SiN multiplayer survey

Ritual has started polling gamers about what sort of multiplayer content they would like to see in SiN Episodes - as the first instalment, Emergence, closes in on another milestone ahead of its late autumn launch.

The multiplayer survey covers a large number of subjects - everything from your preferred platforms, games and game modes, right down to individual components like weapon and respawn rules, persistent data-tracking and even the kind of hot-key voice comms you prefer.

Ritual says it will use the data to help form SiN Episodes' multiplayer modes, although the game is primarily a single-player affair - the first episode will offer about 6-8 hours of standalone content, and should retail for less than $20 when it's launched through Steam.

Meanwhile, a new development blog has also appeared online. In the first entry, dated August 19th, Shawn Ketcherside says that all of the game's levels are meant to be "gameplay-complete" by the end of the month. That means, "the levels are playable - all the enemies, pick-ups, puzzles, and everything else are placed. It's sort of the first-draft of the game." The blog also talks about level-planning, the dangers of feature-creep, and difficulties the team had designing the end-of-episode boss character.

SiN Episodes, for those feeling a bit lost, is a follow-up to PC first-person shooter SiN. Developer Ritual plans to release a number of small, reasonably-priced downloadable episodes through Half-Life developer Valve's games-on-demand service Steam. The first, Emergence, is due out later this year, and you can find out lots more about it elsewhere on the site.