Essentially, for us, SiN Episodes works on two levels. The first level is on an episode specific arena. We want every episode to be a rewarding and satisfactory experience for the player. So, we endeavor to make each episode not a "part" of a game, but a complete game in and of itself. It's an idea of scope, not division.

Now, there is also a secondary "higher" level as well. While each episode answers questions and tells its own story, it also fits into a larger scale tapestry, asks new questions, and foreshadows events to come. This allows us to have twists and turns in the overall plot.

To give some examples from other media, let's look at two outstanding television shows: X-Files and more recently Lost. In both cases, there's certainly an overarching idea behind both shows – Something that extends beyond any individual episode. So, fans that watch the show episode to episode, season to season, get insights into this overarching idea.

More casual viewers may miss out on some of the high level threads and plot lines, but each episode is written to be a complete experience. They're written to be like bricks in a building, not chapters in a book. There are of course call-backs to previous episodes, there's foreshadowing to future episodes, there's twists, turns, and the occasional cliff-hangar. But, for the most part, the episodes are written so that having knowledge about these elements can enhance your viewing experience, but they're certainly not required to enjoy the story being told.

This is exactly the approach we're taking with our own episodic content.