About My Notes, Part 2
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- I talk about my notes some more, and what I want people to learn from my stories. I'll use a Fallout story as an example of what I mean.
Videos I reference:
About My Notes...: • About My Notes...
I'm Naïve And Optimistic: • I'm Naïve And Optimistic
The Credits Problem (e.g. Fallout Companions): • The Credits Problem (e...
Notes. Notes Never Changes.
I know you're unhappy about the Companion AI, but genuinely some of my best memories of Fallout is Ian gunning me down because he decided to go full burst mode on something like a rat.
It's honestly a rite of passage.
Now that I think about it, this Ian experience for me subconciously led to like Darkest Dungeon! Huh.
It’s been over 20 years and I still remember my childhood friend telling me rule #1, no smg for Ian.
I think the people who try to assign blame like this are people who've never worked in a software project or anything like it and thus have no idea of the complexities involved.
Some people just get defensive or like to attack on the internet. Plus most people have had a bad boss or a bad coworker and so they extrapolate that to other situations.
Big agree-
I suspect its also a generational difference on what people feel "keeping notes" means, where a younger generation would view that as "keeping receipts" as damaging evidence, when its much more a case of keeping track of things you need to reference later to work effectively
From a management perspective, notes are incredibly valuable. If you have to absorb a lot of information in a short period of time, taking notes should be a daily practice.
Here’s hoping you get a golden button, Tim!
I had an employer that believed in the concept, "If it wasn't documented, it didn't happen." I wish more people and companies I worked for felt that way.
Tim's notes got notes.
You must have a treasure trove in those notes of all your past experiences! I’d love to know more about Arcanum development
@@WastelandChef he posted a development timeline not that long ago. It’s like 30 minutes he has a lot of other videos on the game as well just search or look for his arcanum playlist
Absolutely, the blame game gets played everywhere.
It's really entertaining to watch from the bottom of the corporate ladder, because they'll pass it around like a hot potato. Customer complaint? Employee injury? Poor fiscal period? Obviously, it was somebody else's fault, and I'll bend over backwards to justify it.
Blame just gets passed around and pushed down the ladder until it lands on someone who can't pass it to anyone else, even if they had nothing to do with it. It's extremely immature, but at the same time, it can be like watching a sitcom.
Love your work Tim! I appreciate your outrageously candid insights into “the industry.” Be well brother!
Please consider arranging for your notes and videos to be added to a university or library collection. Fallout fits a few narrative genres that are incredibly popular within/informative of western culture and soon enough, if not already, the 90s will be studied as the early days of video games as an art and technology.
Tim, you don't have to share these stories and create these videos, but you still do so anyway. Many of us appreciate you sharing your wisdom, knowledge, experience, and insights, and part of that comes from your notes. Blaming someone or something is the easy option, but it doesn't provide much value. Taking ownership of your own actions is the hard option, but it provides a lot of value through growth and understanding. Accept that things happened and that people are often trying their best, and move forward utilising the lessons learned along the way.
Thanks for the video, Tim 🙂
I love hearing about the notes and stories Tim.
I hope you will consider donating your notes for research someday! 🤩
10:12 -- "Some people use the lens of: Well, it's always the person at the top, so, *I'm* completely to blame."
While I completely understand why it's important to try and pull things away from blame-casting, I also think it's worth pointing out that (as long as people *are* *going* *to* be thinking in terms of "the person at the top") the actual "person at the top" is not the game director (or, as 90s Interplay titled the role, producer), but is, in truth, *the* *investors.*
Congratulations on the Silver Play Button!
Thank you very much!
I've great memory but I also have ADHD my whole life and thus I need to take notes e.g. for tasks or appointments while as a musician I write down every idea because they're gone as fast as they came and then I was diagnosed with MS almost a decade ago and now I take even more notes because I want to recognize any cognitive decline early on and unfortunately I can't rely on the memory of others.
Taking notes is the closest I ever got to writing a diary and when I was working as a programmer or even just in HR it was useful to cover my own ass from time to time.
Some comments are just unbelievably dense every now and then.
By the way, I still take notes when I play video games, especially cRPGs - it was normal back then, and I'm not that old yet. Watching my grandfather die of Alzheimer's wasn't exactly pleasant either and convinced me to keep taking notes. Who knows if that won't help me one day.
Tim, you are the nicest guy I have never met! All of your videos I watch feels like I am having morning coffee with an old friend. Don't worry about the haters, Sir. We all love you. And by that I mean, you have changed our lives. Have a great day, Sir! o7
After watching your videos, I’m starting to like the idea of taking career/life notes that can be referenced later on. It’s a cool idea to be able to look back on a time earlier in life similar to a photograph, but instead of a captured image of a moment in time, it’s a captured typed out thought
Why don't you just marry your notes already, Tim?
