Good God do I wish that rule about personal insults was an industry standard. Even from more tertiary experiences, it's clear and obvious how much that would improve the back-and-forth.
@CainOnGames it also feels like people who get nasty cloud the conversation and pull from people who have genuine criticisms that aren't attacks on the entire product.
@@dropkickpherby6994 people who personally insult are usually fairly verbose and prolific so it does drown out the valid criticisms. The most popular content creators basing their personality around this doesn't help promote a healthier society either.
This is an underrated component of a great leader: someone who knows how to listen to various perspectives, incorporate their own, and make decisions based on that accumulation that best accomplishes preconditioned goals/pillars. Bad leaders try too hard to appease everyone or ignore anything they don't agree with, and both of those can be incredibly damaging to unity and consolidated hierarchy. If you're in charge, there's an inherent trust that you not only have the skills to handle that responsibility, but that you also have the humility and grace to defer/delegate, and also override decisions by subordinates that are either damaging or imbalanced.
I love bouncing my ideas with someone that gives me proper feedback and I really wish more people could not only take constructive critism but also give it.
Me too! I have to invite it. I have to think of my own counterarguments and give them to people so they can argue with me sometimes. Which doesn’t help as much as people actively coming up with their own criticisms of my ideas. I like it when people with good ideas argue with me because I can refine my thinking with their input.
I feel such a strong empathy about situation when people get upset because "you don't hear me/us" or "we just can't express our pov as strongly as you". Been there multiple times. Learned to sometimes let go - some things aren't that important. Other times to just accept that I made someone mad. Afterall, we have no control over how other people feel. Staying respectful and passionate is ok. If someone can't handle that - well its their choice.
something I learned pretty quickly when brainstorming and suggesting ideas with a strict friend of mine is that its often more effective to give the idea straight and just say the advantages you see with it. Don’t push them to do it, don’t force anything, just sow the seed for the idea. Almost always he would end up doing that idea after having it sit and simmer in his head for a little while. If he didn’t end up incorporating it directly, he would almost always be influenced by that idea in some way with his solution. Which was often admittedly even better than my idea from the begining.
I love the idea battles. Obviously they have to be done in good faith. But I've been lucky, and most that I've been included in have been just that. In this one project I used to do a very similar thing described in the video Tim had with Leonard. Although the discussions were between me and another artist and after we reached a conclusion we would go get this one coder and he would tell us what was wrong with our design. He acted as a sort of first test for the idea. If he couldn't come up with a huge problem, we would try it in the game.
Oh wow I didn't realize this was posted until now (TH-cam didn't give me a notification for the early upload). Thank you for the response! What you described in Outer Worlds where you're in the room on a whiteboard is exactly what I was talking about. People think you're arguing, but you're really just passionate! When I was in high school, I would take German class for 3 years. I had this friend Ryan (who actually introduced me to New Vegas which got me into Fallout) and we would argue all the time about philosophy, politics, etc. I would frequently raise my voice, and Ryan would always win, so people thought we were mad at each other, but in reality I loved the dude and loved our conversations.
This is a good system, i like that you have a way of singling out questions and talking about your experiences and we all still get the content...OK NOW TO WATCH THE REST OF THE VIDEO
I found that online, with people responding when I post stuff about politics and theology. The way I put it is "the first to go ad hominem loses". It's quite freeing in a way, because it means you don't have to get angry or respond further at all, because I already won, and their abusiveness already damns them in itself. Of course they will imagine that they won, because they think they had the last word, but that's more fool them.
Sometimes i get so excited by somebodys great suggestion or idea that it immediately inspires a bunch of visions, babble, sketches and i forget to say 'Thank you, Your idea is amazing.'
Tim, great video. Believe it or not it changed my life for the better. I felt a weight lift off my shoulders that had been there for years. Your comment about a personal attack being the other person is out of ideas turned a light bulb on in my head. In a previous job I had a leader who would not release me from duties for him even though I put everything in place for the transfer. He did not have any more arguments to keep me. So he made fun of me and the job I was moving into. As if they were pointless and useless. I used to look back on that with disdain. Now I see it as his own personality flaw. Thanks.
One of the solutions to the points system is to make the perks probabilistic and give the powers an expected power boost where the difference is a standard deviation. So it might take 1 hit with fire but you might through no fault of your own 3 tries. Where as it will take 3 hits with water but it is guaranteed. That way it smooths out the points and really balances the combat in the game and makes the game equally challenging and varied. My favorite reward system is Doom's where the way you kill the opponent determines the reward. I think in that manner, you basically have a new way to strategize the fights and try to end with a specific attack in order to gain the equipment, potion, etc that you are seeking. It would be neat with crafting too. I think that could be really explored in a game as that aspect could make combat that seems bland more interesting than simply defeat the enemy. Instead it is defeat to gain the spoils of combat.
I know this may get lost in the comments, but my question/topic for a video would be: Horror in non-horror video games. How to approach it properly? That ONE mission which still sends chills down your spine. For example, the The Ocean House Hotel in VtmB. The Atmosphere of Fallout 1 and 2 (ambiance, music, level design and art). Robbing the Cradle in Thief: Deadly Shadows. Dunwich Building in Fallout 3. Ravenholm in Half-Life 2. Thank you and have a wonderful day, everyone!
That’s a good question, but I may not be the one to answer it. Jason Anderson made The Ocean House level, and many of the horror elements in Fallout were not my idea. But I’ll think on this.
Hear me out, most people want to see in a battle things like "dragons vs giants" & "Spartans vs Samurai" but personally I'd binge the heck out of a series covering idea battles during games development in a versus format. I think I'd find that incredibly entertaining & everyone could learn something lol. If there are any filmmakers in the audience you know what to do!
I’m glad you lost that argument too. That ending to the original Fallout is one of my favorites of any video games I’ve played. It is one of the many reasons it is one of my all time favorites.
Re: "Save points between levels" System - While it's not a terrible system, I find it thoroughly dissatisfying. "Yay, I gained a level! Now... I can't do anything with it if I want a better ability... yay..." :D Some spitballing ideas to offset that awful feeling: - A system where there are 'micro-perks' inbetween the "big perks" (the ones you actually want) that you have to spend points on in order to advance to the next big perk. Point is, the micro-perks would still give you something. Big perk 1: +1 to attacks in a turn. Micro-perk: +N damage -> Micro-perk: +N Parry Strength -> Big-perk 2: +1 to attacks in a turn. It makes you still spend more points than you'd like for the big things, but at least it gives you something in return and doesn't make you wait with your points sitting there uselessly. Con of that is that the "micro perks" typically feel uninspired and in the most eggregious cases they feel like a waste (which can be almost worse than sitting on useless points). - Stat requirements (Arcanum did have this to a degree, and it was good): Before you can take a certain perk you want, you need to have N points in an associated stat(s). You're still spending more points than you want, but it still gives you something (provided that raw stats have good benefits in a given system). - And finally my preferred idea: Exploration-based system. You don't just buy stuff on level-up, but rather have to acquire perks from around the world (from teachers, books, quests, events, whatever), where you spend some 'learning points' you have. That rarely feels like you're sitting on your points uselessly and waiting for something - instead you are actively seeking a way to spend those points as you explore (good examples of games that do that well: Gothic seriers; Outward).
Some of the best ideas come out of those types of discussions. When you're in a band, it's often out of those that you come up with the best song ideas.
You see me now, a veteran of a thousand psychic wars I've been livin' on the edge so long where the winds of limbo roar And I'm young enough to look at and far too old to see All the scars are on the inside I'm not sure that there's anything left to me
When I teach project management to students one thing I tell them to do in the pre production phase is to "think and dream of ideas. Fly high as much as you can right now because trust me once you actually start working on the game, reality is gonna smack you hard down to earth 😂". I've sat down in many calls that they've had and many of them would indeed be classified as idea battles. And it's always fun. Cuz even if the team members came up with ideas that weren't used in that game, I would tell them to write them down and maintain an "idea journal" so that they can be referenced, used or adapted later. Edit: I'm curious. Do you have an idea journal? Can you discuss some of the contents of it if you do have one.
