I talk about how to decide what parts of your IP you should choose to let other people be responsible for during development. Video I reference: Delegation: • Delegation
Yup, otherwise, you get leadership who go entirely by numbers and cant understand that the math cant account for all variables and is always, at best, an idealized scenario
It’s interesting that some of the biggest problems I’ve encountered are technical managers who tend to be heavily focussed on one element of a project at the cost of everything else. Projects would blow their budgets and end up delivering things either not required or polishing elements that didn’t need it. A less technical manager can in theory look objectively across the whole project and reign in areas out of control. Not in every case and this is a different industry but I’ve seen many projects fail despite having highly experienced technical/engineering staff managing them.
An issue with that can and will be that often people get into management positions who are experts in the fields they're supposed to manage but just aren't good leads. Like pretty much every senior developer I've met would increase their team's productivity immensely if they went back to do more actual coding work because they're really good at that and also just aren't good at leading a team. Whereas someone with better leadership and people skills might get more out of a team.
@@StarCheat I don’t necessarily think you need to be an expert to manage people, just know how to do the work of the people you’re managing at a base level.
We really take for granted that Tim Cain himself is making so many videos to help us out. This sort of thing happens so seldom, where a creator in the truest sense of the word offers advice freely.
Man, this channel is great on its own, with Tim Cain running it serving as an icing on a cake. This could also be a fantastic podcast. That being said, here's the question that bothers me recently - how to effectively deal with an incompetent executives wanting to put their fingers in a game you're making, especially during the late production process.
Opposite of Sakurai and how he micromanages the implementation of his vision, but still completely valid. Super interesting hearing from these two masters, and the different ways they create games.
This channel is a such a breath of fresh air. I could listen to you talking about anything. Especially Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines and Fallout. Great guy Tim. :)
Regarding the original question, the illustrator should have been asked to make very rough sketches (that take very little time) and then receive feedback on them before too much work has been put in. Regarding the notes: I'd take my notes and just explain them in a conversation (I wouldn't expect the artist to truly read them, just use them as a way to recall what we talked about if necessary). The last part of the illustration problem is what to compromise with - Tim explained this part. But let's suppose it's something you don't want to compromise. In this case, you have to be ready to be "bad" when dealing with people and hold your ground if it's something you really care about. Even if you're a people pleaser, remembering the cost of being "nice" can help. A lot of disappointment can be prevented if you really search in advance through the work of a lot of artists and find one whose style and mood really match what you like - in this case very little communication is necessary, you'll be pleasantly surprised.
This is actually pretty excellent advice, especially the bit about rough sketches. Late stage revisions are not only demoralizing, but a massive amount of work more often than not - but it's easy to reach an ideal compromise from an early stage of development. The bit about explaining notes does make me chuckle, though, because I've known very very few people that actually read through any notes/documentation in work - they tend to just charge ahead. I'll need to remember to explain it to them through a conversation next time.
Hey Tim, I’m just wondering, how did you start at 16? Were you starting in the summer between school years? I wish I could start but LA is two hours away and I feel like that’s one of the only places where they make games. PS: Love the channel!
Question if you look back to when you started out in the videogame industry to now what are some of the biggest changes you have seen? They can be any in how games are made, the company internal worker politics etc etc. So what are in your opinion some of the biggest changes from then to now?
Hey Tim, I wrote 2 books with a similar creative approach you described in your videos. The advice really helped me gain a better perspective for creative work. Thank you kindly, sir!
Todd Howard, Call Tim, convince him to come over to Bethesda or consult and pay him whatever the F**K he wants! You need him to help you get back on track!
It's interesting, because in another video, Timothy talked about that he owns some code (I think that was about Fallout 1, but i'm not sure), but... even there, he mentioned that others like the publishers i guess, still have some kind of rights. He said, he owns it, but the contracts prevent him from releasing the code to public, even when he wanted to do that. That's a good example, even when you have control over certain things, contracts can and will still restrict you in one way or another. About the project management, that's maybe another thing, but with delegating tasks: When the lead designer gets stuck in micro-management, this can delay or even let a project fail. I heard it's one of the reasons with Star Citizen, that Chris Roberts wants to approve literally every small, not important design detail by himself and this leads to a lot of time that is needed to proceed. Maybe it's true about him, maybe not, but i saw such people in other projects than game-design. People that want to keep control and not really delegate anything at all, people that are hardly or never satisfied at all by the work that others do. Last thing, i'm not a game dev, but a writer. The only time i have all rights about my works is when i do something independent and i publish it by myself. Once a publisher is involved in any way, they'll always interfere with the book. Sometimes only in details, sometimes in the entire basic storyline and structure. P.S. Keep in mind, markets all over the world are very different. Like i'm in the middle of Europe, this means, nobody here has a problem with explicit sex scenes. But once a work gets to the american market, there it is all different - in the USA, you can use violence but not sex. In some european countries, you can use sex, but not violence. So keep the things ready for the market you want to release and sell it. I'm not aware if Timothy knows it, but the international Fallout 1 version was censored in many ways. Even in the old days with the graphics, the level of violence was too much. Even many years later when Bethesda made Fallout 3, it was censored, like in Germany - you could not shoot off limbs, there was no blood etc.
Hi, Tim. It's me, Dave. Sorry to ask this on a completely unrelated video but hey, maybe you'll be able to tell us something. The Outer Worlds was a gem of a game. Is there anything you can tell us about the sequel beyond the generic "it's gonna be great" type responses? I know you won't be able to say a ton, but is there anything at all that you can tell us? Like, more planets/maps? Bigger maps? Are there any big innovations or advancements made to game systems for the sequel? Maybe even just a rough estimation of when we might get more official info releases?