He’s already got a husband, that’s bigamy!
He has ? Who is it ?
@@Aaaaaaaartem414 Robert. He mentions him every now and then.
They should at least get a room (-:
@@Pangloss6413Big Amy is his husband!?
Thank you for making so many videos, Tim. It is so awesome to be able to hear your perspective of the history of your own career.
I hope u are having an awesome week 👍🏼
I would argue that there is a huge difference between blame and accountability.
I'm happy you keep making these. Fallout 1 holds such a huge place in my heart and is probably the biggest inspiration for me to work on my own projects, it's great to hear about everything that went on behind the scenes in the development process and business side of things. For example: I wouldn't even have considered color blindness as something to think about in asset creation, and it ended up saving me a LOT of work down the line in one instance.
This is a cascade of events problem. Most of the time the blame doesn’t matter, things need to be fixed and lessons learned. Blame needs to be reserved for blatant and intentional issues.
There is some charm to the jankiness of the companion system.
As someone who played Fallout 2 before ever getting a copy of Fallout 1, it was outright frustrating not having the changes to how companions worked!
This resonates so much with me. I am having to incorporate things into something I am writing which was never designed to include two blocks of data which is not compatible.
thank you for talking more about your notes i was very curious! i started taking notes myself recently!
Congratulations on the Silver Play button and it's nicely placed too I was wondering if it had been shown before in the background I don't think so right unless I missed it?
Thanks! I film videos several weeks in advance, so even though I got the plaque in late April, I think this is the first video that shows it.
@@CainOnGames That kind of regime is appreciated and something while I could never do will always be in awe of seeing others achieve.
I'm so glad you guys crunched to add companions to Fallout, I think the coding you spoke of in this video actually adds to the crazy world of Fallout, the game wouldn't be the same without Ian randomly bursting you in the back of the head 😂
Hey Tim, I wish you've commented on a code re-usability in gamedev, everyone seems to be re-inventing wheel and there is very few open source projects coming out of game studios. (It is much more common in fullstack dev with dozen of libraries and frameworks).
I feel like it's much more common now that people use unreal and unity. I kinda think this wheel reinvention made games a bit more unique.
I remember Tim mentioned in one of the videos that he was practically the only programmer who wanted to share and reuse code back in interplay.
love the content, been watching for a while now and i've started to take small notes for my own personal project. as a fan of worldbuilding and stories in general, there's plenty of examples for me where i'm in awe of a game, setting, or character and wish i came up with it myself. I know you've stated alot of peices of media you love and have been inspired from, but i'm wondering if there's ever been a game that you wish you had created? something that you sat down and thoroughly enjoyed and you thought if only i had considered this/came up with it. Fallout is one example for me, among many, i just love it's post apocalyptic, but what tropes it does use feels like nothing else.
i watch your vids and get inspired that i'm trying to create my own world. thanks for everything
Hello Tim, I was and am still a fan of your game 27 years ago, and I'm a fan of hearing you talking about games now. I wanted to ask you about how you feel when it comes to point of view in games ? It seems to me it's too often disregarded because of trends, even though it has a massive impact on the player's perception of the world. I will always remember about my Art teacher telling us about perspective and the point of view in arts. He even showed us a talk from the painter David Hockney about isometric perspective in the Chinese painting "Day on the Grand Canal with the Emperor Of China".
Basically perspective puts the human in a different position, with the Renaissance starting to make the personal point of view of the viewer, starting to pave the way for a more individualistic society to summarize boldly.
The only case I like 1st person POV in a game is for a shooter. Even though I did play quite my share of 1st person RPGs, they never had the same impact as top-down or isometric RPGs. First, I always found the art to be much better. Second, everyone loves maps. And the most important and overlooked in my opinion, is the amount of things that you CAN'T see but are kind of left to your imagination. A little bit like how a book lets you picture a 1000 images whereas the film freezes the appearance of say an elf as looking like Orlando Bloom.
Thanks for everything
I think I'm just envious I never maintained taking general notes as a habit. I used to do it in university but others nagged me about how weird it was so I stopped......
So the notes are the bad guys... I didn't see that coming!
I think that you should add comic illustrations in your book, when you write it. I think they will go great with your notes. Maybe illustrate them? :)
I have no artistic ability. Artists have told me!
Hi Tim,
longtime watcher, first time commenter. I’m curious as to how you would go about implementing NPC aggression? I have a feeling that characters on the same team should communicate to each other locally (per instance), but I don’t like the idea of their entire faction knowing everything you’ve done to their compatriots. I guess it boils down to imperfect knowledge, is there a way you’ve ever done this or what is your ideal system ?
Thank you for all you’ve contributed to the industry!
Sincerely,
Joseph Moyle
My wife and I have this kind of argument from time to time where one of us insists the other said or wrote something in the past, and the other does not recall it the same way. And if it was in a text or email, the other will sheepishly admit, I don't recall that.