Yes, I have an idea journal. I have talked about it and made several videos about the ideas inside. Here is one: th-cam.com/video/x_a_jGNKonk/w-d-xo.html That video links to another video too.
🙏 Tim Cain my gay hero. Im so tired of the ESG pandering, why is every character gay now and their entire personality is gay. I miss the good old days when we were evillll and well written.
I'm a trained idea guy, this isn't a particularly useful skill in economic terms but sometimes comes in handy. (Need 60 NPCs for a book, here's 80, choose the best.) But there are a couple of reasons for putting forward ideas that don't work. The sacrificial pawns of the "Idea Battle" so to speak. One is to simply clear the idea from your own head while brainstorming, the other reason is to prompt a fresh idea from someone else. My training has made me consider ideas as something almost disposable, quantity after all having a quality of it's own. Having difficulty getting an idea across is another matter, sometimes that takes more time, "you just don't get my idea...." especially when it is really out there.
Hi, Tim, congrats on hitting 150k subscribers! Do you ever wish you made this time-traveling dinosaur game? I'd love to hear about what kind of stories you had in mind for it.
Unfortunately, in larger groups, it is often the louder person or the more charismatic person that wins the idea battle, not the person with the better idea. That is why Introverts must practice their social and communication skills if they want to improve processes and systems in the corporate world.
I feel like it's important to rescue the world "argument" from people that believe it means "fight". Ironically, "battle" means an actual physical fight - we just use it in a lighter context for emphasis. I'm guessing the intent is to lighten the mood by replacing an argument with a pokemon-idea match.
Yeah, idea battles can make the team question the design and go the extra mile thinking about why it is like it is, why it should stay like it is or change into something better. Biggest challenge of this is setting the ego aside and be able to think critically. Acknowledging flaws in one's ideas can be tough. People doing the questioning should be gentle about suggesting changes or informing flaws when possible. It's a dance really.
I 1000% feel you on the middle bit about "passionate presentation" in meetings. I'm...very much in your boat, I feel like passion sells me on things, and so I feel compelled to bring my own passion to the presentation of any ideas or solutions. I've also had a similar experience where people had told me (and my former boss) that we were being too loud and too energetic in the meetings, and that people were uncomfortable and would prefer we just...toss the ideas out there plain. Which just...man, rubs me the wrong way. I hope that I will someday attain the zen you seem to have picked up in dealing with this, and it is (as always) wonderful to hear your takes and experiences. (Also, equal agreement on the name calling and personal insults. There's passion, and there's bullying, and that definitely feels like it crosses the line.)
I feel this falls in to finding your people and a team that resonates with you. Sure, you can modify your presentation, but to lose your energy and excitement would only be doing yourself a disservice. Look at Tim's experience, too: the original Fallout team just clicked.
@@stephenbushey6608 Totally agree, though unfortunately for me, I am finding myself in less and less position to pick and choose teams. The entire industry seems convinced that "AI" and "Cloud" will mean no one actually needs to know how the tech works and the sausage is made. Just makes me appreciate the folks who love a good "Idea Battle" all the more when I can find them.
The "Idea Battles" title has a similar ring to Rap Battles, and it formed a funny mental image in my head where developers face off, trying to outdo each other's game design ideas while the audience (the rest of the team) cheers on the side.
I'd love to play another Sci-Fi ARPG that doesn't use ammo similar to the first Mass Effect, it just makes for great world building with mechanics saying the technology has advence so far now ammo management is a thing of the past... and then added Thermal Clips in 2.😑
Hey Tim! Idea for a topic: How to battle a work pattern in a development enviroment. When you technically, as a programmer for example, want to do things a certain way and believes that way is a more efficient way to do but others don't see it that way. How do you prove your point without the risk of wasting time?
Hey Tim, just saw yesterday a GDC video on Tears of the Kingdom Physics and Music. They solved lots of issues by making ALL objects physics-based instead of kinematics (and all sound to behave using the same rules). I wonder if you have thoughts on deep-diving into system-based design vs hand-crafting stuff (e.g. on this side: in BG3 they brute-forced interactions by recording tons of mockup-ed scenes to great success). I personally feel like most games these days favor the later over the former, though I personally prefer system-based stuff.
Hi Tim , Mr. Leonard Boyarsky suggested on that Fallout ending Waow :) . I considered That , Fallout 1 has the best story written soo far because of that ending , that ending broke my heart but also gave me huge amount of satisfaction , after i realized that i can kill overseer while in ending stages of the game. (And you also metioned that in one of your videos that , Mr. Tramell Ray Isaac made that overseer death animation so i also thank him for that) Would it be possible that organizing a Fallout reunion video conference , i don't know you watched it or not in some years before The Lord Of The Rings Movie Series casts did the same thing , i think it would be spectacular thing to watch but don't know if this can be doable or even logical to make it just as a fan i would like to watch that kind of event that's all :)
I’ve seen that LotR cast reunion, and one for Community as well. The Fallout team is scattered to the winds, so organizing and creating such a reunion would be quite a task.
@@CainOnGames Thanks Tim for your reply , have a great weekend to you and to your loved ones . I hope that one day i will find some videos about other developers from Fallout team also , just would like to say thank you to them in their videos and would like to know what are they doing right now :) and esspecially wondering 2 person which one of the person you mentioned in some time that creator of S.P.E.C.I.A . (L) system Chris Taylor and also Mark Morgan .
I'm surprised you had to implement a 'no personal insults' rule for meetings, I'd have thought that was a given. But my work has been in libraries and courtrooms, so obviously gamedev can be a lot less chill lol. An unrelated question from your other vids I've been watching through I think I heard you mention a Troika pitch for a Shadowrun game during one of your Leonard chats, and then playing pen and paper Shadowrun came up in your chat with Scott. This got my attention a little bit, because since Microsoft acquired Obsidian I got optimistic a new Shadowrun would be on the cards since MS already owned the license. Are you at liberty to say whether the idea has been talked about at all at Obsidian, or if otherwise you've still got any interest in the idea? I just love the universe and I'm always keen to see more of it.
12:30 not Timothy Cain, Warrior for the Straights 😩 I get what you mean but to be honest it felt like it would've been more on-vibe than it usually feels in BioWare RPGs (not a perfect metric iK, but my main frame of reference in companion romance). Pavarti's story was totally top notch, first-in-class though so perhaps all that energy was simply Khyber-crystal focused into a very powerful, very gay Death Star laser. I'm lukewarm on Outer Worlds but her story totally stood out for me and is half of why I find the game memorable.
Hi Tim! Great video, and thank you for the new membership opportunity! I'd love to hear your thoughts on 'estimates' in large software projects, and if you can recall any stories about how estimates have gone (both positive/negative) in your career. And because estimates are so often wrong, I'd love to hear your advice on addressing it: While in development, when a member of a team discovers that the project estimate is very incorrect, how and when should that team member communicate it to the rest of the team and stakeholders? Thank you so much! And my apologies if you've already covered this topic. Thank you for your time :)
@@CainOnGames You've got to be kidding! Haha, wow. I am often asked the question, "are you psychic?" 😳 Thanks for the response, looking forward to watching!
@@CainOnGames did you already upload the "Time Estimation" video by mistake? TH-cam already showed me the thumbnail and video link for that one on Saturday
Hey Tim! You have loosely discussed this prior, but when working within a team what practices and habits do certain devs demonstrate that you consider problematic, and how do you go about remedying them as both an equal team member and team lead?
