That is a very metal opening to a video game with a 5 year old protagonist

@MrRafagigapr

3 ай бұрын

average first grader in OHIO

@BuzzKirill3D

3 ай бұрын

I know right? it was begging for a horror soundtrack

@Gameprojordan

2 ай бұрын

Kinda reminds me of the Mother series, but way more violent lol

My main takeaway from this video is that I'm 5.

@mina7572

3 ай бұрын

Its never too early to start game development!

@WillyLee23

2 ай бұрын

ELI5

@raylder6339

2 ай бұрын

Because you’re five - remember you’re five.

@raylder6339

2 ай бұрын

Now I’m illiterate??

@nisnast

2 ай бұрын

"explain it to me like I'm 5" Tim: "say no more"

I know ONE game that made an illiterate character, and it was Kingdom Come Deliverance. Loved it, when i opened a book, and the letters were all mixed up, complete gibberish. As your reading skill went up, the text was slowly getting better, but still had mistakes, and honestly it was funny to read it like that.

@Mephilis78

2 ай бұрын

It was sort of like dyslexia though, at least until you leveled your reading skill. Still one of my favorite games of all time though. Very excited for KCD 2!

@sevenproxies4255

2 ай бұрын

KCD does a million things right. Illiteracy is one. I also had a soft spot for the treasure maps. It was so fun to go treasure hunting while having no gps map-marker showing where the treasure was hidden, but you had to use these hand drawn sketches that weren't all that precise. I also liked how the game handled food, drink and sleep. Like when Henry got sleepy he would start dozing off, which would be a major encumberance when you're trying to do anything at all. Also food would grant bonuses and some healing, but you can't eat an indefinite amount of food before you get full, and being too full gave significant debuffs. The way clothes and armour worked was also very logical and great. Some clothes are flashy and good for making a good impression during social interactions. Others make you less noticeable, and not just in the sense of physical camouflage but also in a social sense that you just look like a random peasant that people don't take notice of.

@soulofcinder3165

2 ай бұрын

​@@sevenproxies4255You might like Red Dead Redemption 2

The ad copy immediately popped in my head: "Surviving the Apocalypse is Child's Play" 🤣

"Really Tim, another post-apocalyptic game..." I can guarantee you that nobody thought this.

@jeremyscungio16

3 ай бұрын

You can't really have a game without some kind of end to structured society. What's the game office job 3?

@LikeACrouton

3 ай бұрын

@@jeremyscungio16 You don't necessarily need an end to structured society, you just usually have your character acting outside of it. That can be due to a collapse, or just cuz they're criminals, or they're living somewhere where the regular rules don't apply. "Office Job 3" games are also kinda thriving as well tbh, Stardew and the cozy games, Power Wash sim and the satisfying games.

@perryborn2777

3 ай бұрын

​@@LikeACroutonthe Dungeon Master's Guide of 3.5e dnd has a great description on how this works In the overworld, or general society, you'll still have laws, culture, religion, etc. But once you stray off the path, or enter the dungeon, the rules change. That's why a lawful good paladin is in the right to nearly indiscriminately slay cultists in their "dungeon", but has to be more careful of his behavior elsewhere. It's not always applicable, and I probably did a terrible job of explaining it, but the idea behind it has always been really intrigueing to me

@indigo4438

3 ай бұрын

Whats an IP bro?

@rubyvi5442

2 ай бұрын

@@jeremyscungio16 Wagecage escape: wrath of the cage 3

Is that a sleeping dog I hear this morning?

@rrrrthats4rs

3 ай бұрын

"I tell people about only using amnesia once" Come onnnn Tim, just admit you gave Robert Kurvitz career advice :P

@estogaza5827

3 ай бұрын

I’m in the bathroom listening to Tim talk and I hear breathing. For a second I got some horror vibes. “Is someone breathing? Wtf is that? Ohhhh must be a dog of camera”. I didn’t know the breathing was coming from Tim’s video lmfao

@AstarteCX

3 ай бұрын

its soo distarcting when you notice it lol sleepy dog

@Marandal

3 ай бұрын

@@rrrrthats4rs why, did he do multiple amnesia's? lmao

@ilikelemons2197

2 ай бұрын

I was like, is there iron lung in the background 😂

One of the more annoying aspects of many AAA modern games is not trying new things with new IPs. I love new IPs and wish they were propped up more than the 70th call of duty.

