The Outer Worlds - Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky Interview @ PC Gamer

The creators of The Outer Worlds on learning to make better RPGs

Our full interview with Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky about Fallout, making mistakes, and Obsidian's RPG heritage.

I recently visited Obsidian Entertainment to see the studio's new RPG The Outer Worlds, which I called a blend of Firefly and Fallout. It may look like the space cowboy version of Bethesda's recent Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, but its roots run deeper than that: lead developers Leonard Boyarsky and Tim Cain created Fallout together in the 90s, along with other famous PC RPGs like Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.

You can read a lot more about The Outer Worlds in my feature, but I also talked to Tim and Leonard about their careers making RPGs, and how that experience and working at Obsidian is affecting this new game. Here's what they had to say.

Wes Fenlon, PC Gamer: Tim, did you sort of have an inkling of what this game was going to be before Leonard came over to Obsidian from Blizzard, or did you form the idea together?

Tim Cain: I had no idea what it was going to look like. We had not picked any art style. We knew it was going to be sci-fi.

Leonard Boyarsky: Obsidian asked Tim to make a new IP and Tim reached out to me, because we complement each other really well in terms of what we're good at and what we're not good at, and just kind of went from there. We knew going in that we wanted it to be a space opera-y kind of thing. We hadn't really done that before. We'd done post-apocalyptic, we did Vampire, and Arcanum, steampunk fantasy.

Even before we had the art style, I definitely knew that it was going to be another one of these kinds of alternate history, weird things that most other people wouldn't try to tackle. I think it's more prevalent now, but back when we did Fallout, people didn't quite get the 1950s post-apocalyptic thing right out of the gate. They weren't quite sure what to what we were talking about.

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The reveal of Obsidian Entertainment's The Outer Worlds was a highlight of the The Game Awards 2018. The studio has built up a solid reputation over the years for crafting creative and engrossing narrative-heavy RPGs, and if nothing else, The Outer Worlds shows many signs of being directly inspired by recent entries in the Fallout series, one of which--New Vegas--was developed by Obsidian less than a decade ago. The Outer Worlds is also the brainchild of Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, two creatives with a storied history in PC gaming. Their most notable chapter by far? When they and a small band of collaborators created the original Fallout in the mid '90s. But after following up with Fallout 2, they've had to watch while Bethesda took the series in its own direction--despite being at Obsidian now, neither Cain nor Boyarsky were working there at the time of New Vegas' development.

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The Outer Worlds represents a chance for Obsidian to step into uncharted territory. And yet, a few ideas might feel familiar, coming from the creators of the original Fallout and also from the studio that put together Fallout: New Vegas. But narratively, what is Obsidian aiming for with this new outer space adventure?

To learn more about what's on the horizon, Shacknews recently sat down with Senior Narrative Designer Megan Starks. Starks brings along her experience from Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, along with a resume that includes Tyranny, WildStar, and Fallen Earth. Among the topics discussed include the Outer Worlds story, character development, "Dumb" dialogue, and branding run amok.

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joxer said:

It's not. This game was a deal with whomever owns Rockstar. Microsoft wants BIS.

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TomRon said:

I'm jet lagged so my head might not be working quite right. What's BIS?

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henriquejr said:

Re-reading the whole interview, I just noticed a answer from Tim Cain, when PCGamer made them a question about mod support:

Tim: One of our level designers wrote one of the most popular mods for Skyrim, so obviously it's in our DNA.

Who would be that person and what mod Tim refers to?

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• Scott Everts - Technical Designer
• Constant Gaw - Senior Designer
• David Williams - Senior Systems Designer
• Dini McMurry - Senior Level Designer
• Marc Soskin - Level Designer ( Hired in March'18. Did not work on Deadfire or the DLCs, so Outer Worlds?)
• Charles Staples - Lead Designer
• Tyson Christensen - Senior Designer / Lead Level Designer
• Dan McPhee - Junior Narrative Designer
• Chris L'Etoile - Narrative Designer
• Carter Thomas - Level Designer
• Scott Hafner - Level Designer
• Anthony Rogers - Cinematics Designer
• Carrie Patel - Narrative Designer
• Megan Starks - Senior Narrative Designer / Lead Narrative Designer (according rpgsite interview)
• Kate Dollaryde - Narrative Designer (According to her Twitter account)

Couchpotato said:

Don't know but here is the list to browse for names.

Link - https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/107063-so-who-is-working-on-this-game/

• Scott Everts - Technical Designer
• Constant Gaw - Senior Designer
• David Williams - Senior Systems Designer
• Dini McMurry - Senior Level Designer
• Marc Soskin - Level Designer ( Hired in March'18. Did not work on Deadfire or the DLCs, so Outer Worlds?)
• Charles Staples - Lead Designer
• Tyson Christensen - Senior Designer / Lead Level Designer
• Dan McPhee - Junior Narrative Designer
• Chris L'Etoile - Narrative Designer
• Carter Thomas - Level Designer
• Scott Hafner - Level Designer
• Anthony Rogers - Cinematics Designer
• Carrie Patel - Narrative Designer
• Megan Starks - Senior Narrative Designer / Lead Narrative Designer (according rpgsite interview)
• Kate Dollaryde - Narrative Designer (According to her Twitter account)

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henriquejr said:

Re-reading the whole interview, I just noticed an answer from Tim Cain, when PCGamer made them a question about mod support:

Tim: One of our level designers wrote one of the most popular mods for Skyrim, so obviously it's in our DNA.

Who would be that person and what mod Tim refers to?

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BoboTheMighty said:

It's this mod, Moon and Star:

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/52397/

Wouldn't say it's the best, but a pretty short/good adventure.

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BoboTheMighty said:

Wait, L'Etoile is working at Obsidian/on this? Since when?

Put him in charge and get rid of these amateur twitter writers.

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BoboTheMighty said:

Wait, L'Etoile is working at Obsidian/on this? Since when?

Put him in charge and get rid of these amateur twitter writers.

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TomRon said:

I'm jet lagged so my head might not be working quite right. What's BIS?

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BoboTheMighty said:

Wait, L'Etoile is working at Obsidian/on this? Since when?

Put him in charge and get rid of these amateur twitter writers.

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you said:

Who is L'Etolle ?

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you said:

Who is L'Etolle ?

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