Half-Life 2 - Episode One Interview

John Callaham writes "On the eve of its release, Valve's Doug Lombardi tells FiringSquad why Half-Life 2 Episode One, their first chapter in their episodic first-person shooter, will be worth the $20." From the article: "From the creation standpoint, it's much easier to develop the story and plot via Episodic releases, as the focus is tighter by default. And since each of the HL2 Episodes are being created by a single development team, the story flow will be more cohesive as it's the work of a single body and not the collaboration of separate teams attempting to merge the different chapters after years of working separately. We are, however, keeping a very close eye on the overall story flow as we advance folks from City 17 to the adventures that lie outside the City in Episodes Two and Three."

Comments

Yes, and no

[phorm]

HL2 was a very complete game in itself, but in the end, obviously, it was left hanging. The alternative to sequel episode therefore would have been to piss a lot of people off by leaving it hanging, or to release a full game (full price).

So instead we have episodes. At $20, well, that's about between 1/4 and 1/2 the price of a normal game.

What is good about this is that it encourages quality. Why? Because if an episode sucks incredibly, nobody will buy the next one. Therefore, in order to sell future episodes, the existing ones have to not suck.

Re:Yes, and no

[Turn-X Alphonse]

But it could also go the other way completely.

Rather than making an ending which is exactly "continued next episode" as a lot of HL2s episodes do, they'll have to make each episode end with an uber climax or a cliff hanger. That way people will buy to get the next part of the story.

Also people who like the way a game went will stay quiet, they have no reason to scream and shout bloody murder, where as people who didn't like it will go batshit loopy to whine and complain. That means the developers will go for this group instead of the real fans.

Also people forget games need "weak chapters". HL2 has some really slow "boring" bits, which you take your time and only get a handful of battles. Episodes just can't do this. It doesn't quite work if half the game is slowed down. People will go "ZOMG IT SUCKS!! IT WAS SO SLOW!!" and whine.

Teams will get feed back as they work. If a bunch of idiots trash the game majorly it could rape morale. That way the team goes "screw it, why even bother? They'll whine no matter what. Lets have extra time off and just rush it out the door".

Final reason. You get episodes 1-4, but 4 doesn't sell very well at all. So they discontinue the series. Who's fucked then?

Episodes have upsides but they also have major downsides. They're great for whiny little kids who want quick fixs, but they're bad for real fans who want to explore and enjoy the game for what it is.