Hey, Tim. I have a question regarding the Outer Worlds. Knowing your general dislike for romances in RPGs, who wrote the romance between Parvati and the mechanic lady? Are there any stories connected with the development of this questline? Who contributed? I really enjoyed how their relationships developed, I think it was well-written, realistic and quite sweet.
Every video is a cherished pearl of wisdom to me. Also, each time I hear about “relinquishing control”, I can’t help but remember the undying words of Harbringer, from Mass Effect: “Assuming direct control”.
Hi Tim, I have a question. In a lot of recent games I feel that the delivered game is not actually finished, as in is not within the developers original objectives and feel. As a game director with an high level vision of the finished game, how is the process of staying within the schedule trying to balance the quality and the ambition that is the ideal finished game? Do you regret not prioritizing an specific feature? Or prioritizing something not actually important? How do you decide? Simple features can totally change the tone of the game.
Hey Tim, I have a question about character design (doesn't have to be applied to RPGs necessarily, it could be for any game). Do the same principles for designing factions (the ones you talk about on your "making good factions" video for example) apply to singular characters (side characters, main cast, companions, etc)? Also, I've heard you say art is not really your thing, but I'd like to know if you have any tips on how to establish at least the basics of how a character should look like. I struggle a lot figuring out the visual design of characters so that it makes sense for who they are and what they represent. (Art isn't my thing either, I couldn't draw something nice to save my life, I think people call it "programmer art" xd)
Hi Tim, love the channel. You already mentioned that you like to start creating a game by the setting. On the other hand, Yahtzee Croshaw did once a video dev series and hammered on how focusing on the primary game loop should be everyone's priority, furthermore, Nintendo makes the new prototypes fun to play before developing the game further, what are your thoughts on this approach?
There is already a video on this. Designing Mechanics First ua-cam.com/video/lCZwL5GJvww/v-deo.html I know Yahtzee plays a lot of stuff as a reviewer, but TBH as someone who also used to have this mechanics first mentality to design, I find that there are loads of games out there with really polished core-loops, that are still just kind of bland overall with little else really keeping me invested in the experience.
@@arcan762 Yahtzee (Ben Croshaw) has created: - 5 Days a Stranger (2003), 7 Days A Skeptic (2004), Trilby's Notes (2006), 6 days A Sacrifice (2007) - narrative adventures - 1213 (2006) - episodic survival horror and cinematic platformer - Trilby: The Art Of Theft (2007) - stealth action game - Poacher (2012) - metroidvania - The Consuming Shadow (2015) - roguelite survival horror - Starstruck Vagabond (2024) - lifesim adventure (?) I have played all of these except the last two. He has been creating games all alone long before he became a popular reviewer and long before there was a market for indie games - that's why his initial games were free. Poacher was released during the indie boom but wasn't sold because at the time selling pixel art games didn't seem acceptable (the pixel version of Spelunky was also free back then) - it seemed that games had to have at least pretty 2D HD graphics to be allowed on the store. But even if he hadn't done all this, it wouldn't make him right or wrong. It's a personal preference that depends on the designer's priorities or the priorities of the studio.
You can tell from just this video...he's a great person to work with/for...i like that one part... you now own it, so drive it bit...gonna put that in my management back pocket...
Is it just me or does slack just feel like discord but less functional? I often don't get notifications for important messages, channels dissappear, etc. Never had those problems with discord so I'm confused as to why so many companies use slack instead
I reckon that identifying the 3rd category in particular, the one you keep the least control over, has to be a tough thing to do wholeheartedly. Is it possible that having an objective and specific physical obstacle, as progressive color-blindness VS visual evaluation, helped you in relinquishing control over aspects of projects you're still, at the end, considered 100% responsible of? Thanks for your videos!
Right here. I won't promise I will or can answer every one, but I will see it. Some people repost their questions every day, which does NOT increase the chance I will answer it.
Hey Tim! Just finished the outer worlds again + it's dlc that I hadn't played before Did you also have a big part in those projects? Or was that time for others on the team to take the lead? It's my favorite game in recent memory. Thank you for the experience multiple times over
We all get Idea Person Syndrome. But what you said about needing to have done the task to understand it enough to delegate the task makes so much sense. Puts my delusions of grandeur into perspective.