@jextra1313

2 ай бұрын

That's where the money is, in all aspects of culture. Want a new adventure movie IP? Nope - here's Indiana Jones 6

@JediFan421

2 ай бұрын

If you want to support new IPs, buy and support indie games if you aren't already.

@MadameRouzgar

2 ай бұрын

@@JediFan421 THIS.

@sevenproxies4255

2 ай бұрын

Same. Even if your new IP is bad or not very thought through, there's still value in the fact that you set out to make something new. Instead of just trying to ride the coat tails of someone elses IP. Or the worst transgression of all: taking someone elses IP, changing it and bastardizing it beyond recognition. Sadly we've seen a lot of the latter kind lately.

@sevenproxies4255

2 ай бұрын

​@@JediFan421I do when something interesting comes up. My favourite indie game has to be the survival horror game Darkwood by the small Polish dev team Acid Wizard. With that said: for a long time it felt like indie games did nothing but walking simulators and 2d scrollers with dark and edgy Tim Burton-esque graphics, and this lack of originality was a big turn off.

Wow, Tim... You're a great story teller Also, In Kindom Come: Deliverance. You start the game illiterate and can slowy become literate. I loved that mechanic, it genuinely felt like a couldnt read and was actually slowly learning.

@Gameprojordan

2 ай бұрын

Yes but in KCD you play as an adult peasant in a relatively civilized land. There's still infrastructure and tutors etc out there that can teach you to read. Not the same scenario as the one in Tim's story, where the kid is on his own in an apocalypse, and never learned how to read beforehand, and probably never will

@insertoyouroemail

2 ай бұрын

In Quake 4, alien text turns into English when the player character gets an alien neural implant.

I really want to see a trend of Tim performing complex actions in his thumbnails with video titles that feel like they shouldn’t match

@marmaladearmadillo

3 ай бұрын

I really want Tim to take up stock photo modelling as a hobby.

I'm developing my own IP and I'm following your guidance on setting, story, and system mechanics. These videos are incredibly helpful. Thank you so much.

There is a game I played called Heart of Darkness where you played a kid trying to find his dog in an alien dimension, and it had some really gnarly death animations. That said it was the mid 90s and idk how well it sold.

@Suds_Mc_Duff

3 ай бұрын

i remember those shadowy bastards

@NuDimon

2 ай бұрын

Off the top off my head I think it sold platinum on PS at the very least.

@sealsharp

2 ай бұрын

I remember it. The game was in dev for 6+ years, started in 1992 , released in 1998. So what started as state of the art pixel graphics supported by rendered cutscenes and backgrounds was outdated heavily but the graphical progress at that time. The screen resolution was 256*192, which was a "who even does that?" at that time. You can see fragments of that history in reviews saying "the game runs but it's only using 80% of my screen" because no monitor since ages supports below 320*240. Thanks to the retro revival it would seem less dated now than it was at the time of release.

@GepardenK

2 ай бұрын

Tim talking about games with child deaths made me think of Heart of Darkness as well. It had positively sadistic death animations at times - worse, even, than Limbo despite the colourful themes. It was the one game that I felt "got me" when I was 12 yo. There was no pandering, only a authentic understanding of the mind of a 12 yo boy. We used to draw similar gnarly deaths in the margins of our notebooks at school, and here suddenly we had a game about all about those kind of sketchbook deaths, lol.

A 20 minute Tim video! Great way to start my morning!

@Marandal

3 ай бұрын

absolutely

@Knight-PaladinEleanor

3 ай бұрын

18:54 minute video

@Marandal

3 ай бұрын

@@Knight-PaladinEleanor paladin spell-checker lol

"did you ever play limbo?" Ha. That was exactly what I was thinking before you mentioned it.

@wantingthesky

2 ай бұрын

there was Heart of Darkness way before limbo

This should have a horror vibe, because a child would be terrified in these circumstances

@koalabrownie

2 ай бұрын

Traumatized for life.

