Episodic

This is distinct from planned franchise type games, such as a game is developed as first part of a trilogy or longer series. The distinction lies mainly in that the individual episodes are much shorter, follow-up episodes continue pretty much right where the previous one left off, individual episode length is much shorter than what games of the type usually are, pricing per episode is generally lower than normal games, and so forth.

Each episode can be sold separately or as a bundle with episodes released after given for "free", the former is generally cheaper per single purchase (usually very cheap, like 9$) but latter is essentially purchasing the whole "series" (usually something in direction of 30$) beforehand and thus costs more for that single purchase. The number of episodes dictates which is more affordable for the gamer.

The story usually continues right off from where it left off in previous episode, but like with books and such, there can be a period of time in which "nothing happens" and there's a time skip. Unlike a planned series of normal games however, the transition between episodes is much smoother and don't feel like you're starting a new set of adventures. This also means that a single episode might not actually have a proper ending or start (since it continues what was in previous episode and the actual ending is in an episode sometime later).

See also: chapters (in case single game is split into episodes inside itself)

Common: (for episodes prior to last)
* Open-ended
* Cliffhanger