Making sure that not all the companions were queer was a really good choice. As someone who has friends in the LGBT I've seen how difficult it is for them to be accepted. Especially in a country like India. But i have seen that when things are taken slow, and enough time is given to ideas for them to marinate properly, they are accepted better. I think that if most companions were made queer that would've boxed the game into a "woke" category. But having one companion be queer, and having her not make her queerness her entire personality was great. It's something you found out only if you engaged with it. And it was upto the player. Moreover, I've seen in many shows and movies and games where LGBT characters wear their queerness as their entire personality. Which I think is degrading, because then as a writer you are implying that there is nothing more to these characters other than the fact that they're gay, or trans. When in reality that should be a part of who they are as characters, but not their entire being. It also makes it easier for straight people to connect with them on a character level, and have empathy for them and see them as more than being just gay. One of my hot takes has always been that yes while we do need representation, you can't just force it in ans then force people to accept it and if they don't you call them toxic. There is a proper way to do it which takes many things into account and I think you guys took the perfect approach for that. I honestly don't think it would've been an issue if another character was gay seeing how you guys handled parvati I'm sure you would've handled that well too. Ps: sorry if this comment was too long, or if I posted too many comments 😅
hey, i've had similar conversations with my friends about certains things you dont' really see in games. one personal skill/ability i'd love to see done is a character flying. it rarely every happens, and if there is a game focusing on "flight" they limit it. one that comes to mind is Anthem, and they put a cool down on the flying, which might be down to the widely reported difficult development. i guess my question is pretty simple, why isnt there more flying in games? i'd love to play a superman-eque character flying, but it's never really happened so is flying like superman an nightmare to get right?
Flying isn’t difficult to implement, but it tends to make exploration much more trivial. Without the need to find a clear path, to jump and climb and parkour, many flying games end up losing their exploration aspect. Look at games that add flying into their late stage gameplay, like WoW did, and you see how players tend to stop exploring and just move in a straight line, hub to hub.
You and Leonard sound like a married couple 😅 Our kids nag to us that we’re always arguing with my wife as we’re both so passionate when we’re merely discussing 🙉😸
Not really relevant to the overall point of the video, but I'm surprised you made that decision with regard to queer companions in Outer Worlds! In the game itself I don't remember anyone's orientation ever coming up other than Parvati, as you said romantic relationships aren't really a part of the game's vibe
Hey Tim, I was wondering about your thoughts on visual scripting, since I read a lot of the time that people would love to make their own game but they make excuses saying they don't know how to code. Is this feature used much in the game industry in your experience and would you recommend it?
I have a question about idea battles, have you ever had a developer who had the right idea but sucked at conveying it, and if so how did you get around that i.e. prototypes or another way
Yes, with more time to either edit them (inserting images and/or videos) or to change up the video queue. But the videos themselves are still on a Monday to Friday schedule, with Master members getting them 2 days early.
As for personel insults . In a general sense yeah although these days in the competency crisis in the entertainment industry. A persons actions and behavior tend to match the insults
"That's the way I am, you're gonna have to live with it" Only works if you are in a position of power. Which, admittedly, you have to earn. Otherwise, from my experience: power & status always win. And playing that game without power gets you mighty close to getting fired.
How come VTMB has such an impossibly good voice acting? I mean there's nothing even coming close to that in game industry. I've heard that Brian Mitsoda had something to do with it, but could you please elaborate on that?
Probably because that was when they still hired pro voice actors and troupes instead of spending half their budget on hollywood veterans like Neeson in fallout 3.
Hi Tim, I can’t get enough of the early content! Have you ever used Godot, as well as do you have a preferred (publicly available) game engine? I’m partial to Godot due to it’s beginner friendly and easy to learn UI and Python-esque coding language. I’m curious if you’ve ever used it, and which engine you prefer! Thanks again, loving the videos!
@@CainOnGames Awesome, going to watch that right now! I know unreal is a common industry standard, it just seems so overwhelming to me. The amount of things it can do make it seem monumental compared to an engine like Godot. The open source nature of Godot makes the engine especially stand out to me, despite it lacking A LOT of features found in unity and unreal, as well as the outstanding and welcoming community. I assume since you’ve never used Godot you’ve never taken a look at it’s documentation, but it’s one of, if not the most well documented engine available. I highly recommend taking a look, even if you have no plans on trying the engine. It shows how an open source and free engine should be handled!
i really respect that fact that you concede ideas to the greater good. if you ever get a chance whats your take on AI powered npcs in future games. i think i might make a game way more immersive. keep up the good work!
Hello Tim. I need advice. I used to do project management and teach project management for games (I've quit that job). I think I am creative. I have a bachelor's in 3D animation and modeling. I want to be a game designer. But I have no clue where to start. Do I do a masters in game design? Do I leave that and start watching tutorials? Do I need to learn an engine to be a game designer? How do I even start? There's so many questions I have but all the answers I get are mixed and there's zero clarity for me to plan my next move. 😢
You can make your own art, and you want to be a designer. Perfect. Make a demo! There are multiple free engines and tons of tutorials and even free scripts to get you going.
@@CainOnGames Right Right. And that's what i plan on doing. But the question i have is, do i need to learn how to code in an engine to be a game designer? Or is a 3d modeller + Game designer combination something that works in the industry. My goal is to work for indies or AA studios and from what i have heard, studios like those do often employ people with multiple specialties, or someone who is a "generalist" like me. And lastly, do i need a masters in game design? cuz this obviously wasn't a thing until recently, but i have heard about the experiences of people who did their masters and they often said how being in that university environment surrounded by peers made them better designers. Only problem is, i am indian and there are barely any good colleges/universities in india for game design. So i will have to look outside of india, i have a couple friends in Georgia State University, couple in Van Arts. And the fees of those places is wayyyyy to high for somone of my economy to handle. But if it can pay off in the long run i am willing to take that risk. But its difficult to know if its gonna be worth it or not. Since you are a professional and have tons of experience and have met many designers and such as well i am curious to know your take on it. Can i wing it on my own stuck in my room, or is it better to take a leap? Thank you for your response 🙏. (PS: i just got tons of CRPGs on steam, Tyranny, Pillars of eternity, Arcanum and more on the steam sale. Looking forward to playing them a lot 😁)
No, you don’t need to learn to code to be a game designer. I know some good designers who can code…and it helps…but it is not necessary, and most designers don’t know how to code. Designer/animator is a thing, and I know of a few, but most companies hire specialists these days. Generalists are mostly in the indie space. Finally, I know good university trained game devs, and I know good self taught game devs. If you are the latter, I highly recommend having a demo, to demonstrate that you have learned dev on your own.
@@CainOnGames okay. Thank you for your reply. I feel I like I know what to do next 😁. I have a few ideas for a demo. And I do know a couple people who are good programmers. Maybe I can work with them on something and show my design skills while simultaneously they can show their programming skills.
@@CainOnGames oh! There is one thing I wanted to ask that I forgot. I talked to a few people who are currently doing design in universities, they often talk about how being in a university environment surrounded by peers cultivates a sort of "Design thinking" attitude and helps you become better as a designer. Plus there are specific assignments that universities give too. The issue is... Considering my financial status universities are no longer an option, but there have to be alternatives that can help me get the same result in terms of "Design thinking". What do you think about that? 😶 (PS: sorry if these questions are annoying 😅)
I am scottish and I dispise the torys, you can look it up, but margaret thatcher once said the same thing or something similar. If you opponent is attacking you then they have nothing. or something to that effect and it stuck with me. if you cant talk down my position. argument or point out why it is wrong. then they devolve to name calling.
