Would the game be better if it was a full game rather being set in chapters?

[EpicCoffee]

This question has been sitting with me for a while now, and i wanted to have a discussion with some people about it that actually knew about the game's production and just the game in general.

Basically rather than the game being multiple chapters (being an hour each), it would be like one full 10 hour (im using 10 hours as an example) gameplay with multiple choices and decisions considered. Maybe with multiple endings and routes with interconnections you can take which leads to more content. It would be more starting content with the price of a longer development time.

This would also lead into a system where its multiple endings rather than having a chapter's ending be the same no matter the route, what are your thoughts on this?

edit: so when i made this discussion i meant in gameplay and i suppose you could say progression how would the game be and if you would prefer that, rather than the reasons for the game being a chapter based game. sorry for the confusion. and once again sorry if i had sounded ignorant at first.

[EpicCoffee]

I forgot to mention, Morgana's review of ENA: Dream BBQ was the reason i made this post because i really wanted to have a discussion about this with some people i know are interested in discussing the game.

[Asbepis]

From what the devs have said they couldn't make the full game in one go with the manpower and budget they have, its unfortunately that simple.

[EpicCoffee]

Originally posted by Assbepis:

From what the devs have said they couldn't make the full game in one go with the manpower and budget they have, its unfortunately that simple.

I mean't as in if they had the resources to create the game, but thank you for your input as i originally had not known this.

[DaMeanJellyBean]

The issue with making a longer game is that you only will be paid once its done or if you release it in parts. AAA games can sort of deal with this since they are a business and can pay the costs which allows for more development time. This is not the case for a indie team.

A indie team usually don't have this benefit so they ether just do game development as a hobby and not for a job or they do a kick starter or some other way to get money for the game. For example a lot of games will go into early access for both player feedback, to gain popularity, and to get money to continue the project. In the case of ENA: Dream BBQ you can look at it like early access. It is a small portion of the game that is free. This allows it to gain/grow the popularity and a community of the game for free so even if you know nothing of the game or even the genre of game there is not anything stopping someone from checking it out, there is a supporter edition to get raise money, and since it is not the entire game it is faster to develop. That's how I got into ENA. I didn't know anything about the game or story other than that ENA was a series on YouTube. Then I saw a thumbnail of a video from someone who played it and heard it was free. Now I'm invested in the story and genuinely cant wait for another chapter which sucks that we have to wait for it but also I probably would have never played it if this was not how they are releasing it.

I don't know if you where asking why in particular ENA was developed this way or why people do this in general. Like I said before I don't really know how this game was developed but I thought I may as well give my two cents about it.

[EpicCoffee]

Originally posted by DaMeanJellyBean:

The issue with making a longer game is that you only will be paid once its done or if you release it in parts. AAA games can sort of deal with this since they are a business and can pay the costs which allows for more development time. This is not the case for a indie team.

A indie team usually don't have this benefit so they ether just do game development as a hobby and not for a job or they do a kick starter or some other way to get money for the game. For example a lot of games will go into early access for both player feedback, to gain popularity, and to get money to continue the project. In the case of ENA: Dream BBQ you can look at it like early access. It is a small portion of the game that is free. This allows it to gain/grow the popularity and a community of the game for free so even if you know nothing of the game or even the genre of game there is not anything stopping someone from checking it out, there is a supporter edition to get raise money, and since it is not the entire game it is faster to develop. That's how I got into ENA. I didn't know anything about the game or story other than that ENA was a series on YouTube. Then I saw a thumbnail of a video from someone who played it and heard it was free. Now I'm invested in the story and genuinely cant wait for another chapter which sucks that we have to wait for it but also I probably would have never played it if this was not how they are releasing it.

I don't know if you where asking why in particular ENA was developed this way or why people do this in general. Like I said before I don't really know how this game was developed but I thought I may as well give my two cents about it.

Thank you for your input, and sorry if i was rather unclear about the prompt of the discussion.
I was more so asking content and gameplay wise rather than production and community growth wise if the game would be better as one long playthrough or divided into multiple chapters, and to clarify i do understand the many complexities of the creation of games. This discussion was just a sort of hypothetical for if they did have the resources to create a longer playthrough if it would be better.
I'm very glad as well that you mentioned the discovery aspects of media like this, as this hadn't crossed my mind at all. Also the aspect that people can find the game figure out its free and build a community off of that.
I am sorry if my original post came off some way that was uneducated or ignorant, my whole intent was not to discuss why but just what if it was this or that way.
(im really poor at wording things correctly so mb if any of what i say is off)

[Cacledemon]

Maybe they released a single chapter to see how it goes with community - if they like it or not, and then release chapters one by one, or the way how Toby Fox decided - with 2 chapters combined. Although i don't think the story will be that long - maybe 4-5 chapters at best, with release of just one, merch and donations thing, and another one next. Second chapter should be better - this one is kinda okay, for now.

