It sounds like Dispatch developer AdHoc Studio knew it was taking a risk by adopting an episodic release schedule — but the decision paid off in the end.
The interactive superhero drama dropped its first two episodes — of eight total — on the 22nd October, and then proceeded to launch two new episodes every following week.
In years gone by, Telltale Games had all but driven the episodic model into the ground with its numerous licensed adventure titles. And AdHoc apparently had to navigate that lasting negativity when considering its approach for Dispatch.
"Everyone was telling us not to do it," admits executive producer and CEO Michael Choung, in an interview with Knowledge.
"[It's] an insane thing to do," he adds. "From every metric, from a production perspective, no one should do this. If you think episodic alone is going to be the thing that dictates success for you, then good luck."
Essentially, Choung says that Dispatch's success was partly down to its episodic nature, but he certainly doesn't recommend that other developers follow suit — unless the narrative hook is already abundantly present in the actual game.
"The spine of this whole thing is the creative. If the creative is strong, you can cut it up however you like, and it probably is going to make it through, even if it's a poor decision," he explains.
"If you go episodic with a not-so-great story, you're flirting with people that aren't attracted to you whatsoever."
Indeed, Dispatch has been (in our opinion, rightly) praised for its endearing cast of characters and comedy-tinged storyline. There's more than enough quality there to keep people coming back.
While it's entirely possible to play through all eight episodes in one or two sittings, it's clear that the episodic structure helped spread positive impressions; Choung says that player counts hit new heights every time fresh episodes were made available.
"Again, conventional wisdom says: whatever you guys do in the first week, the second week is going to be half that number. It was literally the opposite. Those things, we anticipated. I don't think we anticipated the scale of it," Choung reveals.
Of course, we think it probably helps that Dispatch was always completely transparent with its schedule right from the start. One of Telltale's biggest problems was how uneven its releases were, with delays often sapping the hype as the studio scrambled across multiple projects.
Do you think there's still room for episodic releases in gaming? Did you play Dispatch week by week, or did you binge the whole thing in one go? Ponder Season 2 in the comments section below.
How did you play Dispatch? (106 votes)
- I played the episodes as they released, week by week
- I spread it all across a few sessions
- I played the whole thing in one sitting