cliff hangers. 🤔 For instance, in Chapter 2 almost nothing happens plot wise because it's still an intro chapter. Nymera gets a tour around the ship, is able to learn the back stories of the love interests and there's a conversation that somewhat further sets up a minor sub-plot. I can't help but think it would make for a very lacklustre episode on its own even though it's not a short chapter, at 53000 words. 😩 (Of course, this is a special case because episode 2, by default, will be released with an updated version of the prologue and chapter 1 anyway). But there are some later chapters similar to this in the sense that plot-wise not much happens because the chapters are much more character focused. There are other chapters that cut off quite suddenly and would leave players hanging for months. I feel like these things are maybe not as much of an issue in other episodic releases I've played because each chapter was clearly written to be a self-contained episode. But the drawback of writing my game in advance is that I feel the chapters aren't necessarily structured like episodes, which may leave them feeling inadequate as individual releases. Releasing them as duos will probably help mitigate that. So yeah. XD That's where I'm really coming from!
Faith Nelson
Consistency is far more important than length, to me. Small bursts can certainly be frustrating, but long delays are much more so. You communicate well, so delays wouldn't leave any question of whether the project had been abandoned, as some creators do. Ultimately, I think do what works best for you, just keep us in the loop.
Meredith Carr
Comment coming later when I’m not on my phone.