One point system for Arcanum is still better! Mostly because schools of Magic or Technological disciplines are very not equal. And having multiple point system and thus archiving top of only one and becoming super specialist would not work. You would have everyone choosing sone combat school and dropping all other not so combat oriented schools.
Hi Tim! Was curious on your opinion on something like Star Citizen. Leaving the funding methods aside, I'm more curious on your opinions/insights on their developmental approach being generally fairly open with weekly update videos and livestreams that focus on the teams and individuals working on the project. Also do you think it's detrimental to be working on a game like Star Citizen while also pushing live updates to players rather than just keeping all builds behind closed doors until it's ready for a 1.0 release. Also for the fun of it opinions on Squadron 42 also being developed by the same company at the same time as Star Citizen with them both trying to share tech/gameplay elements with each other as they're built out. Long question I know but thank you anyways Tim!
I haven't been following Star Citizen closely enough to have an opinion, and I hadn't heard about Squadron 42 at all. I tend to wait until a game is close to shipping to look at it, even if this means ignoring games that are in alpha or beta stages for years.
It's so weird how many comments these videos generate of really long winded self opinions. It's like it triggers people to think they have paragraphs to say. Not even necessarily a bad thing just so weird and different from other types of video communities. It's like a small but substantial group of really long winded people, versus a huge group of one-liners, or even a tiny group of REALLY long winded
The guy you always bring up that viewed killing the player as winning basic sounds like a darksouls design but it's not really design to be beatable by a normal player because dark souls is very beatable it's just a bit more than the average challenge of a video game
Hey Tim! It's always seemed to me as a layman that isometric games tend to have more expansive systems at the cost of immersion. I'd love to hear your opinion on this subject. Is it easier to implement ideas for isometric games as opposed to, say, first person? Do you prefer one over the other? Love the videos. Keep them coming!
Yes, I think when a game is more abstract in its presentation, like an isometric game is, you can try more mechanics that wouldn’t make sense in a more realistic game that is going for immersion. As for preference, hmmm…that would depend on the game and what it’s trying to achieve.
@@CainOnGames Well I think part of my questions that I failed to properly articulate is in your experience is it easier to work on an isometric game? Like in the case of the game Project Zomboid they've managed to create a game that is much much more immersive than it's contemporaries that utilize different forms of presentation. I have always presumed that this must have been the result of the presentation lending itself to faster development times and implementation of ideas. Would you agree with this or is this a misconception on my part? (My girlfriend is not gonna believe Uncle Tim answered my comment lol)
Yes, in my experience, isometric games are both easier and faster to work in. Easier, because the abstraction lets you change out mechanics and try new things. And faster too, for the same abstraction reason and because artwork can be made more quickly, since the textures and animations can be less detailed.
You said you had nothing to contribute to artistic discussions on Outer Worlds, I'm sure your perspective as a color blind person would have been useful, although I can see how you might not want to have the role of color blind person being in the room simply to sit in a corner and every now and then tell the rest of the room how things look to a person with your particular kind of colorblindness. And inventory on outer worlds was annoying, it was like a borderlands game, where it's like you were constantly tripping over things that were +1 this, or -1 that,, oh look, this ones red red green, this ones green green red, two greens is better than one green...
In a professional environment or serious discussion I completely agree, but more and more of the garbage in tv, games and movies is simply stupid and infantile. It's kind of hard to criticize something in a literary manner when it's not literature at all.
Hi, Tim. I actually purchased Arcanum via Steam recently because I figured being a Tim Cain game it'll be good. I actually tried to play it for the first time today but it's locked to an 800x600 resolution with no options to change it. Was that a specific design choice or a resource limitation that prevented you from adding resolution options?
We were dealing with several limitations, the biggest two being memory and UI. Higher resolutions meant more memory use, and 800x600 was hitting the top end of the majority of machines back then already. As for UI, switching resolutions meant having a UI with separate elements that could be independently pinned and resized, rather than a single monolithic UI. As usual, time/money constraints didn’t allow for making additional options.
you talk a lot about game design but very little if at all about coding and code design, and different ideas in coding (i know it wont be as popular as the game design itself) but its weird that you mostly describe yourself as a programmer and yet you talk so little about it, i expected at least a single example about coding (especially optimization) idea battles
@@arcan762 yeah but his stories are mostly from the 90s and i wonder what kind of challenges they faced there and what clever solution they found, it's not the same as today
I switched to arguing idea with AI, because people around me aren't creative. AI as infinite patience, It's so effective, I'm basically guarantee to solve creative idea within the day, sometimes ifea i have stuck for month. It also made proposition I refusef, it insisted and won me once i figure it out the reason. Ai always think within theme and character and get those immediately, even with wild random ideas.
Don't insult people, just say "Your game is missing that 'je ne sais quoi'". That when I see it, I know it, and so far I haven't seen it. No one can rebuttal that. A few murmurs of agreement is all you need really. Direct insults is just laziness, just be more annoying and coy. Same with game reviews. "This game sucks, it's missing a.... je ne sais quoi" *murmurs of agreement* done.
@@CainOnGames But isn't making it just one pandering to straights? We still aren't getting much representation in media, especially trans people like me. More is always better in my book.
@@KatiKnittArtIt was part of a bigger adjustment to NPCs in the game, which included changing ethnicities and names. The colony was supposed to represent the global population of Earth, since it was founded by multiple international corporations. Making all of the companions queer would be as odd as making them all men, or all British, or all priests.
@@CainOnGames I mean, sure if you look at percentages of LGBT people in the population, on paper that's an argument. But we do come in groups fairly often. All of my friends are queer. It's not impossible that more than one LGBT person would find each other in space. I would've liked the game even more with atleast two or three LGBT companions.
@@CainOnGamesYou didn’t have to make them ALL queer, it’s just weird to have intentionally brought the number down to a token character. It’s just really weird of you to be proud of doing this dude.
![[Part 1] รักมาไม่ทันตั้งตัว❤ หนุ่มสาวโสดถูกจับมาแต่งงานกันกะทันหัน แถมเธอยังเป็นหัวหน้าของเขา?!](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/y2pOOMkuFI0/mqdefault.jpg)
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 85 | คู่เอก "ยอดเหล็กเพชร vs ผึ้งหลวง"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Qq_19bnnxEo/mqdefault.jpg)
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Good God do I wish that rule about personal insults was an industry standard. Even from more tertiary experiences, it's clear and obvious how much that would improve the back-and-forth.
It really would help. People make personal insults and then wonder why game devs don't engage with them more.
My work literally prevent personal insults i didnt know its not a standard
Only way to call someone redacted is when im assigned to fix their trash
@CainOnGames it also feels like people who get nasty cloud the conversation and pull from people who have genuine criticisms that aren't attacks on the entire product.
@@dropkickpherby6994 people who personally insult are usually fairly verbose and prolific so it does drown out the valid criticisms. The most popular content creators basing their personality around this doesn't help promote a healthier society either.
These days some people need to be insulted bullied and auppressed because their parents never told them no
This is an underrated component of a great leader: someone who knows how to listen to various perspectives, incorporate their own, and make decisions based on that accumulation that best accomplishes preconditioned goals/pillars. Bad leaders try too hard to appease everyone or ignore anything they don't agree with, and both of those can be incredibly damaging to unity and consolidated hierarchy. If you're in charge, there's an inherent trust that you not only have the skills to handle that responsibility, but that you also have the humility and grace to defer/delegate, and also override decisions by subordinates that are either damaging or imbalanced.
I love bouncing my ideas with someone that gives me proper feedback and I really wish more people could not only take constructive critism but also give it.
Me too! I have to invite it. I have to think of my own counterarguments and give them to people so they can argue with me sometimes. Which doesn’t help as much as people actively coming up with their own criticisms of my ideas. I like it when people with good ideas argue with me because I can refine my thinking with their input.
