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.
The first major lesson he believes modern developers should reclaim is the importance of efficiency. With the tiny memory budgets and slow processors of the 1980s, Cain says, "you write efficient code or your game doesn't work on the Atari console." Designers were equally constrained: They couldn't stack crafting systems, puzzles, companion mechanics, and sprawling narratives on top of each other. Instead, they had to choose a single segment of gameplay and perfect it.
"The idea that you could have a core game loop that was a huge variety of actions just did not exist," Cain added, noting that a game like Gauntlet had to nail its narrow focus on dungeon-clearing because that was the entire experience.
Cain warns that today's games risk "becoming indulgent" by adding features that "dilute the game" rather than improve it. To illustrate, he compares 1980s game design to a high-end restaurant where a chef prepares a superb dish from a few exceptional ingredients, while modern blockbuster games resemble buffets that prioritize variety over quality. His advice for developers--especially those in small indie teams--is straightforward: simplify.
"You need to be simple. You need to stay focused, and whatever you do has to be extremely well executed. And then you'll be like that fancy restaurant ... that meal was delicious."
People in the comments, though, were mixed on this observation. Games like Fallout 4 were brought up, and how that has crafting, companion quests, community building, and is a fan-favorite out of the series. Conversely, one commenter in their early 20s went back to play the original Diablo and found it kept them engaged, with practically none of the "modern tactics" that they were used to.
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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.
The first major lesson he believes modern developers should reclaim is the importance of efficiency. With the tiny memory budgets and slow processors of the 1980s, Cain says, "you write efficient code or your game doesn't work on the Atari console." Designers were equally constrained: They couldn't stack crafting systems, puzzles, companion mechanics, and sprawling narratives on top of each other. Instead, they had to choose a single segment of gameplay and perfect it.
"The idea that you could have a core game loop that was a huge variety of actions just did not exist," Cain added, noting that a game like Gauntlet had to nail its narrow focus on dungeon-clearing because that was the entire experience.
Cain warns that today's games risk "becoming indulgent" by adding features that "dilute the game" rather than improve it. To illustrate, he compares 1980s game design to a high-end restaurant where a chef prepares a superb dish from a few exceptional ingredients, while modern blockbuster games resemble buffets that prioritize variety over quality. His advice for developers--especially those in small indie teams--is straightforward: simplify.
"You need to be simple. You need to stay focused, and whatever you do has to be extremely well executed. And then you'll be like that fancy restaurant ... that meal was delicious."
People in the comments, though, were mixed on this observation. Games like Fallout 4 were brought up, and how that has crafting, companion quests, community building, and is a fan-favorite out of the series. Conversely, one commenter in their early 20s went back to play the original Diablo and found it kept them engaged, with practically none of the "modern tactics" that they were used to.
Source