Cain on Games - Tim Cain's new YouTube channel

[NecroLord]

Everyone always memes Troika went bankrupt when they just closed the studio rather than make shovelware. They went to that Fallout 3 auction with a decent warchest but couldn't compete with that 20 something million Bethesda slapped on the table.

I wanted Van Buren to become a reality.

 

[Roguey]

Didn't they started to live off of Kickstarter fumes and gamer clout around 2013?

No, they were living off working on other peoples' MMOs (Skyforge, Armored Warfare). The kickstarter was a pittance that could support a few dozen devs.

Besides the comparison is unfair because Kickstarter and Internet weren't that strong when Troika was around.

Obsidian only started a few years after Troika and they survived through it with their Bioware connections (kotor 2 with LucasArts, nwn2 with Atari), Disney (Seven Dwarfs), Sega (Aliens, Alpha Protocol), Bethesda (New Vegas), Square Enix (Dungeon Siege III), Microsoft (Stormlands), and THQ/Ubisoft (South Park).

I'm not a Larian fan but if you wanted to give an example of successful I will give Larian and Swen. Larian is older than both Troika and Obsidian and just a few years ago most people didn't know they existed, they survived making mid RPGs and taking crappy deals from galaxy brain publishers that thought Diablo-clones were the fastest step to riches. But since Larian survived long enough to the Kickstarter era, they started to do their own games and with that they hit gold. Today they are an independent studio. Obsidian is not.

Difficult to say how much of Larian's better success comes down to luck or Swen's own skill. His tastes are as comparably bad as Feargus's and there are a lot of stories of his own underhanded behavior.

However Tim's not going to talk about Swen because he doesn't know him. He knows Feargus.

 

[Abu Antar]

I got bored of his channel, too much attention seeking.

He posts too often.

I watch two or three videos per week.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Roguey]

"What if magic was more hardcore?"



Would only happen in a game with a small budget. People don't even like using consumables when they're given in abundance due to the "I might need them later" mindset. If they're rare, forget it.

Tim praises how crafting cost xp in 3rd edition/ToEE which contributed to my not crafting a single item until after I hit the level cap.

 

[0sacred]

> complains about being the RPG guy
> writes wizard fanfic at night under his blanket

 

[scytheavatar]

Difficult to say how much of Larian's better success comes down to luck or Swen's own skill. His tastes are as comparably bad as Feargus's and there are a lot of stories of his own underhanded behavior.

However Tim's not going to talk about Swen because he doesn't know him. He knows Feargus.

No one gives a shit about Feargus or Swen's "bad tastes" or "underhanded behavior", what that matters is that Swen is objectively and undeniably a way better businessman than Feargus. Swen never panders and never chases trend unlike Feargus. While Feargus is happy for Obsidian to remain under the shadows of better studios, Swen understands the importance of standing out in the industry and doing stuff the competitors are not doing.

Not to mention Larian clearly tries to make games that appeal to a much wider audience than Obsidian does.

 

[Roguey]

No one gives a shit about Feargus or Swen's "bad tastes" or "underhanded behavior", what that matters is that Swen is objectively and undeniably a way better businessman than Feargus.

They're both better than Tim but neither of them are what I would consider good. The game industry is lacking in good businessmen.

Swen never panders and never chases trend unlike Feargus.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Swen is objectively and undeniably a way better businessman than Feargus.

Bitch please. Microsoft cancelled Stormlands contract because Obsidian were doing laughably bad job, and Feargus still managed to bamboozle Microsoft into buying the company. And now he continues as the CEO, presumably making big bucks, despite making no games for 6 years aside from Sawyers glorified flash adventure.

Guy basically spend a decade selling giant turds to Microsoft and got away with it. If that's not Einstein level of business-doing, I don't know what is.

 

[Infinitron]

Swen Vincke had a strong faith in the mass market appeal of turn-based RPGs and a willingness to repeatedly bet the bank on it. That's what sets him apart more than anything else. It'd be interesting to ask him what he would have done if the bet had failed.