Hello Mr Cain, former military pilot here. I heard that you recently mentioned or rather spilled the beans on purpose that China started it all but I always had an evident answer as to who dropped the bombs first and also about the other bombs we see in the wasteland as rationally, scientifically and simple as possible. I believe you wanna hear it. And perhaps you can even make a video about it because I really would like to hear your take on it. I also believe people will be satisfied with the answer for the very first time. Let's start with the bombs we see all around because I know the discussions on the entire Vault-Tec started theory but that's neither the Vault-Tec insignia on that bomb in Megaton nor they detonated any bomb on the US soil. A simple comparison of the original Vault-Tec insignia from the game files with the one on the Megaton bomb shows that they are not identical by any means. A clean version of the bomb insignia also exists on the internet so feel free to check that out, they are simply different. However, these bombs have a major role on grasping and understanding the logic behind as to who started it all. These bombs matter scientifically and from lore perspective. Because they are the only real traces for the eyes and minds just like the pieces of breads in the Hansel and Gretel. Aight so, that insignia on that bomb in Megaton also exists on all of the same model bombs inside the Fort Constantine military base, of which was built and used by the US Army since 2043 till the day bombs fell. Meaning that it is, and in fact all the nuclear bombs you come across in wasteland including 'The One' near Devil's Throat and the other in Sacred bog during the hallucination scene are all %100 US Army nuclear bombs from the US Army inventory, type C-23 Megaton model to be more specific, obviously not Chinese, got nothing to do with Vault-Tec, and we see these bombs fell, which is being literally the very key word here, on the US soil and also found in a US Army base. Now this, actually tells a lot if you are not a layman without a military education and background on the weapons of mass destruction and how this entire...how to put it; *The End* , process happens, well when that happens. And my hat is off to you Cain, for your seamlessly coherent scenario because as it might seem complicated or ‘just a game’ for some people, it is actually quite consistent with what really happens in reality. And I might be wrong but I think you knew it and that's why you put it there as a hint because its the only scientific real hint and I mean it. (Without hearing you in person saying ‘Yeah, China did it") Because evidence is all there and flawless with the script, and the lore. So here goes everything. The rational and scientific logic behind why it was China is simple and lies beneath two very questions; why do we find US bombs all around, why were the US bombs dropped on American soil? They were not dropped, they fell. They fell right after they were launched on the trajectory course, their flight path just like any aircraft or jets would have done so, and as they did so you come across them all around the wasteland. Why? See, munitions with nuclear warheads such as ICBMs or rather MIRVs (real bad bombs) not only destroy life on earth or earth's climate after they explode, but they also cause a burst of electromagnetic radiation, which we refer to as Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse or EMP if you will, that creates a powerful electromagnetic field, resulting in the temporary or permanent disabling of electrical and electronic equipment, causing a wide range of electrical failures and damaging electronic systems with current and voltage surges throughout the entire atmosphere and earth's surface, actually even above the atmosphere making it into the space, which is actually being the very reason you see all those fallen US bombs, satellites and some sort of damage on the other types of electronics in the game, such as terminals. And this is inevitable, and it will always be inevitable. This is still the most mind boggling issue even with the electronics and avionics we use today in the military let alone the electronics and devices you use in your daily lives. Because we can see even the tiny bit of an EMP effect in military equipment. (Please do some research on Starfish Prime.) However, most people still ignore and don't realise what a nuclear war would bring; it will not only destroy you, your loved ones, the life on earth and its climate, but it will very likely to erase the majority of th emost valuable notion about humanity's past existence on this very planet; data. It has nothing to do with the type of the electronics, transistors or any sort of differences in the technology as in the Fallout world, if there are electrons running in your system, meaning if you are using electric, you cannot escape the effects of an EMP caused by the nuclear blast because it actually disrupts the behaviour of the electrons and thus disrupts or damages your system or circuit. It will affect your electronics. And in Fallout game, the most vulnerable and the very first things EMP reached and affected were those in the air without any solid material between them slowing this very effect: planes and US nuclear missiles which were off the ground on their flight paths. This is what happened in Fallout and this is why you see fallen undetonated US bombs on the wasteland. The US was caught off guard. They launched the missiles, planes carrying the bombs *DURING* the Chinese nuclear warheads were exploding on the US soil. And that is actually why the reports on the terminals, like the one in Fort Constantine, are all accurate and telling the truth; the US was engaging to an actual Chinese attack as a *RESPONSE* . Now, if it was the other way around or if it was -presumed- Vault-Tec or anyone else from inside the US, we would have seen evidence for *2 WAVES* , this is very important, 2 nuclear bombardments targeting the US: the very first initial Vault-Tec attack, doesn't matter if it came with a couple of spoof bombs or rained down countless bombs from inside the US and no one saw it as it was happening (even funny while reading), triggering the actual US response. And the second wave, from China came in retaliation for the US attack, which the US carried out after the -presumed- Vault-Tec attack. It would have taken some time for Chinese missiles to reach the US and we would have known if the US started it all without anything. Right? Right. Well, none of these has happened. None. There is nothing, no evidence or whatsoever related to the Chinese wave came after a US attack. The US launched bombs simultaneously during the attack, causing some of its bombs to malfunction and fell on the flight path. And this is the only single reason we find these malfunctioned US bombs exist in the entire game. There is no other scientific, theoretical or rhetorical reason for their existence. As I said, if Vault-Tec or anyone else had launched a spoof attack, we would have seen evidence of *2 WAVES* targeting the US as a result of a chain of events. The US bombs were also not launched first and obviously were not malfunctioned in the meantime. Meaning China launched the bombs first. Avoiding the military jargon and stuff that might cause confusion for some of the readers out there, I tried to explain it in a simplified manner as much as I could. Perhaps it's a bit long, I know, but I wanted it to be simple and neat, as there are all kinds of people of all ages from all around the world reading and following this channel. So I hope I did well, and thank you for reading it. Mr. Cain, I would really appreciate if you make a video in response because I would love to hear your takes on my way of putting it. You all have a wonderful day.
Barely three minutes in but I need to say this, speaking as an artist myself, who has worked with people on "verbal descriptions" for projects - your description and direction are most important! Don't skimp on the details! I had a person once where for a D&D character commission tell me their character had "Green Hair". That's it. And after TWO ROUNDS of approval I submitted the final piece and they complained about the shade of green the hair was. Nowhere did they tell me they wanted an Emerald-esque green, because I had made it more mossy-green. They blamed me for it. If you are not pleased with art received from a project YOU created keep in mind that artists cannot read your mind. Input is highly appreciated but we also work much easier when sufficient reference [even verbal] is given at the start so we don't have to play at guessing. More is better in this case, just don't submit paragraphs of descriptions. Bullet points of major ideas/colors/concepts works best with most artists. And any artist worth their salt will at least let you go through some rounds of changing/correcting before any major work is done. Keep in mind though that you will be considered difficult if you want to do like.. more than five. Especially after you have been giving feedback. At that point it's on you for not giving the artists enough direction/feedback initially and don't be surprised if they start charging extra fees for having to do work exceeding their standard timeframe... Ok, rant over, now I will continue to watch the video! Hehe.