I feel such a strong empathy about situation when people get upset because "you don't hear me/us" or "we just can't express our pov as strongly as you". Been there multiple times. Learned to sometimes let go - some things aren't that important. Other times to just accept that I made someone mad. Afterall, we have no control over how other people feel. Staying respectful and passionate is ok. If someone can't handle that - well its their choice.
something I learned pretty quickly when brainstorming and suggesting ideas with a strict friend of mine is that its often more effective to give the idea straight and just say the advantages you see with it.
Don’t push them to do it, don’t force anything, just sow the seed for the idea.
Almost always he would end up doing that idea after having it sit and simmer in his head for a little while. If he didn’t end up incorporating it directly, he would almost always be influenced by that idea in some way with his solution. Which was often admittedly even better than my idea from the begining.
I love the idea battles.
Obviously they have to be done in good faith. But I've been lucky, and most that I've been included in have been just that.
In this one project I used to do a very similar thing described in the video Tim had with Leonard.
Although the discussions were between me and another artist and after we reached a conclusion we would go get this one coder and he would tell us what was wrong with our design.
He acted as a sort of first test for the idea. If he couldn't come up with a huge problem, we would try it in the game.
Oh wow I didn't realize this was posted until now (TH-cam didn't give me a notification for the early upload). Thank you for the response! What you described in Outer Worlds where you're in the room on a whiteboard is exactly what I was talking about. People think you're arguing, but you're really just passionate! When I was in high school, I would take German class for 3 years. I had this friend Ryan (who actually introduced me to New Vegas which got me into Fallout) and we would argue all the time about philosophy, politics, etc. I would frequently raise my voice, and Ryan would always win, so people thought we were mad at each other, but in reality I loved the dude and loved our conversations.
I am glad you saw it and liked it. I wish I could control how the notifications went out.
This is a good system, i like that you have a way of singling out questions and talking about your experiences and we all still get the content...OK NOW TO WATCH THE REST OF THE VIDEO
This is so cool, I wish video game companies were real
I found that online, with people responding when I post stuff about politics and theology. The way I put it is "the first to go ad hominem loses". It's quite freeing in a way, because it means you don't have to get angry or respond further at all, because I already won, and their abusiveness already damns them in itself. Of course they will imagine that they won, because they think they had the last word, but that's more fool them.
Sometimes i get so excited by somebodys great suggestion or idea that it immediately inspires a bunch of visions, babble, sketches and i forget to say 'Thank you, Your idea is amazing.'
Tim, great video. Believe it or not it changed my life for the better. I felt a weight lift off my shoulders that had been there for years. Your comment about a personal attack being the other person is out of ideas turned a light bulb on in my head. In a previous job I had a leader who would not release me from duties for him even though I put everything in place for the transfer. He did not have any more arguments to keep me. So he made fun of me and the job I was moving into. As if they were pointless and useless. I used to look back on that with disdain. Now I see it as his own personality flaw. Thanks.
One of the solutions to the points system is to make the perks probabilistic and give the powers an expected power boost where the difference is a standard deviation. So it might take 1 hit with fire but you might through no fault of your own 3 tries. Where as it will take 3 hits with water but it is guaranteed. That way it smooths out the points and really balances the combat in the game and makes the game equally challenging and varied. My favorite reward system is Doom's where the way you kill the opponent determines the reward. I think in that manner, you basically have a new way to strategize the fights and try to end with a specific attack in order to gain the equipment, potion, etc that you are seeking. It would be neat with crafting too. I think that could be really explored in a game as that aspect could make combat that seems bland more interesting than simply defeat the enemy. Instead it is defeat to gain the spoils of combat.
I know this may get lost in the comments, but my question/topic for a video would be:
Horror in non-horror video games. How to approach it properly?
That ONE mission which still sends chills down your spine.
For example, the The Ocean House Hotel in VtmB. The Atmosphere of Fallout 1 and 2 (ambiance, music, level design and art). Robbing the Cradle in Thief: Deadly Shadows. Dunwich Building in Fallout 3. Ravenholm in Half-Life 2.
Thank you and have a wonderful day, everyone!
That’s a good question, but I may not be the one to answer it. Jason Anderson made The Ocean House level, and many of the horror elements in Fallout were not my idea.
But I’ll think on this.
@@CainOnGames Thank you, I appreciate it. Would make an interesting discussion, though :)
Tim everyone, it's hi me!
Funny flag people :)
Hear me out, most people want to see in a battle things like "dragons vs giants" & "Spartans vs Samurai" but personally I'd binge the heck out of a series covering idea battles during games development in a versus format. I think I'd find that incredibly entertaining & everyone could learn something lol. If there are any filmmakers in the audience you know what to do!
I’m glad you lost that argument too. That ending to the original Fallout is one of my favorites of any video games I’ve played. It is one of the many reasons it is one of my all time favorites.
Re: "Save points between levels" System - While it's not a terrible system, I find it thoroughly dissatisfying. "Yay, I gained a level! Now... I can't do anything with it if I want a better ability... yay..." :D
Some spitballing ideas to offset that awful feeling:
- A system where there are 'micro-perks' inbetween the "big perks" (the ones you actually want) that you have to spend points on in order to advance to the next big perk. Point is, the micro-perks would still give you something. Big perk 1: +1 to attacks in a turn. Micro-perk: +N damage -> Micro-perk: +N Parry Strength -> Big-perk 2: +1 to attacks in a turn.
It makes you still spend more points than you'd like for the big things, but at least it gives you something in return and doesn't make you wait with your points sitting there uselessly.
Con of that is that the "micro perks" typically feel uninspired and in the most eggregious cases they feel like a waste (which can be almost worse than sitting on useless points).
- Stat requirements (Arcanum did have this to a degree, and it was good): Before you can take a certain perk you want, you need to have N points in an associated stat(s). You're still spending more points than you want, but it still gives you something (provided that raw stats have good benefits in a given system).
- And finally my preferred idea: Exploration-based system. You don't just buy stuff on level-up, but rather have to acquire perks from around the world (from teachers, books, quests, events, whatever), where you spend some 'learning points' you have. That rarely feels like you're sitting on your points uselessly and waiting for something - instead you are actively seeking a way to spend those points as you explore (good examples of games that do that well: Gothic seriers; Outward).
"That's a great idea you beautiful bastard! It can be even better and you know it!"
I love this. I'm stealing this.
@@ikeduno7973I aim to please
Some of the best ideas come out of those types of discussions. When you're in a band, it's often out of those that you come up with the best song ideas.
Your release schedule reminded me a sketch from mr. show about a prerecorded talk show. Thanks for the video Tim!
You see me now, a veteran of a thousand psychic wars
I've been livin' on the edge so long where the winds of limbo roar
And I'm young enough to look at and far too old to see
All the scars are on the inside
I'm not sure that there's anything left to me
When I teach project management to students one thing I tell them to do in the pre production phase is to "think and dream of ideas. Fly high as much as you can right now because trust me once you actually start working on the game, reality is gonna smack you hard down to earth 😂". I've sat down in many calls that they've had and many of them would indeed be classified as idea battles. And it's always fun. Cuz even if the team members came up with ideas that weren't used in that game, I would tell them to write them down and maintain an "idea journal" so that they can be referenced, used or adapted later.
Edit: I'm curious. Do you have an idea journal? Can you discuss some of the contents of it if you do have one.
Yes, I have an idea journal. I have talked about it and made several videos about the ideas inside. Here is one:
th-cam.com/video/x_a_jGNKonk/w-d-xo.html
That video links to another video too.
@@CainOnGames awesome!
🙏 Tim Cain my gay hero. Im so tired of the ESG pandering, why is every character gay now and their entire personality is gay. I miss the good old days when we were evillll and well written.