 

[scytheavatar]

Swen Vincke had a strong faith in the mass market appeal of turn-based RPGs and a willingness to repeatedly bet the bank on it. That's what sets him apart more than anything else. It'd be interesting to ask Swen what he would have done if the bet had failed.

Swen was right when he said turn based games had already proved their potential to the masses with the mobile games and Pokemon. So turn based games already have nothing to prove, it's only idiots who think turn based games can't sell to the mass market.

But it is naive to think turn based RPGs are some magic sauce and guaranteed success either. Larian games are so successful in the first place cause Swen understood the fundamental point of a CRPG is to create an adventure, and any game he made always did a great job at selling that fantasy of an adventure. Meanwhile Obsidian thinks the whole point of RPGs is to be walking wikipedia pages, why would their games sell well?

 

[0sacred]

It'd be interesting to ask Swen what he would have done if the bet had failed.

"They say there are only two ways to make a living for a poor girl on the streets: prostitution or starvation."

 

[Cohesion]

It'd be interesting to ask Swen what he would have done if the bet had failed.

"They say there are only two ways to make a living for a poor girl on the streets: prostitution or starvation."

Swen never was poor. He was rich & accomplished before BG3.

 

[LizardWizard]

Swen is objectively and undeniably a way better businessman than Feargus.

Bitch please. Microsoft cancelled Stormlands contract because Obsidian were doing laughably bad job, and Feargus still managed to bamboozle Microsoft into buying the company. And now he continues as the CEO, presumably making big bucks, despite making no games for 6 years aside from Sawyers glorified flash adventure.

Guy basically spend a decade selling giant turds to Microsoft and got away with it. If that's not Einstein level of business-doing, I don't know what is.

Does Larian even survive 00s RPG wasteland if they weren't leeching off Belgian government subsidies?

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Does Larian even survive 00s RPG wasteland if they weren't leeching off Belgian government subsidies?

An interesting and crucial point: the Belgian government is ultimately responsible for the creation of Baldur's Gate 3.

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

And now he continues as the CEO, presumably making big bucks, despite making no games for 6 years aside from Sawyers glorified flash adventure.

Obsidian released Grounded in late September 2022.

 

[Infinitron]

I talk about things I did to improve morale on my teams.

 

[Infinitron]

I talk about the need to separate player skill from character skill in first-person games.

 

[Bulo]

An interesting and crucial point: the Belgian government is ultimately responsible for the creation of Baldur's Gate 3.

The Belgian government has been responsible for many atrocities over the years

 

[Roguey]

More rage from the Morrowind crowd.

Tim believes that in action RPGs, skills should only affect things the player doesn't have direct control over. On the same page as Josh Sawyer.

 

[Butter]

More rage from the Morrowind crowd.

Tim believes that in action RPGs, skills should only affect things the player doesn't have direct control over. On the same page as Josh Sawyer.

Useless and untenable position. If they decide to make an alchemy minigame where you chop and mash ingredients, goodbye Alchemy skill.

 

[Roguey]

Useless and untenable position. If they decide to make an alchemy minigame where you chop and mash ingredients, goodbye Alchemy skill.

A good number of games have crafting systems but no crafting skills, yes.

 

[Butter]

Useless and untenable position. If they decide to make an alchemy minigame where you chop and mash ingredients, goodbye Alchemy skill.

A good number of games have crafting systems but no crafting skills, yes.

A good number of games are RPGs in name only. Tim sounds like a mid-00s developer talking his designers into watering down their systems.

 

[Roguey]

A good number of games are RPGs in name only. Tim sounds like a mid-00s developer talking his designers into watering down their systems.

Crafting skills should only exist if they're strong enough to be worthwhile in comparison to other skills. No feature is being lost, just "Should this be a trade-off or not?"

 

[Bulo]

If they decide to make an alchemy minigame where you chop and mash ingredients, goodbye Alchemy skill.

These suck btw. Easily the worst part of KCD