Important to delineate the types of control. creative control is ok to relinquish, because we still have total control. It’s a different type of control that’s all encompassing. They can have whatever silly parcels of control they want. We wield absolute total and apocalyptic control within a company; they will bow to our stealth dong drawings.
Hey Tim, quick question: since you've started a UA-cam channel has it changed your mind about any part of game development or reinforced your professional experiences? Thank you!
programing in unreal engine is less fun than programming in a toolset like the neverwinter nights toolset. knowing what youre using is a big part of creative control too.
The problem with doing this is that 99% of the time, the person you give creative control to will completely butcher the work, destroying the lore and original themes. Just look at Star Wars with Kathleen and Fallout with Bethesda.
It depends how you do it, fromsoft has evolved to not only having miyazaki at the helm, but also other directors. But they didn't just hand it off randomly, miyazaki trained them, and handed them off willingly. Now those directors made sekiro and armored core 6
There's a very strong difference between relinquishing creative control to a company, who passes it off to whoever's available, to ACTUALLY passing the work off yourself to someone you know understands it. Both of those cases weren't deliberate changes at the helm - star wars was bought out, and interplay went under. They kind of HAD to change management and the way that has gone hasn't exactly been received well. On the other hand you got examples like what @rewpertcone8243 said - with fromsoft managing their game franchises really well throughout the years. Honestly, if you stop to think about it, changes in direction rarely go too badly. It's just that the cases where it goes wrong tend to be so huge it takes away attention away from everyone else.
Look at Star Wars with Dave Filoni. George Lucas was always there during the Clone Wars making suggestions and approving of things, but still let Filoni have a great deal of control.
What @DanielFerreira-ez8qd said. The main subject is relinquishing control to various constituents of an internal team. It is a strong difference, but Tim did mention a related phenomenon the originators of an IP will have to wrestle with if/when the IP is sold. I'd hazard to guess dealing with that would fall into the realm of the scenario outlined at 10:15 in which "you don't own an IP and once you don't own that intellectual property...eventually, you will have no control of it because someone else owns it." I don't know because I haven't had to deal with such a scenario myself, but I imagine it feels something akin to giving up a baby for adoption. I imagine the best one can do is hope the adoptive parents will love and care for that baby as though it were their own flesh and blood, but the adoptive parents may not share the same philosophy of raising a child as you and you either have to accept that or go crazy obsessing over creative control you no longer have. As Noah Gervais put it in one of his Fallout videos, "It's Bethesda's world now. They make the creative calls." It wasn't out of bounds, though, for him to relay the impression that, in making a specific decision we have no way of knowing was Bethesda's or some other entity's, Bethesda chose "not to be creative in the new setting." The subject was the noticably intense effort to justify the presence of the BoS in Appalachia in Fallout 76. What's strange to me is that an existing faction, Taggerdy's Thunder, was magically transformed into the BoS in the process of developing that game whereas, had Taggerdy's Thunder remained Taggerdy's Thunder, the faction would have unique to the franchise. It's pretty clear, as Noah said, the presence of the BoS in Appalachia "only makes sense from a marketing perspective." No question in my mind that was a marketing decision and not a decision made to conform to established Fallout lore. The BoS sells, apparently, but -- as a player -- I would have loved the opportunity to follow a storyline centered around what happened to Taggerdy's Thunder as opposed to the question of how-in-the-world is the BoS here at all. Bethesda actually seemed poised to break away from an established pattern of appealing to nostalgia and the familiar with that game, at least according to its background worldbuilding, but seems to have been sidetracked (or overruled) somewhere along the way. Just an impression, but a strong impression.
Creative ?? Hmmm in Battle Angel Allita is sentence. In Zalem "we need only your brain, eyes and hands" Hmmmm INTERNET. LOLCreativity V checked. he he he
You’re 100% right on the ‘managers should do the work before they manage people doing the work’
Yup, otherwise, you get leadership who go entirely by numbers and cant understand that the math cant account for all variables and is always, at best, an idealized scenario
It’s interesting that some of the biggest problems I’ve encountered are technical managers who tend to be heavily focussed on one element of a project at the cost of everything else.
Projects would blow their budgets and end up delivering things either not required or polishing elements that didn’t need it.
A less technical manager can in theory look objectively across the whole project and reign in areas out of control.
Not in every case and this is a different industry but I’ve seen many projects fail despite having highly experienced technical/engineering staff managing them.
An issue with that can and will be that often people get into management positions who are experts in the fields they're supposed to manage but just aren't good leads. Like pretty much every senior developer I've met would increase their team's productivity immensely if they went back to do more actual coding work because they're really good at that and also just aren't good at leading a team. Whereas someone with better leadership and people skills might get more out of a team.
@@StarCheat I don’t necessarily think you need to be an expert to manage people, just know how to do the work of the people you’re managing at a base level.
People don't quit jobs, they quit managers
We really take for granted that Tim Cain himself is making so many videos to help us out. This sort of thing happens so seldom, where a creator in the truest sense of the word offers advice freely.
He has some retarted takes tho
Man, this channel is great on its own, with Tim Cain running it serving as an icing on a cake. This could also be a fantastic podcast. That being said, here's the question that bothers me recently - how to effectively deal with an incompetent executives wanting to put their fingers in a game you're making, especially during the late production process.