[S1mei]

Maybe the scope is too big and the game would be delayed for another year if they decided to not do chapters.

[Jet Uppercut]

Consider this not like a '1st Chapter' in an episodic game, but more like a free sample.

There was actually a very common distribution model for video games way, WAY back in the day, called Shareware. Where the '1st Episode' of a game was usually free and the others were paid and you bought them straight off the publisher via a phonecall or a letter.
Because the internet and physical stores like Gamestop just weren't a mainstream thing yet.

Weird to see it making a comeback, but also it seems appropriate for an ENA game where the main character is half salesman to use a sales tactic from 30 years ago to sell their own game.

[ChaoticMentality]

Originally posted by Jet Uppercut:

Consider this not like a '1st Chapter' in an episodic game, but more like a free sample.

There was actually a very common distribution model for video games way, WAY back in the day, called Shareware. Where the '1st Episode' of a game was usually free and the others were paid and you bought them straight off the publisher via a phonecall or a letter.
Because the internet and physical stores like Gamestop just weren't a mainstream thing yet.

Weird to see it making a comeback, but also it seems appropriate for an ENA game where the main character is half salesman to use a sales tactic from 30 years ago to sell their own game.

it matches the market inflation's been squeezing production costs and what the market can actually afford for decades earlier this was balanced out by tech advances outpacing production cost but the making things out of triangles paradigm has reached its limit and at this point the game exec class has been ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ up immensely enough a lot of games are failing to even keep at that tech peak let alone have enough design chops to make the result look good

there is an enormous amount of tech work that needs to be done our chips are made on the worst semiconductor material we could have chosen with the absolute worst contender of chip architecture available with os ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of dealing with the dumpster fire microsoft serves up or multiplying your resource cost on virtual machines because linux failed to handle instancing properly and multiusers at once breaks it and with the whole programming and engine debacle

programming that ♥♥♥♥♥ already 40k man c++ is more of a cognito hazard than the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ necronomicon at this point execs are barely able to tell ♥♥♥♥♥ fubar when it breaks immediately at this point every ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ long term disaster that could of already happened in tech has.
big reason all the tech competent people are fleeing to linux is the whole fat stack of black boxes is rotting away so bad its dice with the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ devil when our tech capabilities collapse taiwans the only place with a functional enough work culture to run high end chip facilities and the high end tech knowledge to build those machines and quartz pure enough to make into chips are similarly once in the world its a miracle we've yet to ♥♥♥♥ it up alone given the string of failures leading to this point let alone the active malice of state actors y2k happens when a angry hacker finds one of the hardware backdoors feds try putting in everything

at this point top down control is so toxic smart tech workers all seem to be jumping ship for smaller operations

tired of ranting about how ♥♥♥♥♥♥ the whole tech scene is anyway they already got some room for branching paths two major routes and a motherboard, mayo and ten chocolates you might get to take to the next area.

though feels like its missing another major route for some reason like why is ena just letting these angels replace genie with bathroom she seems aware of it and the disasters of the routes force her on them organically enough but feels like a whole elephant in the room thats being ignored that she fails to even ask about the phenomena herself much plus it feels like just dying in the area is all it takes to reach that river such it feels like a missed opportunity to put a route the locals are completely unaware of as an answer its missing an almost thematic terror of accidentally getting completely lost and trapped in this world in a complete dead end or just running into some random monster and by freak accident ending up in the same place everyone else was trying to reach it feels too safe and relatively in control

also I want to see ♥♥♥♥ get set on fire alot, fisticuffs engaged with a robot fish, what a ena getting drunk looks like and that grow a boss thing with the surprise religious undertones makes me want to see nonsensical cyber witchery engaged in which I feel would really hammer in ena herself being a weirdo way you play in game seems relatively too grounded limbs fly around independently in scenes so much it feels like its missing a fakeout treasure chest out of reach moment where enas arm just flys out a few feet and grabs something normally out of reach as a ♥♥♥♥ you to unreachable treasures in games and some metroidvania ♥♥♥♥ fakeout where she already had an answer to some obvious you do something with this thing moment like the fertile soil to help hammer in enas are weird even by that worlds standards give a sense of playing a weird entity in a weird world more rather than a visitor to a weird world picking up second hand weirdness

cutscenes are great but it would really shine with some more story through gameplay touches