Most television shows are broken into seasons (e.g., I’m currently watching season 3 of The Witcher and season 2 of The Afterparty), and I’ve noticed some podcasts–and even games–that do the same thing. But none of the content we create at Stonemaier Games is differentiated by season, and today I thought I’d examine if that’s the right choice.
When Seasons Are Helpful
- When consecutive episodes follow a specific theme or storyline (e.g., Marvel Cinematic Universe phases or deep-dive topics like in the Serial podcast)
- When some aspect of the content (theme, storyline, etc) has a distinct beginning and end. Consumers may appreciate knowing that there is an end in sight (e.g., compare a trilogy of books to an endlessly ongoing series).
- When creator burnout is a possibility. Ending a “season” gives the creators a specific time to take a break.
- When the creator seeks periodic fundraising for the content.
- When you want the extra buzz leading up to and following the season opener and the season finale.
When Seasons Don’t Apply
- When little/none of the above is true.
Methods of Using Seasons
- When titling episodes, lead with the focus of the episode, not the season/episode number.
- The length of the season can have an impact on whether a consumer is willing to start it (e.g., a 6-episode season vs a 30-episode season). There is the perception of less padding and an increased ability to finish what you start.
Seasons in Tabletop Games
- Cycles in Android Netrunner showcase different locations.
- Sets in Magic the Gathering are based on different worlds; set releases often impact which cards are eligible for various competitive formats.
- Marvel Snap’s seasons highlight the release of new characters, twists to the format, and new goals/achievements.
- Dice Throne characters are separated by season.
- Pandemic Legacy is named by season, largely to emulate the narrative arc of a television drama.
I love the benefits of content seasons, though I’m still not sure how they might apply to Stonemaier Games. I like the freedom to write about any entrepreneurial, marketing, and crowdfunding topics on this blog, just as I like the freedom to talk about any game, genre, or mechanism on our YouTube channel. Rolling Realms is perhaps a game where promo realms could be separated into seasons, but it’s just as fun to mix them all together. Same with Wingspan. I’m open to ideas, though!
What do you think about the concept of seasons of content? Where do you find them helpful (or inapplicable) as a creator or consumer?
Also read: Are You Motivated by Seasonal Menus?
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15 Comments on “Seasons of Content: When Are They the Right Fit?”
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The concept of seasons is a great idea to consider in game development. Seasons are a natural occurrence, so I think their use should be meaningful and in context whenever used. Cultural variations in how seasons are viewed would need to be considered too.
I can imagine introducing new game rules each season after a game is launched, it would help keep in touch with the game community and help maintain interest in the game. Ask purchasers of the game to ‘Sign-up with Stonemaier game to receive seasonal rule changes’. Maybe if you are playing Scythe during Winter, the lakes are frozen over, so they are easier to cross?
The concept of seasons is a perfect fit for Wingspan. Changing seasons affect food supply, laying eggs and raising young, there is a mating season and migration season.
Some thoughts to integrate seasons may be: If the game enters mating season say via the reveal of a certain card, a players matching pair of birds or a match with another player could provide benefits like extra points, or initiate a trade of resources?
A migration season could allow players to swap cards or players to swap a card out of their hand with a new one?
Thanks! This is a little more along the lines of “seasonal” content—still related, but discussed on a different article (see link in above post).
This post is interesting for me regarding the combination of seasonal contents and freedom of contents creation in terms of the themes and world. It might be off the focus of this post a bit, but I think the integration of different worlds within one “universe” has similar benefits and maybe more. When I think about Marvel universe, as an example, many of the benefits mentioned also seem to be satisfied. Moreover, the antagonist and theme does not have to be identical in a different “world” (but in the same “universe”), which I believe to be quite fitting to board games.
As a kid, I enjoyed watching cartoon shows on TV. One of them was about a group of heroes travelling into different folk tales. They were trying to resolve plots that were messed up by villains and to bring the story back to its original (and ultimately, a happy ending). All the folk tales had different timelines, antagonists, themes and etc. But a bigger concept (time-space travellers) that included all the smaller folk tale worlds was obviously intriguing enough to capture many kids’ attentions at that time.
Decades later, like I mentioned above, when I think about how Marvel and DC comics integrated different characters in different worlds, it seems that the attempts to include and explain multiple different worlds with a bigger concept (universe) work successfully. Even some concepts were driven by actual scientific theories like “multiverse” to better convince the viewers.
In my opinion, Stonemaier games is already implementing such work in a way. The line “Which world will you visit today?” on the main page here delivers such “big universe” vibe to me. I would be even more excited to have a narrative (beyond just a line) explaining that, for example, I am actually travelling from a game to another to resolve different problems in various worlds (like the cartoon show I mentioned above). And that might give me more reasons to get a different game from Stonemaier games and extend my journey through the universe. I think such universe can be even more convincing because Stonemaier games has a quite defined catalogue of games based on specific design / publish philosophy (like 12 tenets).