Opposite of Sakurai and how he micromanages the implementation of his vision, but still completely valid. Super interesting hearing from these two masters, and the different ways they create games.
I swear Tim u need to make a new fallout game cuz ur sense of humor is what makes the games and ur attention to detail as well
This channel is a such a breath of fresh air. I could listen to you talking about anything. Especially Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines and Fallout. Great guy Tim. :)
Regarding the original question, the illustrator should have been asked to make very rough sketches (that take very little time) and then receive feedback on them before too much work has been put in.
Regarding the notes: I'd take my notes and just explain them in a conversation (I wouldn't expect the artist to truly read them, just use them as a way to recall what we talked about if necessary).
The last part of the illustration problem is what to compromise with - Tim explained this part. But let's suppose it's something you don't want to compromise. In this case, you have to be ready to be "bad" when dealing with people and hold your ground if it's something you really care about. Even if you're a people pleaser, remembering the cost of being "nice" can help.
A lot of disappointment can be prevented if you really search in advance through the work of a lot of artists and find one whose style and mood really match what you like - in this case very little communication is necessary, you'll be pleasantly surprised.
This is actually pretty excellent advice, especially the bit about rough sketches. Late stage revisions are not only demoralizing, but a massive amount of work more often than not - but it's easy to reach an ideal compromise from an early stage of development.
The bit about explaining notes does make me chuckle, though, because I've known very very few people that actually read through any notes/documentation in work - they tend to just charge ahead. I'll need to remember to explain it to them through a conversation next time.
Hey Tim, I’m just wondering, how did you start at 16? Were you starting in the summer between school years? I wish I could start but LA is two hours away and I feel like that’s one of the only places where they make games.
PS: Love the channel!
I would leave high school after my last class and drive to the office. I’d usually work for 4 hours, then head home for a late dinner.
Now I need to know where chocolate fits into this plan.
If you want to keep control, you have to do it by yourself.
That, or have a select few conscientious employees. Some people are really good at that.
i have no game or development background, but this is great professional input for a person starting their career anywhere
Question if you look back to when you started out in the videogame industry to now what are some of the biggest changes you have seen?
They can be any in how games are made, the company internal worker politics etc etc.
So what are in your opinion some of the biggest changes from then to now?
Industry Changes
ua-cam.com/video/68srUJOV3j4/v-deo.html
Hey Tim, I wrote 2 books with a similar creative approach you described in your videos. The advice really helped me gain a better perspective for creative work. Thank you kindly, sir!
Hitting the Plato pose in the thumbnail, you love to see it.
The real creative control was the friends we made along the way.
Loving the uploads!
Hello Tim it’s us , everyone 🖤
Us, the happy lil gremlins.
Todd Howard, Call Tim, convince him to come over to Bethesda or consult and pay him whatever the F**K he wants! You need him to help you get back on track!
uncle Tim tough love
It's interesting, because in another video, Timothy talked about that he owns some code (I think that was about Fallout 1, but i'm not sure), but... even there, he mentioned that others like the publishers i guess, still have some kind of rights. He said, he owns it, but the contracts prevent him from releasing the code to public, even when he wanted to do that. That's a good example, even when you have control over certain things, contracts can and will still restrict you in one way or another.
About the project management, that's maybe another thing, but with delegating tasks: When the lead designer gets stuck in micro-management, this can delay or even let a project fail. I heard it's one of the reasons with Star Citizen, that Chris Roberts wants to approve literally every small, not important design detail by himself and this leads to a lot of time that is needed to proceed. Maybe it's true about him, maybe not, but i saw such people in other projects than game-design. People that want to keep control and not really delegate anything at all, people that are hardly or never satisfied at all by the work that others do.
Last thing, i'm not a game dev, but a writer. The only time i have all rights about my works is when i do something independent and i publish it by myself. Once a publisher is involved in any way, they'll always interfere with the book. Sometimes only in details, sometimes in the entire basic storyline and structure.
P.S.
Keep in mind, markets all over the world are very different. Like i'm in the middle of Europe, this means, nobody here has a problem with explicit sex scenes. But once a work gets to the american market, there it is all different - in the USA, you can use violence but not sex. In some european countries, you can use sex, but not violence. So keep the things ready for the market you want to release and sell it.
I'm not aware if Timothy knows it, but the international Fallout 1 version was censored in many ways. Even in the old days with the graphics, the level of violence was too much. Even many years later when Bethesda made Fallout 3, it was censored, like in Germany - you could not shoot off limbs, there was no blood etc.
Hi, Tim. It's me, Dave. Sorry to ask this on a completely unrelated video but hey, maybe you'll be able to tell us something. The Outer Worlds was a gem of a game. Is there anything you can tell us about the sequel beyond the generic "it's gonna be great" type responses? I know you won't be able to say a ton, but is there anything at all that you can tell us? Like, more planets/maps? Bigger maps? Are there any big innovations or advancements made to game systems for the sequel? Maybe even just a rough estimation of when we might get more official info releases?
Hey, Tim. I have a question regarding the Outer Worlds. Knowing your general dislike for romances in RPGs, who wrote the romance between Parvati and the mechanic lady? Are there any stories connected with the development of this questline? Who contributed? I really enjoyed how their relationships developed, I think it was well-written, realistic and quite sweet.
Every video is a cherished pearl of wisdom to me. Also, each time I hear about “relinquishing control”, I can’t help but remember the undying words of Harbringer, from Mass Effect: “Assuming direct control”.
Hey Tim, this made me think. What is your opinion on Fallout fan games (e.g. Senora, Nevada, Resurrection)?