I'm a trained idea guy, this isn't a particularly useful skill in economic terms but sometimes comes in handy. (Need 60 NPCs for a book, here's 80, choose the best.) But there are a couple of reasons for putting forward ideas that don't work. The sacrificial pawns of the "Idea Battle" so to speak. One is to simply clear the idea from your own head while brainstorming, the other reason is to prompt a fresh idea from someone else.
My training has made me consider ideas as something almost disposable, quantity after all having a quality of it's own. Having difficulty getting an idea across is another matter, sometimes that takes more time, "you just don't get my idea...." especially when it is really out there.
Hi, Tim, congrats on hitting 150k subscribers!
Do you ever wish you made this time-traveling dinosaur game? I'd love to hear about what kind of stories you had in mind for it.
Unfortunately, in larger groups, it is often the louder person or the more charismatic person that wins the idea battle, not the person with the better idea. That is why Introverts must practice their social and communication skills if they want to improve processes and systems in the corporate world.
lol I saw the original comment and thought, "damn, Idea Battles is such a good name for that."
I feel like it's important to rescue the world "argument" from people that believe it means "fight". Ironically, "battle" means an actual physical fight - we just use it in a lighter context for emphasis. I'm guessing the intent is to lighten the mood by replacing an argument with a pokemon-idea match.
2:45 Time-travelling Dinosaur Game. That's the exact premise I have for my fantasy game in my head :D
Lol Tim trying to explain the membership timelines is amazing.
I'm never battling with ideas with it comes to Fallout Music! :D
Yeah, idea battles can make the team question the design and go the extra mile thinking about why it is like it is, why it should stay like it is or change into something better. Biggest challenge of this is setting the ego aside and be able to think critically. Acknowledging flaws in one's ideas can be tough. People doing the questioning should be gentle about suggesting changes or informing flaws when possible. It's a dance really.
I 1000% feel you on the middle bit about "passionate presentation" in meetings. I'm...very much in your boat, I feel like passion sells me on things, and so I feel compelled to bring my own passion to the presentation of any ideas or solutions. I've also had a similar experience where people had told me (and my former boss) that we were being too loud and too energetic in the meetings, and that people were uncomfortable and would prefer we just...toss the ideas out there plain. Which just...man, rubs me the wrong way.
I hope that I will someday attain the zen you seem to have picked up in dealing with this, and it is (as always) wonderful to hear your takes and experiences.
(Also, equal agreement on the name calling and personal insults. There's passion, and there's bullying, and that definitely feels like it crosses the line.)
I feel this falls in to finding your people and a team that resonates with you. Sure, you can modify your presentation, but to lose your energy and excitement would only be doing yourself a disservice. Look at Tim's experience, too: the original Fallout team just clicked.
@@stephenbushey6608 Totally agree, though unfortunately for me, I am finding myself in less and less position to pick and choose teams. The entire industry seems convinced that "AI" and "Cloud" will mean no one actually needs to know how the tech works and the sausage is made. Just makes me appreciate the folks who love a good "Idea Battle" all the more when I can find them.
The priest was straight on the first pass? That is legitimately funny.
Seems lot of practicalities must be taken into account before accepting a new idea however good it is , based on time and as you say money.
Another good vid. Tim, you should Co-op a video with Davidvinc, you are exactly like him.
such a good question, hell yeah.
I've also heard this referenced as "Design Debate", if you're biased towards alliterative terms
There's gonna be some gooood questions comin
I can't believe you can go personal in a corporate environment without consequences nowadays, genuinely surprised it's still an issue.
2:53 Nice save buddy 😉
The "Idea Battles" title has a similar ring to Rap Battles, and it formed a funny mental image in my head where developers face off, trying to outdo each other's game design ideas while the audience (the rest of the team) cheers on the side.
Love all your content Tim!!
I'd love to play another Sci-Fi ARPG that doesn't use ammo similar to the first Mass Effect, it just makes for great world building with mechanics saying the technology has advence so far now ammo management is a thing of the past... and then added Thermal Clips in 2.😑
Hey Tim! Idea for a topic: How to battle a work pattern in a development enviroment. When you technically, as a programmer for example, want to do things a certain way and believes that way is a more efficient way to do but others don't see it that way. How do you prove your point without the risk of wasting time?
Hey Tim, just saw yesterday a GDC video on Tears of the Kingdom Physics and Music. They solved lots of issues by making ALL objects physics-based instead of kinematics (and all sound to behave using the same rules). I wonder if you have thoughts on deep-diving into system-based design vs hand-crafting stuff (e.g. on this side: in BG3 they brute-forced interactions by recording tons of mockup-ed scenes to great success). I personally feel like most games these days favor the later over the former, though I personally prefer system-based stuff.
Hi Tim ,
Mr. Leonard Boyarsky suggested on that Fallout ending Waow :) . I considered That , Fallout 1 has the
best story written soo far because of that ending , that ending broke my heart but also gave me huge amount of satisfaction , after i realized that i can kill overseer while in ending stages of the game.
(And you also metioned that in one of your videos that , Mr. Tramell Ray Isaac made that overseer death animation so i also thank him for that)
Would it be possible that organizing a Fallout reunion video conference , i don't know you watched it or not in some years before The Lord Of The Rings Movie Series casts did the same thing , i think it would be spectacular thing to watch but don't know if this can be doable or even logical to make it just as a fan i would like to watch that kind of event that's all :)
I’ve seen that LotR cast reunion, and one for Community as well. The Fallout team is scattered to the winds, so organizing and creating such a reunion would be quite a task.
@@CainOnGames Thanks Tim for your reply , have a great weekend to you and to your loved ones . I hope that one day i will find some videos about other developers from Fallout team also , just would like to say thank you to them in their videos and would like to know what are they doing right now :) and esspecially wondering 2 person which one of the person you mentioned in some time that creator of S.P.E.C.I.A . (L) system Chris Taylor and also Mark Morgan .
Ave, true to TimCain
1:43 - I'm very confused, Tim.
the last time i heard about the battle of ideas it didn't go well
I'm surprised you had to implement a 'no personal insults' rule for meetings, I'd have thought that was a given. But my work has been in libraries and courtrooms, so obviously gamedev can be a lot less chill lol.
An unrelated question from your other vids I've been watching through I think I heard you mention a Troika pitch for a Shadowrun game during one of your Leonard chats, and then playing pen and paper Shadowrun came up in your chat with Scott. This got my attention a little bit, because since Microsoft acquired Obsidian I got optimistic a new Shadowrun would be on the cards since MS already owned the license. Are you at liberty to say whether the idea has been talked about at all at Obsidian, or if otherwise you've still got any interest in the idea? I just love the universe and I'm always keen to see more of it.
12:30 not Timothy Cain, Warrior for the Straights 😩
I get what you mean but to be honest it felt like it would've been more on-vibe than it usually feels in BioWare RPGs (not a perfect metric iK, but my main frame of reference in companion romance). Pavarti's story was totally top notch, first-in-class though so perhaps all that energy was simply Khyber-crystal focused into a very powerful, very gay Death Star laser. I'm lukewarm on Outer Worlds but her story totally stood out for me and is half of why I find the game memorable.
Interesting.
Hi Tim! Great video, and thank you for the new membership opportunity!
I'd love to hear your thoughts on 'estimates' in large software projects, and if you can recall any stories about how estimates have gone (both positive/negative) in your career. And because estimates are so often wrong, I'd love to hear your advice on addressing it: While in development, when a member of a team discovers that the project estimate is very incorrect, how and when should that team member communicate it to the rest of the team and stakeholders?
Thank you so much! And my apologies if you've already covered this topic. Thank you for your time :)
Are you psychic? That is already the next video! As a Master, you will see it tomorrow.
@@CainOnGames You've got to be kidding! Haha, wow. I am often asked the question, "are you psychic?" 😳
Thanks for the response, looking forward to watching!
