Episodic Video Games - Single-player Episodic Gaming

Single-player Episodic Gaming

The first episodic game appeared in 1979. Automated Simulation's Dunjonquest series started with Temple of Apshai, and in the same year several mini-episodes using the same game system and world were released. The sequel Hellfire Warrior and several full-sized add-on packs for both main games followed 1980-1982. Wizardry was likewise appended with additional scenarios that allowed importing of the first games' save data.

Following Nihon Falcom's 1986 expansion pack Xanado Scenario II for the 1985 action role-playing game Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu, the fifth Dragon Slayer title Sorcerian in 1987 introduced a scenario system where the player can play through fifteen scenarios in their order of choice. Soon after, additional expansion packs were released containing a number of new scenarios. The game introduced an aging system, where one or more years pass by and the characters age during each scenario, with the additional scenario packs in mind. That same year saw the beginning of the Kroz series, a seven-part series of games featuring similar text-based graphics and gameplay, with renewed levels. These were not released on a regular schedule, but were sold in packages, with the first episode being available freely as shareware. During 1993-1994, the Italian publisher Simulmondo published several games in bite-sized episodes, among them the comic book adaption Diabolik (11 Episodes) and the original series Time Runners (30 Episodes).

Single-player games, particularly real-time strategy games and first-person shooters, have in the past experimented with a limited form of episodic gaming, by adding new stages, levels, weapons, enemies or missions with expansion packs. Early examples include Wing Commander: Secret Ops, which was released episodically over the internet in 1998. However, this series was a failure and was discontinued after it failed to attract significant player numbers. One of the contributing factors was its 120MB download size, which may have been prohibitively large in an age in which 56k internet access was the norm. Limitations in bandwidth have also been cited as one of the reasons for the failure of the episodic alternate reality game Majestic, as it required an initial download of an hour or more on a dial-up connection.

Another example of a more casual episodic game is Goodnight Mister Snoozleberg!, an online game created by Sarbakan that was released in 1999 on TF1's web site, later on CBC and now available for download on Trygames. El Dorado's Gate was a Japan-only episodic game released by Capcom in 2001.

Kuma Reality Games has developed first-person shooter episodic games since its inception in 2003. Some of the "game-isodes" that the company has developed include The DinoHunters, which documents a group of off-key time travelers hunting dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts, and the controversial Kuma\War, which focuses on recent military action in the world, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. Recently, Kuma Games produced a series mirroring The History Channel's Shootout! series. The games created were modeled on the battles featured in the TV show, adding another level of media depth to episodic gaming in general.

The first episodic console game was .hack, a four-part RPG released between 2002 and 2003. Upon clearing each game, the player's data is loaded onto the memory card as a "data flag" file, readable by the next game in the series. With this, the player can continue on from the previous game with the same stats, items, and player name.

Other games have contemplated going the route of episodic development and distribution, only to decide against it. Examples of this include Quantic Dream's Fahrenheit, Ubisoft's Rayman Origins, and a planned series of episodes starring Duke Nukem by ARUSH Entertainment.

Valve Corporation's Steam platform is being used as a content delivery platform for several episodic games including Half-Life 2 Episodes developed by Valve themselves.

Telltale Games is one of the heaviest supporters of episodic gaming thus far. Their game Bone is an adventure title that literally adapts chapters from Jeff Smith's Bone comic book saga into game episodes on a periodic basis, with two episodes having been released. Telltale's Sam & Max Save the World was their first fully completed episodic series, followed by Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space and Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse. Other series based on various other franchises include Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures, Tales of Monkey Island, Back to the Future: The Game and, most recently, The Walking Dead.

MINERVA is a single-player modification that has adopted an episodic development structure. It is one of the first mods to do so for Valve's Half-Life 2.

Turner Broadcasting's GameTap has made large investments in episodic game development. The online game service's first episodic game, Sam & Max, was co-published with Telltale Games. Each episode premiered on GameTap 14 days before becoming available on the Telltale Games web site. GameTap's second foray into episodic games was monthly content deliveries for Myst Online: Uru Live an online massive multiplayer game by Cyan Worlds. In February, GameTap announced a third episodic game, Galactic Command: Echo Squad, developed in conjunction with 3000AD. Their most recently announced game, the 24 episode American McGee's Grimm, was announced in May 2007 for an early 2008 launch. GameTap's VP of content, Ricardo Sanchez, has written for sites like Gamasutra and GameDaily and presented at the D.I.C.E. Summit on the subject. His "Three Laws of Episodics" lay out rules by which GameTap determines whether a title is episodic or not, and rules out Bone and Half-Life 2 Episodes due to the unknown duration of time between episodes.

Dimps and Sonic Team are creating the episodic video game, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 for various formats, the first episode of which was released in October 2010, with Episode 2 being released sometime in Spring 2012.