FiringSquad: Is SiN Episodes 2 already in production and if so when can we expect the second episode to be released and what hints can you give us about your plans for the second episode?

Steve Hessel: Episode 2 development has already begun and thanks to the experience we got from working on Emergence we can hit the ground running now and dive right in. We're currently looking at getting the second episode out there late this year.

Levelord:  HA HA HA! ...look everyone! ...John asked the "When?" question! ...silly John ;) Okay, seriously, we are looking at 6-8 month development cycles per episode.

Although we can't give away any hints yet, I would like to comment on the "What's next?" part of the question. Not with any actual hints on content or features, but with a mention of a key component of our development plans for future episodes. I recently saw a biography special on television about Charles Dickens. His first major success was "The Pickwick Papers" which he wrote and published serially ('episodic').

Serial publishing was new when "The Pickwick Parers" first appeared. Dickens discovered the model had more than one benefit over the traditional full-length book archetype, too. First, it had the advantage of being less expensive to his audience. They could purchase his work in more affordable pieces rather than an entire book, which was often prohibitively expansive for many readers. Second, on a time basis, the temporal pacing of distribution was more fitting for his readers. Rather than trying to find the time to read an entire book, which could be overwhelming to a busy person, Dickens' audience engaged his work in serial pieces. Finally, Dickens had the intelligence to write the work as it was being distributed. Contemporaries of Dickens, who also published serially, waited until the entire work was complete before publishing it as a series. Dickens was able to listen to his audience and guide his work with their feedback.

This last benefit is a key feature for Ritual's episodic model and the important correlation between "The Pickwick Papers" and SiN Episodes. Although many aspects and features for future episodes are already in the works, we are also anticipating much feedback (Dickens didn't have the internet, Ritual does;) from the gaming community and we have full intention to use this to guide future episodes.