People lack so much awareness to where they can only see and hear these situations in specific ways.
Sadly I don't think there is any winning or getting them to hear what you are "actually" trying to say.
Luckily there are a few conscious people out there that get the message 👌
I never felt like you blamed anybody, if anything then the exact opposite - you try to defend everyone! ;)
I'm in my 40s. I vividly remember important events but I forget a lot of day to day things. I kinda wish that I kept a diary or a journal.
Hey Tim, I'd love to know what system you use when note taking. What books, how you organize em, and the works.
I'm not a game designer but I am a writer so maybe it'll help quite a bit!
OOOOhhhh! I spy a TH-cam plaque for 100k subs. Grats!
The yt comment section seems so loving and supportive! I dont get where such negative comments come from ?
Sidenote I usually assume "toxic" comments are projections of people being at a bad place in life for various reasons with a need to vent out frustration at something or someone and should not be concidered personally as it has more to do with them than oneself even though negative remarks has a tendency to stick more than positive ones unfortunately. (At the same time I also highly value constructive criticism and acknowledge that distinguishing between constructive criticism and plain toxicity can be difficult at times, filtering out tone or percieved tone to see if there is anything of substance beneath, while not becoming jaded oneself in the process hmmm)
You're a kind person.
Hey Tim! Can you do a video about tips for managing different "types" of people? You mentioned "the guy who doesn't want to see you until his task is due" and that may or may not remind me of someone I know...
Friday fun video Idea
Uncle Tim VS Y2K
Hello Tim. I would be interested to hear how you write your notes. And especially are you using the traditional method (paper, pen) or the modern one? I'll be interested to hear about this, because I keep a lot of notes, mostly written traditionally. And lately, I had problems keeping my notes, because I have been writing for more than 7 years every day, and the space in my apartment is not endless.
I have a hard time deciding when or about what I should be taking notes on. Can you offer any insight on your decision-making process when it comes to taking notes?
I'm so curious about the process of bug fixing after shipping back then, Fallout shipped only in physical copies right? What was the process of fixing the bugs like and how does that deliver to players?
Hello, Sir!
I might have missed the info where to send in a question, but you look like a sort who actually reads comments, so I'll give it ago!
I'll be short!
I have already created and published a game (yey!) and now looking for funds far and wide for the second one. Yes - my first one didn't made me rich (or even srable for that matter, hah).
It was lynchian/kafkaesque moody adventure game where mystery meets sci-fi. And not a "crime mystery", but... "Mystery-mystery"? Anyhoo, the reception was good and I think I made maximum I could, considering it was fully voiced and custom everythin (except engine, ofcourse). NOOOOOW, after quite a long pause, but publishing a game, aPpArEnTLy, can mess with your mental well being :)
Anyhow - now I have bigger and better plans, I have some experience and have to grow.
FINALLY - THE QUESTION!
What do you feel about fusing together Adventure with RPG.? I intend to intriduce into classic Adventures an inventory management as in RPGs (not kombinig items, for example), sidequests, branching story and optional areas, deeper environment story telling, etc.
The questiin is - what do you think about the fusion of these genres? Might it scare people off? Vice versa?
I am not aiming to advertise my game here, you can safely delete this comment or not mention it, if you choose to answer, but the small previous game is called GRUNND, it's on all the usual platforms :)
- Olafs
I think that fusion sounds wonderful! Adventure and RPG audiences overlap, so there should be a good audience for such a game.
@@CainOnGames That just now made me a little bit stronger. Thank you, Sir. \m/
Hi Tim, I've started trying to do more active note-taking for my classes (in Word) and I'm wondering, how do you structure your notes? I assume they're a series of many text files in many folders, do each and all of your colleagues have their own note file, or maybe just each team? Each project? Each company? Each day/week/year? Seems like there are so many different possible ways to organize notes and I don't know which is best.
Mine were mostly text files, organized in a folder by date, and kept in folders based on project
I apologize for saying it's oral history, that's recorded 😅
To put it harshly (but not as harshly as I could), people who think there's a bad guy in everything are terminally online children who have to have drama in their life to feel fulfilled and have absolutely no real life experience whatsoever
People don't realize this is what anyone's notes would sound like.
Tim, you mentioned you developed the habit in college IIRC. How do you continue it? During university I always had the best notes for class (written in an unintelligible handwriting), but at work, it's impossible for me to maintain. I have to go jumping from issue to issue, through different meetings, sometimes doing two things at once (or three, or four), and I can't add taking notes into the equation.
Watching the Karateka postmortem at gdc channel, by its designed Jordan Mechner (the same guy of Prince of Persia), he commented it was mostly about creating the habit of taking notes. Do you feel the same?
