Tim Cain has been named one of the most influential game developers of all time for his role in creating Fallout. However, his time working on the series was short-lived and he recently shared why he left Interplay.
Fallout was released back in 1997 and became an instant hit. The game was a commercial success and sparked renewed interest in the RPG genre with its immersive gameplay and post-apocalyptic visuals.
Fallout’s sales numbers were good enough that Interplay immediately started working on a sequel. Bethesda purchased the IP in 2007 and turned it into one of the biggest gaming series ever.
Cain, the co-creator of Fallout, recently started a personal YouTube channel discussing the video game industry. In a video posted a few days ago, Cain discussed the reason why he left the development of Fallout 2.
He revealed that Interplay did not initially plan on making Fallout into a series. The studio only wanted to get the post-apocalyptic RPG finished. Cain shared that a sequel was only discussed twice during development.
The Fallout team struggled with the deadline and bugs with Cain admitting that the game shipped with a lot of issues. He revealed that he was exhausted with the development of Fallout and his reward for the success of the game was even more crunch.
“There was no way I could stay,” Cain recalled. “I got beaten down. All I can tell you is, I made an IP from scratch that I’d always believed from the very beginning that no one else had believed in except the team. No one external had believed in until right near the end and then my reward for that was more crunch, more responsibility that I didn’t want, tons of interference from people who had ignored us for the last three years, and a reduced bonus to get me motivated.”
Cain shared in detail the reduction in bonus. He was in charge of determining the bonus that each team member would receive from the game. Cain and his manager discussed the bonuses and signed off on the document before handing it to Human Resources.
He was surprised that he received a very small bonus despite being the project lead, producer, and lead developer of the game. The reason behind the lower bonus was that owner Brian Fargo reduced his bonus twice. Fargo believed that the reduced bonus would motivate Cain to do better with Fallout 2 which didn’t sit well with the game developer.
Cain resigned shortly after to form Troika Games with fellow Fallout veterans Leonard Boyarsky and Jason D. Anderson in 1998. He went on to become part of Obsidian Entertainment and was co-director for The Outer Worlds.
Cain’s revelation is an interesting insight into the inner workings of game development. Recently, the gaming industry has been marred by missed deadlines, games being released in a terrible state, and titles that are just not playable. There have also been reports of poor working conditions where developers are subjected to unreasonable deadlines and unhealthy environments. Most recently, fans have been harassing developers on social media and other platforms.
Hopefully, this revelation from Tim Cain helps build a better environment for game developers and studios. It should be a wake-up call, not only for studios but for gamers as well, to demand from companies the best possible treatment for their employees.
