Cain on Games - Tim Cain's new YouTube channel

[Alienman]

I'm drinking milk from the fridge with a glass.

You fool, I'm drinking directly from the carton, and now I will explain my motivations as of why!

That's how Tim's evil feels like.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I understand that's not how the actual world works and there are some games where it makes sense and it benefits the gameplay, but it seems like just about every game has to deal in nuance where *intelligent* enemies are concerned and I miss the days when I could just kill a fucking orc and be happy about it.

Yamara cartoon appearing in Dragon Magazine #160 (August 1990)

 

[Eirinjas]

I'm drinking milk from the fridge with a glass.

You fool, I'm drinking directly from the carton, and now I will explain my motivations as of why!

That's how Tim's evil feels like.

Tim Cain if he made a game about the Khmer Rouge:

"Pol Pot had good reasons for killing 1.5-3 million people. We can be sympathetic to him if we understand his reasons."

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

There's a difference between an explanation and a justification. I can understand why a person did something while still thinking they're evil for doing it.

 

[Infinitron]

I talk about providing multiple options in dialog that support and reinforce the players' choices for their characters' personalities.

 

[Drakortha]

Does anything he preaches in his videos actually apply to his own game TOW?

 

[0sacred]

idiot characters > muscle wizards

 

[Infinitron]

I talk about the most important and most misunderstood job that a game director has to do, and that's inspect every element of the game to see if it serves the game's vision.

 

[Roguey]

Core game loops


My take on them is that a fixation on them leads to games that feel very formulaic to play, The Outer Worlds being one of the victims of this. It's like the Save the Cat of game design.

 

[goregasm]

Did Cain spend the month of June letting everyone know he likes playing touch butt with men? And how that has impacted his life, career, and philosophy?

 

[0sacred]

Tim: "Oh, so you want me to change the core game loop?"

Publisher:

Tim: "Checkmate atheists!"

 

[Infinitron]

I talk about game flavor and try to define what it is and why it is so important for a game director to enforce it.

 

[0sacred]

"There are only bad games for you" has to be the gayest retcon Tim has ever done.

 

[0sacred]

Tim is really upping his production value with the snippets and music. Must feel good to be a member.

spoiler

 

[Pyrite Pachyderm]

I talk about game flavor and try to define what it is and why it is so important for a game director to enforce it.

 

[Infinitron]

I talk about some do's and don'ts of negotiating contracts with publishers.

 

[0sacred]

What's the lore, was Troika fucked over by publishers or was it their own fault?

 

[Wesp5]

I would guess both. Valve gave them an unfinished version of the Source engine that they kept changing all the time, so Troika had to restart over and over again with Bloodlines. This annoyed Activision so much that they told them to stop development before they were finished and then released the game at the very same day as HL2 which was really stupid. On the other hand just judging from all the unfinished stuff I found in the game files, Troika really had feature creep going on with Bloodlines tool!

 

[Eirinjas]

One man's feature creep is another man's AAA gaming experience.

 

[Roguey]

What's the lore, was Troika fucked over by publishers or was it their own fault?

He says he was a poor businessman but learned a lot from failure.

 

[Infinitron]

I talk about the business issues and concerns of running a game company.

 

[0sacred]

Wonder what "people who didn't like that we started Troika" he's talking about, sounds like more juicy gossip.

 

[Abu Antar]

What's the lore, was Troika fucked over by publishers or was it their own fault?

Yes.

Jokes aside. It was a mix of both. Valve did their best to screw them over. Publisher relationship was up and down. On the other hand, they have said that their own business decisions were questionable. Buggy releases also didn't help.

It's not hard to see why the top dogs of Troika don't want to start a new studio, or have leadership roles.

When it comes to people not being happy about them forming a studio, one such person was probably Fargo. There are a few more I suspect weren't very happy, but these are all suits.

 

[mindx2]

Wonder what "people who didn't like that we started Troika" he's talking about, sounds like more juicy gossip.

Could be when he talked about Interplay suing him several times claiming he was using code he had made for them when working there.

 

[Eirinjas]

Didn't Tim admit to using Fallout code on Arcanum and Temple of Elemental Evil? The janky character movement is certainly the same between Fallout and Arcanum.