Hi Tim, I have a question.
In a lot of recent games I feel that the delivered game is not actually finished, as in is not within the developers original objectives and feel.
As a game director with an high level vision of the finished game, how is the process of staying within the schedule trying to balance the quality and the ambition that is the ideal finished game? Do you regret not prioritizing an specific feature? Or prioritizing something not actually important? How do you decide?
Simple features can totally change the tone of the game.
Hey Tim whats your thoughts on settlement building in fallout 4 and 76
Hey Tim, I have a question about character design (doesn't have to be applied to RPGs necessarily, it could be for any game).
Do the same principles for designing factions (the ones you talk about on your "making good factions" video for example) apply to singular characters (side characters, main cast, companions, etc)?
Also, I've heard you say art is not really your thing, but I'd like to know if you have any tips on how to establish at least the basics of how a character should look like. I struggle a lot figuring out the visual design of characters so that it makes sense for who they are and what they represent. (Art isn't my thing either, I couldn't draw something nice to save my life, I think people call it "programmer art" xd)
Hi Tim, love the channel. You already mentioned that you like to start creating a game by the setting. On the other hand, Yahtzee Croshaw did once a video dev series and hammered on how focusing on the primary game loop should be everyone's priority, furthermore, Nintendo makes the new prototypes fun to play before developing the game further, what are your thoughts on this approach?
I'll do a video on core game loops. They're very important...I just don't start with them.
@@CainOnGames cool I'll have a look at that. Its amazing how much one can learn from your videos, keep up the good work.
There is already a video on this.
Designing Mechanics First ua-cam.com/video/lCZwL5GJvww/v-deo.html
I know Yahtzee plays a lot of stuff as a reviewer, but TBH as someone who also used to have this mechanics first mentality to design, I find that there are loads of games out there with really polished core-loops, that are still just kind of bland overall with little else really keeping me invested in the experience.
@@arcan762 Yahtzee (Ben Croshaw) has created:
- 5 Days a Stranger (2003), 7 Days A Skeptic (2004), Trilby's Notes (2006), 6 days A Sacrifice (2007) - narrative adventures
- 1213 (2006) - episodic survival horror and cinematic platformer
- Trilby: The Art Of Theft (2007) - stealth action game
- Poacher (2012) - metroidvania
- The Consuming Shadow (2015) - roguelite survival horror
- Starstruck Vagabond (2024) - lifesim adventure (?)
I have played all of these except the last two. He has been creating games all alone long before he became a popular reviewer and long before there was a market for indie games - that's why his initial games were free. Poacher was released during the indie boom but wasn't sold because at the time selling pixel art games didn't seem acceptable (the pixel version of Spelunky was also free back then) - it seemed that games had to have at least pretty 2D HD graphics to be allowed on the store.
But even if he hadn't done all this, it wouldn't make him right or wrong. It's a personal preference that depends on the designer's priorities or the priorities of the studio.
we love you Uncle Tim
You can tell from just this video...he's a great person to work with/for...i like that one part... you now own it, so drive it bit...gonna put that in my management back pocket...
Is it just me or does slack just feel like discord but less functional? I often don't get notifications for important messages, channels dissappear, etc. Never had those problems with discord so I'm confused as to why so many companies use slack instead
Nepotism -> hype -> inertia -> legacy
Someone should have given this advice to Robert Kurvitz
I reckon that identifying the 3rd category in particular,
the one you keep the least control over,
has to be a tough thing to do wholeheartedly.
Is it possible that having an objective and specific physical obstacle,
as progressive color-blindness VS visual evaluation,
helped you in relinquishing control over aspects of projects you're still, at the end, considered 100% responsible of?
Thanks for your videos!
Where the hell does one place these questions for Tim to answer 🤪 ?
Right here. I won't promise I will or can answer every one, but I will see it.
Some people repost their questions every day, which does NOT increase the chance I will answer it.
Hey Tim! Just finished the outer worlds again + it's dlc that I hadn't played before
Did you also have a big part in those projects? Or was that time for others on the team to take the lead?
It's my favorite game in recent memory. Thank you for the experience multiple times over
We all get Idea Person Syndrome. But what you said about needing to have done the task to understand it enough to delegate the task makes so much sense. Puts my delusions of grandeur into perspective.
The title alone makes me sweat. MUST CONTROL EVERYTHING!!!
My favorite tin can
Hello Mr Cain, former military pilot here. I heard that you recently mentioned or rather spilled the beans on purpose that China started it all but I always had an evident answer as to who dropped the bombs first and also about the other bombs we see in the wasteland as rationally, scientifically and simple as possible. I believe you wanna hear it. And perhaps you can even make a video about it because I really would like to hear your take on it. I also believe people will be satisfied with the answer for the very first time.
Let's start with the bombs we see all around because I know the discussions on the entire Vault-Tec started theory but that's neither the Vault-Tec insignia on that bomb in Megaton nor they detonated any bomb on the US soil. A simple comparison of the original Vault-Tec insignia from the game files with the one on the Megaton bomb shows that they are not identical by any means. A clean version of the bomb insignia also exists on the internet so feel free to check that out, they are simply different. However, these bombs have a major role on grasping and understanding the logic behind as to who started it all. These bombs matter scientifically and from lore perspective. Because they are the only real traces for the eyes and minds just like the pieces of breads in the Hansel and Gretel.