@peanutkaneshiro

2 ай бұрын

​@@koalabrowniethe short one you will have

Do you or have you ever felt pressure, internally or externally, while making a game to live up to your past creations? How do you deal with it? As a musician I always end up comparing new songs to what I feel our best song is and I'm curious if other creatives experience the same. Really happy I stumbled across your channel!

I will repeat myself. You are great story teller. That child's saturday was very captivating.

Between Tim and Thor at Pirates Software, I think they want me to make a game.

Tim, I'm definitely adding you in the "Special Thanks" part of my games, if I ever manage to pull them off! I hope you get to play them, eventually!

Sounds like Among The Sleep. I LOVED playing as a toddler in that game. It was so interesting to see what I could do. It mainly just prevented me from reaching shelves. LOL.

Limbo AND Inside. Both of them are so good

Your description of the intro painted a picture to me that was much like the intro of the Dawn of the Dead (2004) remake. And that's a good thing!

Thank you Tim, this is one of my favourite videos. Trying too get a new project into a playable state, been working on the conceptual design for quite some time. Allot of what was discussed is relevant too many parts of a project.

Love these videos, Tim. Wanted to say thank you for taking the time to talk to us. appreciate everything you do man.

Awesome getting an insight into early setting and design concepting. Thanks for sharing one of your fleshed out ideas to the world Tim, that's very generous! Have a great weekend-and walk your dog and give him a treat he's a goodboi!

Just want to say thanks! I mostly do writing but have been scratching away at a game world and its nice to get such practical and experienced advice.

Just discovered your channel after the fallout show reintroduced me into the fallout series. I grew up playing 1 and 2 and was hooked on the games. Being older I can appreciate the lore and the behind the scenes fascinating. Thank you for your work

@stevenp5476

2 ай бұрын

I mean to say that it is fascinating to me 🤦‍♂️

Enjoy your weekend, Tim! This was an interesting watch. Thank you for sharing !

One thing I really like about you Tim is that when you share valuable knowledge and experience like this, I get this distinct impression that you basically hope it might influence someone to make a cool game that you'll enjoy. Reciprocal altruism in action. 😄

"You go to the one place where you ever felt safe, school" And this is how we know it's a fantasy game!

I love this concept. The vibe I get from the setting is Star Trek TOS S1 E8 "Miri", but like the origin story of that world from a child's perspective.

Question: In Fallout 1, Harold’s story about his expedition into Mariposa military base mentions about 4 people for the expedition. Harold, Richard Grey, a name I’m blanking on, and Mark. After one or two other people got killed, Mark was wounded, so he went up to the surface. In the vat room, Harold was knocked by the crane by the vat. Richard Gray fell into the vat while Harold fell to the side of the vat and knocked unconscious. Somehow, Harold woke up later on the surface with no memory as to how he got there. So, did Mark go back to get him? We know Grey didn’t know that Harold even survived, so it had to be Mark that dragged him out of there. Was it Mark that dragged Harold out of Mariposa? Did the original team have any plans for Mark returning in a future game? Am I just looking too deep into this? This is a burning question of mine that I hope you can answer.

Going through all this man's videos and slamming the like button ! Thank you for your videos Tim the insight you give is amazing cant express it in enough words that KZread will allow !

The idea of the player being illiterate and slowly being able to decipher random words is actually really cool!

@hihihi1q23

3 ай бұрын

Kingdom Come Deliverance did something similar.

@user-pc3we6gf6j

3 ай бұрын

Also, Heaven's Vault.

@GaliosUA

2 ай бұрын

Aselia the Eternal is probably the most striking example of this. The game throws the main character into a different world and everything is gibberish while you slowly learn the language. The voice acting is also done in this fantasy language, so the experience is very immersive. Final Fantasy X did this with the Al Bhed language, you need to get a bunch of primers to completely decipher it. Although the use of Al Bhed in the game is not that prevalent, so it's not a big deal if you don't get it.

Scary stuff! 😨 Great video 👍🏻 Btw, the illiteracy stuff was neatly implemented in Kingdom Come Deliverance. Great game, btw.

