strategy for episodic content

[asciibard]

As a motivator and a means of breaking up the workload into chunks, I'm interested in developing an episodic game where I will release each chapter individually as I write them.

I've figured out how to do this technologically - I plan to start with a main menu that lets users select the chapter, very similar to PyTom's bundled tutorial.

The only real problem I can think of is convenience and accessibility. It's kind of arduous to ask my players to download 70MB and overwrite their previous installation with a new one.

I'm looking for advice on the most convenient way of doing this that is respectful of my players. A strategy that's not too difficult or confusing. Is Ren'Py even the right platform for this concept or is it more intended for complete, all-inclusive games? Would this publishing strategy be better served by a web-based solution?

Thanks!

[papillon]

If/when there is a general renpy patcher made available, this will get easier as people will be prompted to download only the parts that have changed. (We have one, but it's not very user-friendly for anyone who isn't Spiky.)

[asciibard]

A patcher would be absolutely ideal. If this is in the roadmap then I will continue this would-be episodic project without fear.

[nyaatrap]

Just drag&drop newer data2.rpa and scripts2.rpyc files into the game folder must work and it's easy enough for almost doujin game users
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[sciencewarrior]

By updating a global variable holding your list of episodes, you can "register" a new episode. Check this list when creating your main menu and you won't even have to change your screen.rpy.

[Graph]

It seems like updating story and art by the episode should be easy enough. Though, how feasible is it to upgrade Ren'py itself to a newer version (say from 6.12.2 to the future 6.14 or 7) using a patch? (As opposed to having the end user download the whole thing fresh when the new episode comes out)