'You're Going To Lose Some of Your Audience' Fallout…

Summary

Longer RPGs allow for deep storytelling & player engagement, but may lose audience due to length constraints.
Shorter RPGs appeal to gamers with time constraints, prevent player drop-off, and are more accessible.
Tim Cain, creator of Fallout, discusses pros & cons of game length, emphasizing the importance of balancing story depth and accessibility.

Fallout creator Tim Cain has given his reasoning why he believes that sometimes, bigger RPGs aren't necessarily always better. Best known as the creator of Fallout, it stands to reason that Cain knows a thing or two about RPGs.

For over two years now, Tim Cain's YouTube channel has been the home of insightful musings on various topics regarding game development. As an industry veteran of over 30 years, Cain's body of work includes the original two Fallout games, Pillars of Eternity, and The Outer Worlds. He often speaks of his previous work, even recently explaining all the challenges that a potential Fallout remaster would face. It's cool to have someone so experienced give their thoughts on the industry on such a regular basis.

As reported by TheGamer, on his YouTube channel, Cain shared his belief that longer RPGs allow developers to tell a "very, very deep story," using his two games, Fallout and Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, as examples. In the original Fallout game, players can experience different things in the story, but the longer length of something like Arcanum allows for more variety in the long run. A longer RPG also allows for more player engagement, more online discussion, and just generally more interest in the long run.

Tim Cain Gives His Take on Shorter vs. Longer RPGs

However, Cain also spoke massively in favor of shorter RPGs, pointing out that if a game is too long, "you're going to lose some of your audience... There are people who won't play really long games, they don't have that time, 'I'm not a teenager anymore; I have kids; there are too many games I want to play, I can't devote 100 hours to one'." He also mentions that many gamers will "never finish" an RPG that is too long, while don't even get to that point, saying, "A lot of people, they read a review, they go 'Oh, this game is 120 hours long' and they don't even start." Cain raises good points on both sides of the aisle, even if he's not definitively arguing for one over the other.

Tim Cain has worked on plenty of acclaimed titles over the years. It is confirmed that he worked as a creative consultant on The Outer Worlds 2, which is set to be released later this year. After directing the first game in the series, it's good to see him remain involved in the process, even if it's not as big a role as before.

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