Abstract
Problem: What does a 34-year career in game development look like through personal photos?
Approach: Tim Cain walks through one photo of himself from the development period of each game he worked on, from his first title in 1986 to The Outer Worlds in 2019, sharing personal context and stories along the way.
Findings: The video traces Tim's journey from a 20-year-old college student making games to pay tuition, through leaving grad school to go full-time, co-founding Troika Games, and eventually working at Obsidian — covering roughly a dozen shipped titles across 34 years.
Key insight: Behind every shipped game is a person at a specific moment in their life — and tracking those moments reveals how intertwined personal milestones and professional ones become over a long career.
1. Context
This is a personal, lighthearted video where Tim shows one photo of himself from the development period of each game he shipped. It complements his earlier videos "Scenes of a Life in Game Development" (photos from studios) and "Data About My Games" (statistics), adding a more personal dimension.
2. The Games and the Snapshots
2.1. Grand Slam Bridge (1986, Cybron) — Age 20
Tim's very first shipped game. At this point he'd already been in the game industry for four years, and game development was paying for his college at the University of Virginia's engineering school. The photo shows him at his grandparents' house holding one of his nieces. He was about to graduate the following year.
2.2. Bard's Tale Construction Set (1991) — Age 25
The photo was taken when Tim flew home to surprise his mom for a birthday party — and also to break the news that he was leaving graduate school to make games full-time. A pivotal career moment disguised as a family visit.
2.3. Rags to Riches (1993) — Age ~27
Tim notes it was hard to find photos from the early 90s — after he left school but before digital photography. The photo is a group shot of all the programmers at Interplay.
2.4. Fallout (1997) — Age ~30–31
A still from a video interview, possibly with German press. Tim jokes that he was "coming out of his larval form" at this stage.
2.5. Arcanum (2001) — Age ~35
By now Tim had co-founded Troika Games. The photo was taken against a white wall so that Leonard Boyarsky could use reference photos to sketch the team as Arcanum characters. Leonard ended up using a different photo, but this one survived in Tim's Arcanum folder with its date tag intact (though the EXIF data didn't survive many copies).
2.6. Temple of Elemental Evil (2003) — Age 37
Taken in April 2003 at Troika's 5th anniversary celebration (they incorporated in April 1998). The game shipped a few months later.
2.7. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines (2004) — Age ~38–39
Tim had trouble finding a photo from this period. He eventually found one of himself at a barbecue at Lake Elsinore.
2.8. South Park: The Stick of Truth / WildStar (2014) — Age 48
Both shipped in 2014. Tim has no idea where the photo was taken or why — he seems to be standing in his house, possibly after a haircut.
2.9. Pillars of Eternity (2015) — Age 50
Tim celebrated his 50th birthday by visiting a chocolate factory with his husband and friends. They toured the entire production — from beans arriving, through conching, to chocolate being poured into molds. He bought chocolate. "Really cool birthday."
2.10. Tyranny (2016) — Age 51
A photo from a year later, apparently taken while cleaning up a guest room. Brief and undramatic.
2.11. The Outer Worlds (2019) — Age ~53–54
Taken at a conference during development. Tim is seen "looking quizzically at a giant poster trying to define what a game was."
3. The Arc
From age 20 to 54, the snapshots trace a quiet arc: a college kid making games for tuition money, a grad student choosing games over academia, a programmer at Interplay, a studio co-founder, and eventually a veteran at Obsidian. The photos themselves are mundane — family gatherings, office shots, barbecues — which is kind of the point. A career in games, seen from the outside, looks a lot like any other life.
4. References
- Tim Cain. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wUODD82kmI