Fallout Creator Says Modern Games Are Going Through An Identity Crisis

Veteran RPG developer and Fallout co-creator Tim Cain argues that modern games have forgotten some lessons of history–a point he made in a recent YouTube video–you can watch the full video below–responding to a viewer’s question about whether older titles contain any supposed lost wisdom. Cain’s answer–“Yes, there is. Good question.” Looking back at his own early years in the industry, he describes an era with only programmers and some artists, but no narrative designers, and far fewer competing priorities. In contrast, he says today’s games “try to be everything to everyone.”

In about 13 minutes, Cain explains how he attributes the sharp focus of early games to the era’s severe technical limitations and fragmented hardware landscape. “Games were being made for PC, for Apple, for Atari, for Commodore, for a wild assortment of consoles,” he recalled, with no shared standards to ease development. Teams were small and multitasking was essential–programmers often acted as artists and sound designers, reverse-engineering undocumented hardware to make their games function.

“These games were really focused, because they had to be,” he explained.

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