Ritual Interview (con'd)

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.

FiringSquad: We know that the original version of SiN will be released alongside the first SiN Episodes chapter but can you comment on whether Wages of SiN will be released as well?

Steve Hessel: - We don’t have any news yet regarding a Steam version of Wages of SiN, but it’s obviously something we’re interested in doing.

FiringSquad: Are there any plans to bring SiN Episodes to next generation consoles?

Steve Hessel: - We’re in talks with Microsoft about getting SiN Episodes on Xbox Live Marketplace, which is a really great outlet for the game. We’ll have more on that at a later time.

Steve Nix: - There are a lot of gamers who prefer to play on the consoles and we need to make sure we are not ignoring those customers. We are extremely focused on a successful launch of the first episode for the PC and working on our PC based partnerships with Microsoft under the Games for Windows program and Logitech on the G15 keyboard side. The PC is a large and viable market and we are first and foremost concerned about a super high quality experience for those customers on day one. Once we’ve nailed that with Emergence, we will be devoting more time to our specific plans for the next gen consoles.

FiringSquad: At GDC Ritual will host a panel where they will introduce a new DirectX 10 graphics engine. What can you tell us about the new engine at this time and is it being used for any upcoming games?

Steve Nix - We have continued working on our UBER Engine technology at Ritual and we are honored to be working directly with Microsoft as one of the first developers of DX10 graphics. The main thing we are focused on right now is letting people know about the power of DX10 and that is the purpose of the GDC panel. We are not ready to talk about any specific applications of the new technology just yet.

FiringSquad: Finally is there anything else you wish to say about SiN Episodes and Ritual's current and future plans?

Levelord: - Well, we’re very excited! We have a good game ready for release, and for some of us this is the fulfillment of almost ten years of aspiration. We’re also very pumped about initiating the new development and distribution model called “episodic”, as well as joining the digital distribution model, both of which we see as profoundly beneficial for both the developer and the gamer. We are stoked that SiN Episodes is being developed with Valve’s Source and being released via their Steam. What a cool piece of history this is!

FiringSquad would like to thank Levelord, Steve Nix, and Steve Hessel for taking part in this interview. We look forward to checking out SiN Episodes: Emergence once it’s released later this year.