Timothy Cain — The Game of Success
Imagine the world after the post-apocalyptic war. Zombies everywhere! Chewing the brains out of the remaining humans. All hope is lost. Then enters a brave group of people who pick up guns to fight for their right. A war of humans and zombies… a war to the end! Sounds like a movie plot? Well, think again! This is actually the basic plot line of one of the best video games of the decade — Fallout!
Wait, wait! Before you run to your gaming systems to revive the magic of this game, don’t you want to know who the master mind who made this earth shattering gaming experience possible? Timothy Cain — the man behind the success of Fallout!
Early Life
Born in the beautiful city of Virginia, Tim had an average childhood. He got good grades and his family loved him a lot. All in all, Tim was a very normal child. But what made Tim stand out was his love for games and the fact that he was colour blind. Yes, this critically acclaimed game maker is actually colour blind! Although, he never used this as an excuse to get away. He, on the contrary fought to succeed.
At the mere age of 16, Tim already had his first job. A gaming company named Pegasus Software (later Cybron) saw potential in our little gamer and gave him a chance to work for them. The games he worked at Cybron included the famous Grand Slam Bridge which was published by EA. However, Tim was never credited.
Later he moved to California to graduate in Computer Science from the California University in Irvine.
Tim hoped to attain a Ph.D. in computer science and become a professor. Although he soon realised that the whole ‘academia’ ordeal wasn’t for him. He missed his programming world. So he entered the gaming industry once again.
Interplay
Fondly called employee number 42, Tim spent nearly six years at Interplay. Initially he free lanced with them for designing Bard’s Tale Construction Set. However his work was loved and he was soon hired by Interplay. . His early work included Stonekeep, M.A.X: Mechanised Assault and Exploration, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Atomic Bomberman. All was good but the year 1997 in particular was great for Tim. He along with Leonardo Boyarsky and Jason Anderson, created history in the gaming industry with the launch of the cult classic RPG Fallout. Published way back in 1997, this game still has a strong hold to this day. Tim is often cited as the mastermind behind the game.
Soon after Fallout, Tim along with Leonardo and Jason left Interplay to start their own company — Troika Games.
Troika Games
Troika’s first release, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, was a mild success both critically and commercially when it was released in 2001 with critics citing the large number of bugs and glitches as a major downfall of the title.
Their next effort was Temple of Elemental Evil (2003), a title which moved away from their traditional RPG roots in favour of a strong dungeon crawler experience. Much like Arcanum before it, ToEE failed to garner large success.
In 2004, Troika released arguably their greatest game; Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Utilising Valve’s Source engine, Bloodlines was set in White Wolf’s universe. While it was met with a positive reception from critics and gamers alike, Bloodlines performed poorly from a sales perspective. A few months later Troika ran into financial trouble and was forced to close.
Even though his company shut down, Tim didn’t lose hope and his love for games didn’t falter.
Current Standing
Tim joined Obsidian Entertainment as senior programmer. He worked on Pillars of Eternity, which was funded through Kickstarter.
Tim left Carbine Studios in 2011 and is currently working full-time at Obsidian Entertainment.
In his spare time, Tim has lectured at the University of California at Irvine, the same University he graduated from, on the game development process and written a chapter in a textbook on programming artificial intelligence in games.
Timothy saw a lot of ups and downs in life. There were many changes and many hardships that he had to overcome. But his love for game design and development helped him calve his way to success.
“Instead of talking about making games or trying to convince people to play (or publish) my games, I am doing what makes me very happy — making games.” — Timothy Cain