Aight so, that insignia on that bomb in Megaton also exists on all of the same model bombs inside the Fort Constantine military base, of which was built and used by the US Army since 2043 till the day bombs fell. Meaning that it is, and in fact all the nuclear bombs you come across in wasteland including 'The One' near Devil's Throat and the other in Sacred bog during the hallucination scene are all %100 US Army nuclear bombs from the US Army inventory, type C-23 Megaton model to be more specific, obviously not Chinese, got nothing to do with Vault-Tec, and we see these bombs fell, which is being literally the very key word here, on the US soil and also found in a US Army base.
Now this, actually tells a lot if you are not a layman without a military education and background on the weapons of mass destruction and how this entire...how to put it; *The End* , process happens, well when that happens. And my hat is off to you Cain, for your seamlessly coherent scenario because as it might seem complicated or ‘just a game’ for some people, it is actually quite consistent with what really happens in reality. And I might be wrong but I think you knew it and that's why you put it there as a hint because its the only scientific real hint and I mean it. (Without hearing you in person saying ‘Yeah, China did it") Because evidence is all there and flawless with the script, and the lore.
So here goes everything. The rational and scientific logic behind why it was China is simple and lies beneath two very questions; why do we find US bombs all around, why were the US bombs dropped on American soil? They were not dropped, they fell. They fell right after they were launched on the trajectory course, their flight path just like any aircraft or jets would have done so, and as they did so you come across them all around the wasteland. Why?
See, munitions with nuclear warheads such as ICBMs or rather MIRVs (real bad bombs) not only destroy life on earth or earth's climate after they explode, but they also cause a burst of electromagnetic radiation, which we refer to as Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse or EMP if you will, that creates a powerful electromagnetic field, resulting in the temporary or permanent disabling of electrical and electronic equipment, causing a wide range of electrical failures and damaging electronic systems with current and voltage surges throughout the entire atmosphere and earth's surface, actually even above the atmosphere making it into the space, which is actually being the very reason you see all those fallen US bombs, satellites and some sort of damage on the other types of electronics in the game, such as terminals. And this is inevitable, and it will always be inevitable. This is still the most mind boggling issue even with the electronics and avionics we use today in the military let alone the electronics and devices you use in your daily lives. Because we can see even the tiny bit of an EMP effect in military equipment. (Please do some research on Starfish Prime.) However, most people still ignore and don't realise what a nuclear war would bring; it will not only destroy you, your loved ones, the life on earth and its climate, but it will very likely to erase the majority of th emost valuable notion about humanity's past existence on this very planet; data. It has nothing to do with the type of the electronics, transistors or any sort of differences in the technology as in the Fallout world, if there are electrons running in your system, meaning if you are using electric, you cannot escape the effects of an EMP caused by the nuclear blast because it actually disrupts the behaviour of the electrons and thus disrupts or damages your system or circuit. It will affect your electronics. And in Fallout game, the most vulnerable and the very first things EMP reached and affected were those in the air without any solid material between them slowing this very effect: planes and US nuclear missiles which were off the ground on their flight paths. This is what happened in Fallout and this is why you see fallen undetonated US bombs on the wasteland. The US was caught off guard. They launched the missiles, planes carrying the bombs *DURING* the Chinese nuclear warheads were exploding on the US soil. And that is actually why the reports on the terminals, like the one in Fort Constantine, are all accurate and telling the truth; the US was engaging to an actual Chinese attack as a *RESPONSE* .
Now, if it was the other way around or if it was -presumed- Vault-Tec or anyone else from inside the US, we would have seen evidence for *2 WAVES* , this is very important, 2 nuclear bombardments targeting the US: the very first initial Vault-Tec attack, doesn't matter if it came with a couple of spoof bombs or rained down countless bombs from inside the US and no one saw it as it was happening (even funny while reading), triggering the actual US response. And the second wave, from China came in retaliation for the US attack, which the US carried out after the -presumed- Vault-Tec attack. It would have taken some time for Chinese missiles to reach the US and we would have known if the US started it all without anything. Right? Right. Well, none of these has happened. None. There is nothing, no evidence or whatsoever related to the Chinese wave came after a US attack. The US launched bombs simultaneously during the attack, causing some of its bombs to malfunction and fell on the flight path. And this is the only single reason we find these malfunctioned US bombs exist in the entire game. There is no other scientific, theoretical or rhetorical reason for their existence.
As I said, if Vault-Tec or anyone else had launched a spoof attack, we would have seen evidence of *2 WAVES* targeting the US as a result of a chain of events. The US bombs were also not launched first and obviously were not malfunctioned in the meantime. Meaning China launched the bombs first.
Avoiding the military jargon and stuff that might cause confusion for some of the readers out there, I tried to explain it in a simplified manner as much as I could. Perhaps it's a bit long, I know, but I wanted it to be simple and neat, as there are all kinds of people of all ages from all around the world reading and following this channel. So I hope I did well, and thank you for reading it. Mr. Cain, I would really appreciate if you make a video in response because I would love to hear your takes on my way of putting it. You all have a wonderful day.
your scientifically dissecting the lore... but it's the lore from fallout *three??* 😂
Barely three minutes in but I need to say this, speaking as an artist myself, who has worked with people on "verbal descriptions" for projects - your description and direction are most important! Don't skimp on the details!
I had a person once where for a D&D character commission tell me their character had "Green Hair". That's it. And after TWO ROUNDS of approval I submitted the final piece and they complained about the shade of green the hair was.
Nowhere did they tell me they wanted an Emerald-esque green, because I had made it more mossy-green. They blamed me for it.
If you are not pleased with art received from a project YOU created keep in mind that artists cannot read your mind. Input is highly appreciated but we also work much easier when sufficient reference [even verbal] is given at the start so we don't have to play at guessing. More is better in this case, just don't submit paragraphs of descriptions. Bullet points of major ideas/colors/concepts works best with most artists.