@@CainOnGames did you already upload the "Time Estimation" video by mistake? TH-cam already showed me the thumbnail and video link for that one on Saturday
@@arcan762My videos unlock two days early for channel members at the Master level.
Hey Tim, What's the story with the print button on the fallout character screen? Do you think anyone ever used it?
Hey Tim! You have loosely discussed this prior, but when working within a team what practices and habits do certain devs demonstrate that you consider problematic, and how do you go about remedying them as both an equal team member and team lead?
Good question...with a delicately nuanced answer. I will work on a response and make a video, which will go up next in the queue!
@@CainOnGames Deeply appreciated!
@@FatherAlduinI just recorded it. It’ll process and go into the queue for Wednesday (which will unlock for you tomorrow).
Making sure that not all the companions were queer was a really good choice. As someone who has friends in the LGBT I've seen how difficult it is for them to be accepted. Especially in a country like India. But i have seen that when things are taken slow, and enough time is given to ideas for them to marinate properly, they are accepted better. I think that if most companions were made queer that would've boxed the game into a "woke" category. But having one companion be queer, and having her not make her queerness her entire personality was great. It's something you found out only if you engaged with it. And it was upto the player.
Moreover, I've seen in many shows and movies and games where LGBT characters wear their queerness as their entire personality. Which I think is degrading, because then as a writer you are implying that there is nothing more to these characters other than the fact that they're gay, or trans. When in reality that should be a part of who they are as characters, but not their entire being. It also makes it easier for straight people to connect with them on a character level, and have empathy for them and see them as more than being just gay.
One of my hot takes has always been that yes while we do need representation, you can't just force it in ans then force people to accept it and if they don't you call them toxic. There is a proper way to do it which takes many things into account and I think you guys took the perfect approach for that. I honestly don't think it would've been an issue if another character was gay seeing how you guys handled parvati I'm sure you would've handled that well too.
Ps: sorry if this comment was too long, or if I posted too many comments 😅
hey, i've had similar conversations with my friends about certains things you dont' really see in games. one personal skill/ability i'd love to see done is a character flying. it rarely every happens, and if there is a game focusing on "flight" they limit it. one that comes to mind is Anthem, and they put a cool down on the flying, which might be down to the widely reported difficult development. i guess my question is pretty simple, why isnt there more flying in games? i'd love to play a superman-eque character flying, but it's never really happened so is flying like superman an nightmare to get right?
Flying isn’t difficult to implement, but it tends to make exploration much more trivial. Without the need to find a clear path, to jump and climb and parkour, many flying games end up losing their exploration aspect.
Look at games that add flying into their late stage gameplay, like WoW did, and you see how players tend to stop exploring and just move in a straight line, hub to hub.
You and Leonard sound like a married couple 😅 Our kids nag to us that we’re always arguing with my wife as we’re both so passionate when we’re merely discussing 🙉😸
Not really relevant to the overall point of the video, but I'm surprised you made that decision with regard to queer companions in Outer Worlds! In the game itself I don't remember anyone's orientation ever coming up other than Parvati, as you said romantic relationships aren't really a part of the game's vibe
Arcanum is much better without saving points to level up
And i say it as a guy with 30 unspend points
This video ordering and reshuffling thing due to members seems confusing
Hey Tim, I was wondering about your thoughts on visual scripting, since I read a lot of the time that people would love to make their own game but they make excuses saying they don't know how to code. Is this feature used much in the game industry in your experience and would you recommend it?
I have a question about idea battles, have you ever had a developer who had the right idea but sucked at conveying it, and if so how did you get around that i.e. prototypes or another way
So at the topic of most companions starting as queer, how did that happen?
Did those ideas come from different people/teams?
You could share your ideas on Crafting with us...
Since you are more focused on the channel now are you planning to do videos on weekends?
Yes, with more time to either edit them (inserting images and/or videos) or to change up the video queue. But the videos themselves are still on a Monday to Friday schedule, with Master members getting them 2 days early.
As for personel insults . In a general sense yeah although these days in the competency crisis in the entertainment industry. A persons actions and behavior tend to match the insults
"That's the way I am, you're gonna have to live with it"
Only works if you are in a position of power. Which, admittedly, you have to earn.
Otherwise, from my experience: power & status always win.
And playing that game without power gets you mighty close to getting fired.
How come VTMB has such an impossibly good voice acting? I mean there's nothing even coming close to that in game industry. I've heard that Brian Mitsoda had something to do with it, but could you please elaborate on that?
Probably because that was when they still hired pro voice actors and troupes instead of spending half their budget on hollywood veterans like Neeson in fallout 3.
Hi Tim, I can’t get enough of the early content! Have you ever used Godot, as well as do you have a preferred (publicly available) game engine? I’m partial to Godot due to it’s beginner friendly and easy to learn UI and Python-esque coding language. I’m curious if you’ve ever used it, and which engine you prefer! Thanks again, loving the videos!
I’ve never used Godot, but I have used Unity and Unreal. I’ve talked about Game Engines
th-cam.com/video/Iw3bCdIvAj0/w-d-xo.html
@@CainOnGames Awesome, going to watch that right now! I know unreal is a common industry standard, it just seems so overwhelming to me. The amount of things it can do make it seem monumental compared to an engine like Godot. The open source nature of Godot makes the engine especially stand out to me, despite it lacking A LOT of features found in unity and unreal, as well as the outstanding and welcoming community. I assume since you’ve never used Godot you’ve never taken a look at it’s documentation, but it’s one of, if not the most well documented engine available. I highly recommend taking a look, even if you have no plans on trying the engine. It shows how an open source and free engine should be handled!
i really respect that fact that you concede ideas to the greater good. if you ever get a chance whats your take on AI powered npcs in future games. i think i might make a game way more immersive. keep up the good work!
Hello Tim. I need advice. I used to do project management and teach project management for games (I've quit that job). I think I am creative. I have a bachelor's in 3D animation and modeling. I want to be a game designer. But I have no clue where to start. Do I do a masters in game design? Do I leave that and start watching tutorials? Do I need to learn an engine to be a game designer? How do I even start?
There's so many questions I have but all the answers I get are mixed and there's zero clarity for me to plan my next move. 😢
You can make your own art, and you want to be a designer. Perfect. Make a demo! There are multiple free engines and tons of tutorials and even free scripts to get you going.
@@CainOnGames Right Right. And that's what i plan on doing. But the question i have is, do i need to learn how to code in an engine to be a game designer? Or is a 3d modeller + Game designer combination something that works in the industry. My goal is to work for indies or AA studios and from what i have heard, studios like those do often employ people with multiple specialties, or someone who is a "generalist" like me.
And lastly, do i need a masters in game design? cuz this obviously wasn't a thing until recently, but i have heard about the experiences of people who did their masters and they often said how being in that university environment surrounded by peers made them better designers. Only problem is, i am indian and there are barely any good colleges/universities in india for game design. So i will have to look outside of india, i have a couple friends in Georgia State University, couple in Van Arts. And the fees of those places is wayyyyy to high for somone of my economy to handle. But if it can pay off in the long run i am willing to take that risk. But its difficult to know if its gonna be worth it or not. Since you are a professional and have tons of experience and have met many designers and such as well i am curious to know your take on it. Can i wing it on my own stuck in my room, or is it better to take a leap? Thank you for your response 🙏.
(PS: i just got tons of CRPGs on steam, Tyranny, Pillars of eternity, Arcanum and more on the steam sale. Looking forward to playing them a lot 😁)
No, you don’t need to learn to code to be a game designer. I know some good designers who can code…and it helps…but it is not necessary, and most designers don’t know how to code.
Designer/animator is a thing, and I know of a few, but most companies hire specialists these days. Generalists are mostly in the indie space.