Very interesting concept! Love this video, it's Very informative. My mind now is crunching ideas

Love it Tim, you are a gem! We love tuning into your videos. Absolutely, golden content my friend! 👍

Interesting idea, "Among the sleep" loosely comes to mind

thank you for this. at the perfect time when i finally thought of an IP/premise for a game; been banging my head for something i like for years now. i dont even know how to start on this but you gave me some great ways to make it a whole lot more interesting right off the bat. that game with the 5 year old would be awesome to play by the way. sounds dope

Question for Tim! The current state of game development is that games take too much time to develop. In the past, it was possible to make a game in couple of years (Fallout 2 - 9 months, GTA: San Andreas - 2 years) Now it takes more than one console generation (Fallout 4 - 5 years, GTA 6 - i hope only 7 years) I understand that players want more with each game, better graphic, increased scale. But it is going crazy. How one programmer is able to be in a company for just one full development cycle? What is your take on this issue? Will it change in the future? Will large developments be unsustainable in the future? Will indie games conquer the scene? Will big companies go bankrupt? Thanks a lot

@lloyd011721

3 ай бұрын

games taking too much time to develop is a AAA problem and a management problem. those same companies could make games in 2 years instead of 5. a large number of these games that took 4+ years and costed hunders of millions are also of lower quality than AA games that took 1 year and like 3 million too.

@plebisMaximus

3 ай бұрын

I'm not in the industry, so far from an expert, but I imagine a big part of it is also games lasting longer. GTA 6 didn't have to come out in 2 years because GTA 5 has been in continuous development instead, through GTA Online. Nobody really cares much for a Dota 3, when the second one isn't even in a completely "finished" state.

Thank you Tim! This video brought many insights to the table. - Everyone

Damn it Tim, make it already. I love this video where you put into practice the principles set out in earlier vids. I'd be interested in how you'd apply the pillars 'exercise' (for want of a better word) for Post Apoc. Kid.

Great thumbnail! I love hearing your process, and your dog snoring is so cute!

i'm 38 and i've been trying to be a good writer all my life, still feels like I have so much to learn, where to start the story has been a 15 year journey for me, but i think i have a great opening now :)

Now I want to play that game! Thank you for the video sir! Always love these!

a cinematic as a pitch sounds awesome

In the book publishing world, what you'd say to an agent (or what an agent might say to a publisher) is that your book is a "standalone with series potential" which could be language a potential game publisher might enjoy; regarding your point at 13:00

I love this 5-year-old approach and the limitations that come from that. I have an idea currently that is also based on limitations, but of different sort. I haven't really been able to put it into a story or any detail yet, but this is actually a really great video to see for me. Also, I just love how you explain things, it's informative but also fun and funny.

language/communication mechanics are fascinating. what i'm working on has a similar character premise (child-like "blank slate" making sense of a world) but in a totally different genre and setting. consequently, i end up with a different system than what seems like yours would have. like you described, the system design and mechanics naturally flow from and manifest based on the initial game premise.

Man that was great! Love every second of it!

There was an idea I had, was originally for a webcomic but I wonder if it would work better as a game Sort of similar in quite a few ways but you've rejuvenated my enthusiasm for it, I'll need to get back to learning unreal

Another great video, thanks Tim.

Great explanation for developing you own IP. The idea is kind of brilliant and unique. It's interesting as I was listening I kept thinking about the concept of being a child in a game and how unique that was. No other game does that. Then you mentioned Limbo at the end (great game BTW) and I realized, oh yeah, that was one. I was immersed in the idea of playing as a child so much I forgot about those other games. Please do more of these. They just such great seeing inside your brain.

Last time I was this early to a Tim video, I stayed up all night (I stayed up all night again). Interesting, unique game concept, cool stuff.

Love your videos Tim. Keep em coming 👍🏻

I’d love to see more discussion on choosing the right hook! “Evocative” is a good criterion to add. I know you’ve talked about setting extensively, and hook is probably downstream from there. I actually started my game premise from the hook and feel I’m still paying the price of figuring out my setting. (Or maybe figuring out the setting is hard no matter how you slice it.)

A neat look behind the curtain Tim

Love the idea of developing that hiding skill as a child. Like maybe the first time you need to hide from something, there is a flashback to playing hide and seek with your family, and the tutorial area has something that looks like an obviously perfect hiding place, but once you go there it switches point of view to your mum who laughs and points out that you have to hide your feet when you stand behind curtains or something to that effect. Then suddenly you're back in the room you were in originally and all of the places that looked like great hiding spots are now obviously terrible.