And any artist worth their salt will at least let you go through some rounds of changing/correcting before any major work is done. Keep in mind though that you will be considered difficult if you want to do like.. more than five. Especially after you have been giving feedback. At that point it's on you for not giving the artists enough direction/feedback initially and don't be surprised if they start charging extra fees for having to do work exceeding their standard timeframe...
Ok, rant over, now I will continue to watch the video! Hehe.
funny thumbnail
How do you find likeminded collaborators for projects? For example, when you co-founded Troika how did you find the right people for each position?
If I remember correctly Troika was founded together with people he already knew, so he didn’t need to find them.
@@Abazur7 I thought it was only Leonard, Jason and Tim at the start?
Important to delineate the types of control. creative control is ok to relinquish, because we still have total control. It’s a different type of control that’s all encompassing. They can have whatever silly parcels of control they want. We wield absolute total and apocalyptic control within a company; they will bow to our stealth dong drawings.
Hi Tim, in your opinion, what kind of reward from quests you consider as good or bad? aside of progressing the story that is.
Hi Tim. Its us, everyone.
Did you ever tell the story of why you had a paperbag on your head in that one picture?
The Story Of The Bag
ua-cam.com/video/urG54XUIpjk/v-deo.html
Tim looks like a Messiah in the thumbnail
(insert uninspired variant of Tim's intro here)
Don't take this chat inside joke away from me lol
Hi, jres1995
it’s me, the buzzkill-cop
[says the same thing over and over every time Tim post a video, like an npc.]
[IS an npc]
I'm curious about the book time mentions anyone has a link?
Hey Tim, quick question: since you've started a UA-cam channel has it changed your mind about any part of game development or reinforced your professional experiences? Thank you!
That's a good question...and probably a length answer too. I will chew on it.
Thanks!
That thumbnail makes you look like a pastor mid sermon
programing in unreal engine is less fun than programming in a toolset like the neverwinter nights toolset. knowing what youre using is a big part of creative control too.
Will there be a driveable Fallout ip in Rockstar's GTA VI engine?
HI TIM!
I would like to make a “Tim Cain tin can” but I have no access to tin
Why not just work with modders and have a go fund me
Hey everyone, I am declaring myself the one true Tim.
The problem with doing this is that 99% of the time, the person you give creative control to will completely butcher the work, destroying the lore and original themes. Just look at Star Wars with Kathleen and Fallout with Bethesda.
It depends how you do it, fromsoft has evolved to not only having miyazaki at the helm, but also other directors. But they didn't just hand it off randomly, miyazaki trained them, and handed them off willingly. Now those directors made sekiro and armored core 6
There's a very strong difference between relinquishing creative control to a company, who passes it off to whoever's available, to ACTUALLY passing the work off yourself to someone you know understands it. Both of those cases weren't deliberate changes at the helm - star wars was bought out, and interplay went under. They kind of HAD to change management and the way that has gone hasn't exactly been received well.
On the other hand you got examples like what @rewpertcone8243 said - with fromsoft managing their game franchises really well throughout the years.
Honestly, if you stop to think about it, changes in direction rarely go too badly. It's just that the cases where it goes wrong tend to be so huge it takes away attention away from everyone else.
Look at Star Wars with Dave Filoni. George Lucas was always there during the Clone Wars making suggestions and approving of things, but still let Filoni have a great deal of control.
What @DanielFerreira-ez8qd said. The main subject is relinquishing control to various constituents of an internal team. It is a strong difference, but Tim did mention a related phenomenon the originators of an IP will have to wrestle with if/when the IP is sold. I'd hazard to guess dealing with that would fall into the realm of the scenario outlined at 10:15 in which "you don't own an IP and once you don't own that intellectual property...eventually, you will have no control of it because someone else owns it." I don't know because I haven't had to deal with such a scenario myself, but I imagine it feels something akin to giving up a baby for adoption. I imagine the best one can do is hope the adoptive parents will love and care for that baby as though it were their own flesh and blood, but the adoptive parents may not share the same philosophy of raising a child as you and you either have to accept that or go crazy obsessing over creative control you no longer have.
As Noah Gervais put it in one of his Fallout videos, "It's Bethesda's world now. They make the creative calls." It wasn't out of bounds, though, for him to relay the impression that, in making a specific decision we have no way of knowing was Bethesda's or some other entity's, Bethesda chose "not to be creative in the new setting." The subject was the noticably intense effort to justify the presence of the BoS in Appalachia in Fallout 76. What's strange to me is that an existing faction, Taggerdy's Thunder, was magically transformed into the BoS in the process of developing that game whereas, had Taggerdy's Thunder remained Taggerdy's Thunder, the faction would have unique to the franchise. It's pretty clear, as Noah said, the presence of the BoS in Appalachia "only makes sense from a marketing perspective." No question in my mind that was a marketing decision and not a decision made to conform to established Fallout lore. The BoS sells, apparently, but -- as a player -- I would have loved the opportunity to follow a storyline centered around what happened to Taggerdy's Thunder as opposed to the question of how-in-the-world is the BoS here at all. Bethesda actually seemed poised to break away from an established pattern of appealing to nostalgia and the familiar with that game, at least according to its background worldbuilding, but seems to have been sidetracked (or overruled) somewhere along the way. Just an impression, but a strong impression.
@@memyselfishnessit's ashoka all the time
Creative ?? Hmmm in Battle Angel Allita is sentence. In Zalem "we need only your brain, eyes and hands" Hmmmm INTERNET. LOLCreativity V checked. he he he