826 replies to this topic

[trentjaspar]

Damn.  This probably makes sense for RTG, and I understand and support their decision.  I have no problem with them wanting to be able to collect some income to fuel later episodes/chapter.  It will probably make a lot of people happy because they'll get to start playing DFC soon...maybe even before November.

 

But for me it's absolutely terrible.  I have no problem waiting indefinitely for a complete game, but I will not play a game an episode at a time.  [For example, I didn't buy The Walking Dead until all of the episodes were out.]  When I play a story-based game, I want to immerse myself in it and play the complete product.  Waiting months between chapters makes that impossible.  The only way to achieve that is not to play until the final chapter is released, which is what I'll do.

 

The worst part for me personally is that there will be no way to avoid spoilers on these forums, especially as further chapters are released.  Chapter 1 info will no longer be considered spoilers once Chapter 2 is released, and so on.  It's understandable, but is incompatible with my model of play.  Spoilers will even creep into Off-Topic.  I'll have to avoid everything. 

 

Won’t story and pace be affected by the episodic release schedule?

Since the story was designed for episodes, in-game time already passes between each book — sometimes weeks, sometimes months — and the story won’t feel any more fragmented than originally intended. Each book also has its own, self-contained arc, with a beginning, middle and end.

 

I'm not sure if he's saying 1) "an episodic release schedule won't feel any more fragmented than if it had been released as one entity," or 2) "we originally intended it to be unavoidably fragmented due to an episodic release schedule, so really it's not any more fragmented than we intended."

 

If 1), then I disagree.  While I'm sure the episodes will be self-contained, there's no possible way the overall story and game-playing experience will not feel more fragmented than it would have been had it been a single release.  If 2), then he's just saying that the fragmentation was by design.

[Andreas]

I don't mind this change Ragnar. A better game is something I will never say no to. Quality is one thing RTG can't afford to compromise on. Yes I would prefer to have the entire game at once, but that is just cos I know myself and that I want to immerse and stay as long as possible in the wonderful world it is in The Longest Journey saga. Thats just because I'm gready. Now I, well we all, can choose if we want to play each chapter when they are released or wait until they all are out. And the ability to choose ourself is never bad. Do what is best for the game and the prosess of making it RTG. I understand very well and as I said before. I don't mind

[Ragnar]

What about the beta which you promised would be released today?

 

We're not going to release a beta, and we never promised to release a beta. We had an internal deadline for a beta today, and that deadline has been met — but unless you're on the team, you're going to have to wait until Book One is released this autumn

[Shifterdreamer]

I won't say anything about the announcement. I was finally going to buy a game pack this summer through Paypal, but now I won't because I'm totally confused about the product, getting part of it now, getting part of it later, not knowing when etc. I will not buy or play until it's totally finished, because I don't think I'll like playing the game of my life this way. I am too old school for that. Anyway, I've been waiting since 2006, if I have to wait two or three years more then that's it. I will not touch the game until it's finished, or whatever the procedure is. 

[Ragnar]

I have no problem with this decision, it works fine for me.

 

However, I do have a gameplay question: will the decisions I make in each book only have consequences within that book, or will the effects follow through across the entire game? I suppose what I mean is, will the separate books come together as one whole game (like Broken Sword 5), or will they be separate games with one encompassing story (like Tales of Monkey Island)?

 

The effects will follow across the entire game. Choices made in Book One will come back to haunt you in Book Five!

[urzagc13]

As one of RT's biggest "fanboys" (thus, not having an objective view on things) I still did feel a small pang of disappointment at this announcement, for the sole reason that if there was any Kickstarter that did exactly what was promised and was released exactly on schedule, I wanted it to be this, just for the "bragging rights" of "RT did what so many others didn't!". But, of course, that's an idiotic emotional reason for not liking the announced news.

 

If we want to get to the "meat" of the issue, I'll say that I'm probably glad with the change (provided the episodes come frequently, aka the 5th episode has been released by next year), because (as a proper fanboy) I believe that RT's stories get greater the longer they are, and the episodes are most certainly going to result in a longer total experience than what were going to get otherwise. I also think that RT's style of writing is far more "suited" for a format that resembles TV series than it is for movies, which bodes well for the final quality of Chapters.

 

Still, I pity RT's "PR department" (lol, "department", would that be Ragnar, Doug or Martin? ) because unfortunately there will be a serious *beep*storm incoming for this decision. Kickstarter backers have been disappointed too much by too many in the last couple years and a lot of people are no longer willing to give a single iota of their trust ever again, unfortunately. It's up to RTG to prove them wrong.

[Riaise]

The effects will follow across the entire game. Choices made in Book One will come back to haunt you in Book Five!