@SuperOtakuKyo

2 ай бұрын

Love this idea. This concept has tons of potential.

Havent finished the video yet but this sounds like a really solid premise for a book

Very good video. This went through very similarly to how my friend approached me last year with the idea for a game. This is originally how I found your video as I started looking about game design documents. She wanted to use one of my WIP comics to create a game since we worked on it together from time to time. For about 6 months I worked on the design document, the story was mostly written and aesthetically it looked solid enough. At least for the short amount of time we worked on it. It was going to be a cyberpunk story set in a post-(post?)apocalypse with a mankind that was grown past the initial destruction. It wasn't nuclear based, but a war devastating enough, and long enough that both society and the culture of the setting reflect a cold, militaristic society mixed in with the aggressive stylization of cyberpunk. Think something like AKIRA for the cities, and Mad Max for the destroyed cities and wastes.

This is amazing advice. Thank you Tim!

You managed to hook me as far as I got a vision of how I'd like make game like that before the 12 minute mark had passed.😅 Though I'd usually would prefer a realistic 3D game for something like this. I did go straight to an isometric 32X or PC Engine sort of style in my head. Could be in part the Saturday morning cartoon setting that made gravitate towards that though. 🙃

Love this idea! I've always thought that language skills were underused in RPGs. I also think it would be interesting to really start from level 1 (a kid) and progress from there (like a fallout 3 + Kingdom Come mashup).

Awesome idea, and very well told!

Love that idea of having an evocative hook

Damn, this game sounds so interesting. I get a survival horror RPG vibes from it, which is a pretty unique combo but would totally work. The intro cinematic you described absolutely hooked me in, which I suppose was the whole point of it. I'm not a dev, I just like games and I like listening to your dev stories. But now I kinda hope some talented indie dev team "steal" this idea and actually makes it into a proper game. Well, maybe not steal it, but use it as an inspiration, cause if it's done right it could be absolutely amazing.

Fantastic video Tim. 💯

Love the thumbnails. I keep inspecting them ever since you mentioned you pick the wackiest one (paraphrased)

First off, thank you for the guidance on developing IP... Also I enjoyed the cinematic you described... I've typically disliked it when games start with an opening cinematic (with some exceptions, like games whose mechanics I'm primed to enjoy based on previous experience with the genre), but after listening to you speak Tim, I realize that maybe the issue isn't with cinematics as an implementation but rather those individual games' execution of a cinematic... if I played a game with the cinematic you described I believe I would be engaged... So thank you for the bonus nugget of insight.

I’d love to just hash out some ideas. I wonder if we could do a post-apocalyptic game with a blend of some more modern psychological development approaches. I’ve totally wanted to see a game in which the story was built on Erik Erikkson’s stages of development built into the story. Trying to reach the conflicts of each stage of a life (let’s say adolescent onward) in a distorted environment where we’d have to psychologically adapt. I’ve got the initial idea from Persona being based on Jungian psychology. Your videos have got me interested particularly in narrative design, since I’m a psychology grad student who spends a lot of time writing.

At first I was very curious why it was so important that the character was so young. But as you got into further details the lack of complex language skills, at that specific age range, while still having at least a semblance of potential independence makes for a very unique experience.

You should sell a course on game design Tim!

@arcan762

3 ай бұрын

why would he do that?

@lyptical7868

2 ай бұрын

@@arcan762 To inject some good design into the industry etc

@arcan762

2 ай бұрын

@@lyptical7868 you mean this channel?

Once again a great video, thanks Tim. Don't know why, but it made me wonder what a game designed by Tim Cain and Hideo Kojima would be like...

That "let's get into it" mini tangent made me laugh out loud ahahahah I needee this laugh, it's been a terrible day so far, so thanks Tim ❤

Iv read a bunch of Manga that start in the same way, some have the sibling as 'evil' and some as a spirit or dream. It evokes strong emotions and something a lot of people can relate to, lots of options of what to do after.