It’s certainly a habit. I got used to writing things down before or after meetings, and at the end of the day at home
@@CainOnGames I guess I should try to train the habit on doing it at the end of the day. I do that sometimes but when you have 10 - 12 hour days I just want to space out.
Thanks Tim!
Error, learn, repeat.
Hi Tim, it’s everyone
Only the bitter fans are like that Tim.
Hi Tim. Did you had moments where tables flipped, from you yourself thinking your`s actions caused some specific problem, to that`s just how things were, and there no one to blame really ?
Hey Tim, I'm trying to make a video on my alternate channel where I make a bunch of charts and talk about how many people worked on the different fallout games and I look at the overlapping developers/voice actors/producers/etc.
I've come across a name that I can't verify. "Thomas french". He is credited on several sites as having done bug fixes on fallout 1 and a lot of programming on the cities of fallout 2 but from looking at the in game credits I cannot find his name on either project. Do you recognise this man?
Love your videos, thanks
Yes, Thomas French worked on those games. And he’s in the credits.
www.mobygames.com/person/13698/thomas-french/credits/
@CainOnGames thank you so much! I only asked because I am looking at the original game manuals for both fallout 1 and 2 and I didn't see his name on there. I was sure he did the work I just wanted to triple verify
@harris23456 it shows in the Moby he was a lead designer on the Saboteur. That game is a bit of a fine wine cult classic these days. Small world.
@sodapopinksi667 yeah I looked at his other games and saw genuine credits which is why I was confused and reached out just to be sure. I've got other names I've gotta look into because they are not officially credited ion the in game credits or the physical manual credits
@@harris23456Good luck on your 'Seven Degrees to Fallout' project. Seems like you'll run into some interesting connections.
I'm still curious about how you search them. For the example of a review for someone, you want to go find references to things involving them. But do you re-read ALL your notes for the entire year searching for their name? You mentioned before going back and forth between paper and electronic and I'm wondering if this was part of why you did electronic for a while and wondering why you swapped back to paper if I'm remembering correctly.
I have moved a LOT of my notes to digital form now.
How do you format your notes? Is this a diary? Do you update them every day? And do you use any management software like Obsidian for them?
I’ve done them so many ways. Paper notes. Paper journals. Digital notes. Online journals.
I tried Obsidian, but I couldn’t get a cloud-stored vault to synch on all of my devices.
Insert ANGRRRRYYY comment here! Rah rah rah lol
Can’t make anyone happy these days smh my head
You're basically the protagonist of the film Memento.
Not sure if it's common in the game industry, but Google (and others) has a blameless post-mortem process where the goal isn't to assign blame, but identify what part of the process broke down to cause whatever issue. Here it maybe would have concluded (like you proposed) that new features shouldn't be added after X date. Or maybe it would have concluded that the alternative was a companion-less fallout, which maybe would have had less bugs, but would have been overall a worse game; so maybe there should be an explicit process to add late features.
Tim I really suffer with anger as a developer and I try to control it but I really struggle sometimes. Especially when there are so many meetings and nobody taking minutes. I started really pushing for instant message chats and emails just so I can refer back to them when things go wrong and they weren't documented in the specs. Am I the bad guy? How can I survive this otherwise amazing career
I think it’s perfectly fair to ask for an email or even an updated spec BEFORE you do the work, to avoid confusion and misunderstanding. In fact, if your lead or producer resists doing this, that’s a red flag.
@@CainOnGames that's reassuring! Thank you for taking the time to reply I really appreciate it
How many people actually take notes as diligent as Tim?
My work notes are mess. Most of them look like "Date, topic" and no notes were taken there😂
Hey Tim.What softwere you use for your notes?
Mostly Notepad.
In general, blaming specific people is simply wrong. People tend to do what they genuinely think is best at the time. There's also not much positive value in assigning blame to others; there's a lot more value in being kind to each other and trying to understand others
Tim is the nerdy equivalent of Leonard from Memento. Scary that both “stories” feature a character with that name… 🤔
You should write “You owe me money, Leonard!” into your notes and it’ll be a fact for you in few years. That’s 401k af! 😂
Your notes are basically a diary, diaries aren't a peer reviewed documentation or a publisher revised novel.
Hi Mojave, its me nuclear winter
Do you take handwritten notes? Any advice on how to maintain good notes without having your employer potentially claim them as privileged etc?
Take notes at home at the end of the day. Or take them on your phone.
Hey Tim. Would be nice to hear your opinion on discussion about game main character.
There are a lot of screams in internet like "Why is a main character is a woman, gay or anyone else, but not straight white male" and the opposing vocals like "We need more minorities in games". So when you are playing, what are your priorities on the main charachter that you prefer to play? Should it be just like you or somebody different?
Thank you for your games and videos
So you are blaming people? 🤣
1st!