Anyways, thank you for sharing an inspirational post. It got me to a lot of thoughts.
I appreciate your case for a connected universe of Stonemaier worlds! I’ve thought about it, and we have some meta-games like Smitten and Rolling Realms, but so far I’ve tried to keep the actual worlds separate. We’ll see, though! :)
I used to play the game “Apples to Apples” and I always thought that an annual update to the game where new cards based on the things that had happened in that year, who was doing those things, and so on… that would have been great.
The same thing kind of applies to the game “Concept” — a game my wife loves and we play often. The game needs (in my opinion) a near constant influx of new cards with new ideas to attempt to get across using the symbols. Too frequent, and you kill the game. Too infrequent (or not at all), and I think you also kill the game.
I just think that a regular “seasonal” update of some games such as these can be a way to keep interest up in the game, and ensure that the play of the game always feels fresh.
Season/Episodic release of content is compelling from a design standpoint. As a 1-2 man shop publishing print and play games, I can release a base game and an adventure pack with the plan to release more packs over time. Effectively releasing Gloomhaven-like adventure game and Chapter 1 (at a reduced cost), followed by additional chapters.
We did this with Chainmail, Light-year, Dungeon Pages, and I will with No Good Deed (the aforementioned vigilante adventure game).
That’s really neat, Jason–I like how you’re using this method to decrease the original barrier to entry.
For Stonemaier content, I could see something similar to Pandemic Legacy, where you release a new “season” of Charterstone. Maybe that would be a new base game, or maybe it’s similar to the refresh pack, where it’s new content that builds from where you are at the end of the game, rather than resetting to zero. The idea of a legacy game that builds off of the previous campaign I played – literally adding new content to my existing map, is pretty compelling for me. I don’t know if functionally/practically it would break down, but I think it’s interesting.
Even a campaign like Rise of Fenris could be interesting as a season of content – though I don’t know exactly what that would like. I guess just a longer story broken into several pieces like you described. I think you’d want to map it all out to make it cohesive and satisfying, but that would cool for sure.
Thanks for sharing your ideas about seasons, Marc. Designing even one legacy game is quite the endeavor; it might burst my brain to design a legacy sequel to a legacy game where information from the first game carries over to the next–that’s quite ambitious! :)
In some ways, each chapter of Scythe (each expansion) is a season of content, with The Rise of Fenris acting as the grand finale.
For me, the question you pose really depends on whether the season breaks are done for creative/narrative reasons vs technical reasons.
Im not really a season type of guy when it comes to games, mostly because of why/how I enjoy games vs why/how I enjoy TV shows.
I tend to appreciate games more from a creative mindset rather than a purely consumer/observer mindset. A good game (in my opinion) will give you the framework to create a fun narrative rather than giving you one. Take Tapestry for example – theres little narrative to speak of within the game, but people at the table can have fun imagining/talking about what a society of mystic socialist coal barons with a penchant for space travel would look like. RPGs will create a world, but its up to you how your characters behave in that world, how theyre influenced by it and how they influence it. I’ve played “season” games like the Pandemic ones and found I was simply playing someones game instead of being a part of it. Asking me to enjoy a board game with the same mindset I would enjoy TV show just doesnt work for me. The same reason Im not fond if video games with too many cut scenes.
Of course, this is all in the sense of narratives. When seasons are broken up for purely technical & logistical reasons rather than creative, thats a whole other story. Im fine with “seasonal” type releases if it doesnt require previous knowledge beyond the base game.
TV is a different mindset because a creator is showing me a world they want to portray rather than trying to make the consumer an active participant.
Thanks Luke! This really resonates with me: “A good game (in my opinion) will give you the framework to create a fun narrative rather than giving you one.”
When something is organized into chunks (seasons/arcs/etc.) I tend to feel a of pressure to consume the entire chunk. Sometimes this is a good thing as it encourages me to explore the backcatalog of a podcast or radio show when i otherwise would have started with the most recent episode and only consumed the new ones as they came out. More often, it feels like a barrier to entry for me though- “this podcast in on episode 30 of its current season?! I may as well wait for the new one to start. That’ll be a better onboardong point.”
When content is just posted in one continuous stream and categorized by date or topic I dont have that same urge to start from the beginning, i feel like I have permission to bounce around and pick the ones that are interesting to me.
But my wife does. For her, seeing that something is on episode 300 feels incredibly intimidating and serves as a barrier to entry. A seasonal format gives her a feeling that it’s safe to join at the beginning of any season and safe to leave at the end of that season.
That’s an interesting point about the pressure to consume the entire season, Jamie (and the converse about having safe points to join and leave)–thanks for sharing.
In a way, perhaps the focus on different continents in Wingspan is like a division into seasons? There’s a finite “end” (the geographical space) and there’s a built in pause after the releases.
I can see that! There’s a similarity there, though ultimately I think most people play a few games with the new expansion and then shuffle those birds into all the other birds they have. :)