The idea of the listening to the news and not understanding as a kid is a cool idea, the gibberish idea when watching the news made me think of the Charlie Brown and went the adults talk

20 Minute school session, so awesome.

Very insightful!

would be interesting to hear your advice for self-publishing games

Reminds me of some LitRPG settings. Starting as a kid would be interesting. Some of the downsides of the character being a kid would be negated by the player being older and knowing stuff, so it would be interesting to see how designers overcome that (i.e. making the words on signs and stuff be a bunch of random, incoherent symbols to mimic illiteracy).

4:00 I liked Fallout 4 where I could play the opening so I could immerse myself more in the character from before the world got destroyed and think of how the character would act in the wasteland based on how he was before the bombs dropped but I guess that could be achieved by a cinematic too but that cinematic would be too long I think.

@UlissesSampaio

3 ай бұрын

Also, Fallout 3's start as a baby was brilliant, imho

@marijn8057

3 ай бұрын

​@@UlissesSampaio yeah an opening to a game is great so the player can connect more to a character and understand their motives, but a cinematic would maybe be too long for the average gamer who would maybe like it more that they can play themselves instead of watching a cinematic for a couple of minutes.

@UlissesSampaio

3 ай бұрын

@marijn8057 indeed, I'm not a fan of cinematics. I much prefer the Skyrim way where you are in control 99% of the time

i think i remember a video of you sort of talking about this before and when you mentioned limbo i was like yup ive for sure heard something like this before

Perfect timing Tim!

Tim you would make an excellent game design professor ahaha

Tim you should read "Anna" by Niccolo Ammaniti. Its an apocalypse story in a world where everyone is infected with a disease that kills them after they turn 13, so there are only children in the world. I know you are probably not actually pitching this game but still, its a good book!

Oh yah u gotta be very attached to your IP n do a lot of developing on the writing front to get a good pitch down atleast to me. I’ve done that with my show concepts more then I have game but I just sat and cranked out a huge list of ideas I want to implement into my game last night. Your videos really help on all those fronts, wether where talking classes, combat interaction how we solve quests morality you cover it all. Now that I have figured out a gameplay loop and mechanics I want I now gotta develop a story n work on art n what aesthetics I want. I think I may make a few demo levels for the concept using unity but still work on developing my own in house engine. Getting the pitch down thoe is so key! Instantly when you where talking about this new game IP I was like you know how to do a elevator pitch and keep buyers engaged 40 years of game development you should have that down I’ve figured that out for 1 IP I am making but I still am developing the rest but stuff like that takes time and I’m glad I have more then 1 even thoe ur gonna have u know ur magnum opus that u will develop irregardless consumer interest such a wonderful boon of being alive now thoe if I make a good enough show or game I don’t need the funding from a tv network to make it although that’s the dream is it not you can make anything even if u couldn’t get ur foot in a door or sell the pitch n that is a wonderful thing to me.

Holy shit, Tim! That is one scary-ass beginning! I love it! 😶‍🌫

Good morning, Tim!

Awesome talk, I would play this game

Oh, what a coincidence that I just started work on my own "IP" aka a new world for my players to play in tabletop. This should be helpful!

I love this, great video!

Hey Tim a few months ago in a video you mentioned that several things about the modern video game industry reminded you in part of the video game crash in the 1980s. I was wondering if you could talk about what those were?

Hey Tim, wondering your thoughts about dialogue, specifically the idea of not telling the player successes and failures when doing skill checks and whether that would be viable or allow more interesting conversations. My first thought is not knowing if someone believes your lie or not. Cheers!

I love this idea. It's a lot like "A Quiet Place" if you removed the adults and any exposition. It is AMAZING. Too bad you won't make it!

Awesome video!

Very good, thanks. :D

I'd Love it if you could talk more about Outer Worlds creation? Are working on different engines hard? How different was Making Outer Worlds compared to Fallout? They have similar aspects but are also very different!

Both Limbo, and Inside are fantastic games!

Never walk away from Post apocalypse! Its the best setting-style

I don’t know if you’ve spoken about it prior but I’d love to hear anything interesting pertaining to the development of the clay head models from fallout. They are still super charming and don’t feel dated to me even regarding age

Hey Tim! I’ve been reading a lot of sci-fi lately and made a connection I wanted to ask you about. Was your inspiration for power armor in Fallout based on powered armor in starship troopers? The descriptions of the powered armor in the starship troopers book are strikingly similar to a set of T-45 or T-60 power armor.