It's been three months since the release of SiN Episodes: Emergence but Ritual's first chapter in their episodic first person shooter series isn't standing still waiting for episode 2. The development team has released several new maps in their single player Arena modes along with an SDK and in addition to the second episode a multiplayer mode is in the works. FiringSquad got a chance to chat with Ritual about their plans for SiN Episodes and got responses back from level designer Richard "Levelord" Gray along with lead programmer Ken Harward and writer Shawn Ketcherside.

FiringSquad: First, the response to the first episode of SiN Episodes seemed to be on the whole pretty solid but with a few misgivings. Was this the response that Ritual expected when the episode was released?

Levelord: Ha, ha, ...to be honest, we had no idea what to expect. We are diving into two new paradigms involving both development and distribution.

FiringSquad: Looking back, what would the development team done differently if they had to go back to do Sin Episodes Emergence?

Levelord: I can’t think of anything other than more marketing. That’s always the case, with any product. You can never have too much marketing, unless you’re that guy on late night television commercials who wears that suit covered in question marks and screams at you trying to get you to buy his book on secret sources for government funding! Of this idiot, I’ve seen too much already ;)

Seriously, though, we made a major shift in how a game is delivered to a customer. Looking back, I believe we could have educated our audience more.

FiringSquad: The ending of the episode seemed to be rather abrupt. Why was this decision made?

Shawn Ketcherside: We wanted to end with a bang, and set up the following episodes. Plot-wise, Emergence is about set up – asking questions and laying ground work. There’s a lot of series hooks in Emergence, some overt and some subtle, that are designed for pay off in Episode 2. Because of our commitment to the community, we also wanted to keep ourselves loose, so that if the fans grabbed onto a particular question or tangent, we could really be sure to expand on it in future episodes.

FiringSquad: How did the idea for Arena come about?

Ken Harward: Arena mode was brought about by opportunity for us to run a contest at E3 featuring our game. The original idea was from Tom Mustaine who put the contest together with Vigor, who provided the computing hardware for the competition (and the prize!). We adapted the idea of a straight-forward see-how-long-you-can-last style of game to one which takes complete advantage of our Personal Challenge System. The system is running extremely fast in this game mode, and things can change every few seconds. The higher the challenge, the more points you score per second, but of course it is significantly harder to stay alive. Around the office, we love the mode. We're going to be releasing it now only as a single-player challenge but later on as co-op and team-based multiplayer modes. As a single-player mode, it is the best way to really improve your chops, allowing you to perfectly measure you progress as you get better at adapting to situations.

FiringSquad: Are there plans to release more levels for Arena?

Levelord: Absolutely! I’m writing some of these responses as a new Arena map is compiling on my other machine ;) We intend to supply a stream of maps between episode releases. We also look forward to playing all the user-designed maps that will be made after we release the SDK pack.

Ken Harward: We released around 4 Arena maps with the initial release, followed by another 3 in one of the recent game updates. We hope to release an additional few maps every couple of months. All of our modes will always continue to upgrade across every episode. This is one of the great things about episodic content--the products will get better and offer more functionality with every release. By Episode 3 I expect we'll have several multiplayer modes, tons of Arena maps, and not only will the AI in Episode 3 be outstanding, but that same AI will be retrofitted back to Episode 1. The Episodes will update like a MMO does, where the whole product updates all the time.

FiringSquad: What does the SDK release contain and how much support will Ritual offer to mod authors?

Ken Harward: We released a mini-SDK a few weeks ago, which allows for all types of content-making (maps, models, materials, etc.) for both traditional single-player and arena-mode maps. Once we have merged with the latest version of the Source engine from Valve, we intend to release an SDK that allows for mods to be made of the game. This will have all the functionality of the HL2 SDK. We're hoping to release this later this summer.

FiringSquad: What can you tell us about the release of SiN Episodes Multiplayer at this time?

Levelord: We are working on it, but it is difficult to estimate a release date. We wanted to release the SDK first, and that is done now.

FiringSquad: Will we see some of the classic SiN multiplayer levels in SiN Episodes multiplayer?

Levelord: Nothing is directly planned with any of the old maps, but I wouldn’t be surpised to see some revamped and even re-engineered versions of the classics coming out.

FiringSquad: Are there any plans to bring SiN: Wages of Sin available for download as Ritual did for the original SiN game?

Levelord: This is also on our list, but more on the possibilities side than the definites side.

FiringSquad: ADV Films did a successful SiN anime DVD. With SiN Episodes now out, are there any plans for any more SiN anime?

Levelord: We’ve talked to them, but only briefly. Ritual would love to see another SiN anime!

FiringSquad: What has happened to the plans to port the original SiN to the Source engine?

Levelord: You’re just walking down our list of things-to-do, Master Jcal ;) This is also a wish, and we’ve even converted some of the maps. This is probably on the bottom of the list, though, so when we have free time (read: almost never), or when we can find a mod team or someone who wants to jump in on this, then we’ll see.

FiringSquad: Finally what can you tell us at this time about the second chapter of SiN Episodes?

Levelord: Nothing! It’s way too early ;)

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