 

Thank you for answering so quickly! 

[TalkingOak]

The full-blown episodic format for a game such as Dreamfall is just a detriment, it serves no purpose, hurts the experience

 

I see  no difference from from reading a novel or comic book series or watching a TV series. Having the game in episodes is no problem in my mind. It's really exciting reaching a cliffhanger and then having the anticipation for the next episode. And if people want to wait for the box set and binge play the series then thats cool too.

 

I'm really excited for Birth in the autumn

[yodagreen3]

He's a boss  Riaise.

[Jana]

Ragnar,

 

may I ask you a question about a thought i just had?

 

Since you are putting much effort into the "game spaces", I guess that some of them might be available in multiple books?

 

If so, I see the possibility that you might be adding stuff to those game spaces over time. Which would be fun, because it means that we could go chasing all over the place again to see what was added with a new book. This could add a bit of addiitonal fun actually. Just thinking.

[blaster]

Just don't forget to put all those episodes together so when all 5 come out we can just dive in to the game without a need to start episode one by one )

[Koveras]

That is crap.

There goes your hope of a KS game delivered on time for a change, eh?

[Jana]

Just don't forget to put all those episodes together so when all 5 come out we can just dive in to the game without a need to start episode one by one )

 

Yes, as long as it's distributed through Steam, it will be a single game that is updated on a regular basis I guess. I am sure that we will see bug fixes too. That's how Valve has been doing it with their own games as well and I would say it works out great. You just have one big codebase and one big pool of content (areas, textures, models, ...) I mean, Telltale has done it this way as well.

 

PS: Hey, but on the plus side: It gives RTG more time to eventually get some more voice actors for later books into the game. Think about that!

[Ragnar]

Ragnar,

 

may I ask you a question about a thought i just had?

 

Since you are putting much effort into the "game spaces", I guess that some of them might be available in multiple books?

 

If so, I see the possibility that you might be adding stuff to those game spaces over time. Which would be fun, because it means that we could go chasing all over the place again to see what was added with a new book. This could add a bit of addiitonal fun actually. Just thinking.

 

Exactly!

[Ragnar]

Yes, as long as it's distributed through Steam, it will be a single game that is updated on a regular basis I guess. I am sure that we will see bug fixes too. That's how Valve has been doing it with their own games as well and I would say it works out great. You just have one big codebase and one big pool of content (areas, textures, models, ...) I mean, Telltale has done it this way as well.

 

PS: Hey, but on the plus side: It gives RTG more time to eventually get some more voice actors for later books into the game. Think about that!

 

Correct — your Steam copy will be automatically updated and bug fixed.

[Shifterdreamer]

So that means that someday in a galaxy far far away, when all the chapters are out, I will be able to sit down and play the game at once without interruptions, as it was planned in the beginning?

[jmk1999]

so, as i understand it, those of us who are getting a physical copy will receive the digital download of each episode, then a physical copy of the entire game upon completion? hmm... i suppose that works. i can keep my original copy clean, pristine, and collector-worthy... yet still have it if i wanna crack it open later. besides, i think i might be also getting it on PS4 upon it's release for that down the road.

[agirlnamedbob]

So that means that someday in a galaxy far far away, when all the chapters are out, I will be able to sit down and play the game at once without interruptions, as it was planned in the beginning?

 

I would imagine, like with any other episodic thing, you would be able to do that. So people who don't mind playing the games in episodes can do that. And people who prefer to marathon the whole thing can wait until the whole thing is released and play it start to finish. 

 

Though I mean...It will still be divided into Books, but you can jump straight from one Book to the next once they're all out. And the whole "book" format has been part of the design for a while now, so even when they were planning on a single release, that story feature would have been there. 

[Lee-m]

I'll be honest, I don't like this at all. Instead of having a full game to play in December now we'll just have a few hours worth. Plus I dont remember backing an episodic game.

If the whole thing some how compiles into one unbroken game once we have all 5 parts, it won't be so bad I guess. If not, your stuck with being pulled out of the game 4 times to load up the next part.

Maybe this is better than the inevitable delay announcement I have been waiting for however.

[Teller]

While I know this is good for RTG and it means (to some) Dreamfall will be in people's hands much quicker... I find myself having to be patient and wait for TLJ yet again.   I can't play eposisodic games.  I need the full story.  I can't tell you how happy I was when I first heard the eposodic idea was being abandoned in 2012.  Now me

 

I'll live, I know, but I guess I'll just have to avoid a lot of the forums and stuff while each episode comes out not to be spoiled until the last is released.

 

Edit: I was okay with a delay for the whole game... this... not as much ok.  Like Lee said, I hope all the episodes together make one seemless game kind of like what they did with broken sword.