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But best title ever!
After talking with Chris Avellone, J.E. Sawyer, Jason Bergman and other members of the industry and not, Will Ooi turned his pointed questions to veteran designer, member of the original Fallout team and one of the founders of the unfortunately short-lived Troika Games studio Tim Cain (the interview is available both on Gamasutra and on his personal blog), while also taking the chance to shed some light on his recent decisions regarding his career. Here's on that subject:<blockquote>Will Ooi: Hi Mr Cain, thank you very much for taking part in this interview series, and first of all congratulations on securing a role at Obsidian. How do you feel about this move, and what does it mean for your and Obsidian's future plans?
Tim Cain: I really enjoy working at Obsidian. I know many of the people there from our time at Interplay or Troika, and I have played all of Obsidian's games, so in many ways this new job was the smoothest transition I have ever made. Everyone there has been very friendly and welcoming, and I am excited to be back in the RPG game space.
But I should explain that I am a temporary contracted employee at Obsidian. I am considering joining another company in the spring of 2012 and have been talking with them since August, so in the meantime I am working at Obsidian on one of their games as a senior programmer. My contract extends thru March of 2012, at which time all parties (myself, Obsidian and the other company) can decide what the next step should be.
[..]
Will Ooi: Are you able to share anything about your time at Carbine Studios, and the Wildstar MMO title you were working on?
Tim Cain: I enjoyed working at Carbine, first as the Programming Director and then shifting to the Design Director role. These roles gave me the opportunity to work on an MMO's development from different perspectives, and I thought Wildstar was shaping up to be a world-class MMO. I loved the demo they presented at GamesCom in Germany in August. The game looks awesome.
As for my leaving, that had nothing to do with the quality of the game. I had joined the team in 2005 expecting a five year development cycle. After six years, it became obvious that the game would be in development for several additional years, and that was longer than I was willing to commit to the title.
[..]
WO: What are the challenges or pitfalls one faces when running their own game development studio?
TC: For me personally, the challenge was learning how to run a business and to negotiate contracts with publishers, which are skills that have nothing to do with making good games. But if you make mistakes in those areas, your games will suffer. I would recommend keeping them separate. In other words, I should have hired a biz guy.
</blockquote>Don't forget to read the interview in its entirety, lots of good stuff in it, including Tim's opinion on New Vegas, whether he thinks there's a place in today's market for iso/turn-based games and more.
Tim Cain: I really enjoy working at Obsidian. I know many of the people there from our time at Interplay or Troika, and I have played all of Obsidian's games, so in many ways this new job was the smoothest transition I have ever made. Everyone there has been very friendly and welcoming, and I am excited to be back in the RPG game space.
But I should explain that I am a temporary contracted employee at Obsidian. I am considering joining another company in the spring of 2012 and have been talking with them since August, so in the meantime I am working at Obsidian on one of their games as a senior programmer. My contract extends thru March of 2012, at which time all parties (myself, Obsidian and the other company) can decide what the next step should be.
[..]
Will Ooi: Are you able to share anything about your time at Carbine Studios, and the Wildstar MMO title you were working on?
Tim Cain: I enjoyed working at Carbine, first as the Programming Director and then shifting to the Design Director role. These roles gave me the opportunity to work on an MMO's development from different perspectives, and I thought Wildstar was shaping up to be a world-class MMO. I loved the demo they presented at GamesCom in Germany in August. The game looks awesome.
As for my leaving, that had nothing to do with the quality of the game. I had joined the team in 2005 expecting a five year development cycle. After six years, it became obvious that the game would be in development for several additional years, and that was longer than I was willing to commit to the title.
[..]
WO: What are the challenges or pitfalls one faces when running their own game development studio?
TC: For me personally, the challenge was learning how to run a business and to negotiate contracts with publishers, which are skills that have nothing to do with making good games. But if you make mistakes in those areas, your games will suffer. I would recommend keeping them separate. In other words, I should have hired a biz guy.
</blockquote>Don't forget to read the interview in its entirety, lots of good stuff in it, including Tim's opinion on New Vegas, whether he thinks there's a place in today's market for iso/turn-based games and more.
