14 DAY TRIAL // Episodic content is portrayed in the game industry as something pretty risky. It works on casual games, like Sam & Max or StrongBad, which can offer small and funny experiences that entertain the player until the next episode comes out, several months later. But in the major gaming industry, it’s something that isn't very popular. So far, the only one to have real success has been Valve with its hit title Half Life 2, which now has two episodes launched, with a third and final one under development.
One of the executives from the small studio, Doug Lombardi, has recently spoken with ComputerAndVideoGames about the way episodic content worked out for them, and what its main attributes are. "I think it's been really good in terms of us changing our development approach. It took us six years to make Half Life 2. It's been less than four years since HL2 came out and we've put out Episode 1 and 2, Portal, Day of Defeat Source and you've now got Left 4 Dead. We obviously figured out a way to be more productive and more prolific with out development cycle. At the end of the day we got something out a lot quicker, and we were trying to identify with people through the word 'episode' that we were going to get something out a lot quicker than with Half Life 2. It would be a bit shorter than Half Life 2, but because of that it would be priced accordingly."
He also said that developing a big game that would offer an experience over 20-hours long was something that most studios had abandoned, and gamers didn't really have that much time to play for a single title. "I think a lot of folks in the games industry saw the same problem that we did with Half Life 2 in that making a 20-hour game with rich graphics, story etc. is a really expensive proposition both in time and money. And some have started making games about the same length as Episode II, but they haven't changed what they call it, and they haven't changed the price. Most people just don't have the time to spend 15 or 20 hours on a game. I think stats say that something like only 30 percent of gamers have time for that."
It's a pretty interesting opinion, since the gameplay experiences for the two episodes of Half Life 2 are very intense and time seems to just fly by while playing them. But, although short, they were very rewarding and, when you look back, it was definitely the best way to go with the development process for Valve.