Finally, I know good university trained game devs, and I know good self taught game devs. If you are the latter, I highly recommend having a demo, to demonstrate that you have learned dev on your own.
@@CainOnGames okay. Thank you for your reply. I feel I like I know what to do next 😁.
I have a few ideas for a demo. And I do know a couple people who are good programmers. Maybe I can work with them on something and show my design skills while simultaneously they can show their programming skills.
@@CainOnGames oh! There is one thing I wanted to ask that I forgot. I talked to a few people who are currently doing design in universities, they often talk about how being in a university environment surrounded by peers cultivates a sort of "Design thinking" attitude and helps you become better as a designer. Plus there are specific assignments that universities give too. The issue is... Considering my financial status universities are no longer an option, but there have to be alternatives that can help me get the same result in terms of "Design thinking". What do you think about that? 😶 (PS: sorry if these questions are annoying 😅)
I am scottish and I dispise the torys, you can look it up, but margaret thatcher once said the same thing or something similar. If you opponent is attacking you then they have nothing. or something to that effect and it stuck with me. if you cant talk down my position. argument or point out why it is wrong. then they devolve to name calling.
As long as content doesn't lose quality, do whatever with you membership stuff moving forward.
Hi Tim, it's Cain.
One point system for Arcanum is still better! Mostly because schools of Magic or Technological disciplines are very not equal. And having multiple point system and thus archiving top of only one and becoming super specialist would not work. You would have everyone choosing sone combat school and dropping all other not so combat oriented schools.
Hi Tim! Was curious on your opinion on something like Star Citizen. Leaving the funding methods aside, I'm more curious on your opinions/insights on their developmental approach being generally fairly open with weekly update videos and livestreams that focus on the teams and individuals working on the project. Also do you think it's detrimental to be working on a game like Star Citizen while also pushing live updates to players rather than just keeping all builds behind closed doors until it's ready for a 1.0 release. Also for the fun of it opinions on Squadron 42 also being developed by the same company at the same time as Star Citizen with them both trying to share tech/gameplay elements with each other as they're built out. Long question I know but thank you anyways Tim!
I haven't been following Star Citizen closely enough to have an opinion, and I hadn't heard about Squadron 42 at all. I tend to wait until a game is close to shipping to look at it, even if this means ignoring games that are in alpha or beta stages for years.
It's so weird how many comments these videos generate of really long winded self opinions. It's like it triggers people to think they have paragraphs to say. Not even necessarily a bad thing just so weird and different from other types of video communities. It's like a small but substantial group of really long winded people, versus a huge group of one-liners, or even a tiny group of REALLY long winded
The guy you always bring up that viewed killing the player as winning basic sounds like a darksouls design but it's not really design to be beatable by a normal player because dark souls is very beatable it's just a bit more than the average challenge of a video game
Hey Tim! It's always seemed to me as a layman that isometric games tend to have more expansive systems at the cost of immersion. I'd love to hear your opinion on this subject. Is it easier to implement ideas for isometric games as opposed to, say, first person? Do you prefer one over the other?
Love the videos. Keep them coming!
Yes, I think when a game is more abstract in its presentation, like an isometric game is, you can try more mechanics that wouldn’t make sense in a more realistic game that is going for immersion. As for preference, hmmm…that would depend on the game and what it’s trying to achieve.
@@CainOnGames Well I think part of my questions that I failed to properly articulate is in your experience is it easier to work on an isometric game? Like in the case of the game Project Zomboid they've managed to create a game that is much much more immersive than it's contemporaries that utilize different forms of presentation. I have always presumed that this must have been the result of the presentation lending itself to faster development times and implementation of ideas. Would you agree with this or is this a misconception on my part?
(My girlfriend is not gonna believe Uncle Tim answered my comment lol)
Yes, in my experience, isometric games are both easier and faster to work in. Easier, because the abstraction lets you change out mechanics and try new things. And faster too, for the same abstraction reason and because artwork can be made more quickly, since the textures and animations can be less detailed.
You said you had nothing to contribute to artistic discussions on Outer Worlds, I'm sure your perspective as a color blind person would have been useful, although I can see how you might not want to have the role of color blind person being in the room simply to sit in a corner and every now and then tell the rest of the room how things look to a person with your particular kind of colorblindness. And inventory on outer worlds was annoying, it was like a borderlands game, where it's like you were constantly tripping over things that were +1 this, or -1 that,, oh look, this ones red red green, this ones green green red, two greens is better than one green...
In a professional environment or serious discussion I completely agree, but more and more of the garbage in tv, games and movies is simply stupid and infantile. It's kind of hard to criticize something in a literary manner when it's not literature at all.
Hi, Tim. I actually purchased Arcanum via Steam recently because I figured being a Tim Cain game it'll be good. I actually tried to play it for the first time today but it's locked to an 800x600 resolution with no options to change it. Was that a specific design choice or a resource limitation that prevented you from adding resolution options?
We were dealing with several limitations, the biggest two being memory and UI. Higher resolutions meant more memory use, and 800x600 was hitting the top end of the majority of machines back then already.
As for UI, switching resolutions meant having a UI with separate elements that could be independently pinned and resized, rather than a single monolithic UI.
As usual, time/money constraints didn’t allow for making additional options.
There is an unofficial high resolution patch that you can find online. Saying that in case you haven't googled it already ;)
Hey, didn't you kind of tell on whole industry at around 12:20?
Cause people have noticed a change, and there has been a lot of denial about it.
you talk a lot about game design but very little if at all about coding and code design, and different ideas in coding (i know it wont be as popular as the game design itself) but its weird that you mostly describe yourself as a programmer and yet you talk so little about it, i expected at least a single example about coding (especially optimization) idea battles
Your premade expectations failed you.
He is never really super specific, I’m confused do you want him to word out the issues in the code verbatim?
@@nathanmitchell7961 it certainly did
@@fixpontt coding content is boring, there are a million programming channels out there
@@arcan762 yeah but his stories are mostly from the 90s and i wonder what kind of challenges they faced there and what clever solution they found, it's not the same as today
I switched to arguing idea with AI, because people around me aren't creative. AI as infinite patience, It's so effective, I'm basically guarantee to solve creative idea within the day, sometimes ifea i have stuck for month. It also made proposition I refusef, it insisted and won me once i figure it out the reason. Ai always think within theme and character and get those immediately, even with wild random ideas.
Don't insult people, just say "Your game is missing that 'je ne sais quoi'". That when I see it, I know it, and so far I haven't seen it. No one can rebuttal that. A few murmurs of agreement is all you need really. Direct insults is just laziness, just be more annoying and coy. Same with game reviews. "This game sucks, it's missing a.... je ne sais quoi" *murmurs of agreement* done.
You made them take out all queer characters except one token in The Outer Worlds? That's disappointing
Really? I found five queer characters to be pandering.
@@CainOnGames But isn't making it just one pandering to straights? We still aren't getting much representation in media, especially trans people like me. More is always better in my book.
@@KatiKnittArtIt was part of a bigger adjustment to NPCs in the game, which included changing ethnicities and names. The colony was supposed to represent the global population of Earth, since it was founded by multiple international corporations. Making all of the companions queer would be as odd as making them all men, or all British, or all priests.
@@CainOnGames I mean, sure if you look at percentages of LGBT people in the population, on paper that's an argument. But we do come in groups fairly often. All of my friends are queer. It's not impossible that more than one LGBT person would find each other in space. I would've liked the game even more with atleast two or three LGBT companions.
@@CainOnGamesYou didn’t have to make them ALL queer, it’s just weird to have intentionally brought the number down to a token character. It’s just really weird of you to be proud of doing this dude.
Wait i just spend 2 minutes of video listening how tim leech out of viewers