Game Lessons From Collecting Fragrances

1. Expensive Doesn't Mean Good

Tim's first and most emphatic lesson: spending more money does not guarantee a better experience. A AAA game may not be as enjoyable as a cheap indie title, and a $200 fragrance can smell terrible on you while a $7 one from Target becomes your daily wear.

The reasons are entirely subjective. With fragrances, you might dislike the base scent, how it evolves over time (top notes vs. mid notes vs. bass notes), how long it lasts, its projection (how far the scent throws), or its sillage (the scent trail you leave behind). All of these have game design parallels — a game might have a great opening but fall apart in the mid-game, or have incredible depth that nobody ever discovers.

1.1. Body Chemistry Changes Everything

A critical factor Tim highlights is body chemistry. The same fragrance smells completely different on different people. He tells a memorable story about Bulgari — a prestigious, expensive brand whose every scent turns to "hot sewer garbage" on him within a minute or two. He once let a Macy's counter attendant spray it on his wrist to prove the point, and within 90 seconds she was directing him to the men's room to wash it off.

The game design parallel: your game will land differently depending on who's playing it. Player context, preferences, and background are the "body chemistry" of gaming.

2. Cheap and Indie Can Be Amazing

Tim rattles off beloved inexpensive fragrances to prove the point:

• Rustic Woods by Good Chemistry — $7 from Target, smelled great, used it for years
• 4711 — a German citrus brand with bottles around $20, huge range including remixes and two-note combinations. A perfect entry point for fragrance beginners
• Outremer Ocean — a cheap marine scent that consistently gets him compliments from strangers at grocery stores and the dentist
• Demeter — ultra-cheap "solo floor" fragrances that each smell like one specific thing: fresh-mowed grass, wet dirt, rain, watermelon, or virtually any flower or food imaginable

The lesson for games: don't dismiss something because of its price tag or production values. Some of the most memorable experiences come from small, focused, inexpensive products.

3. Spending More Generally Gets You More

Despite championing cheap options, Tim acknowledges that in general, spending more tends to get you better longevity, projection, sillage, or more unusual/refined scents. Certain high-quality notes like sandalwood are expensive to source and rarely done well at lower price points.

Similarly, AAA games generally deliver more polish, content, and production value — it's just not guaranteed, and the correlation isn't as strong as the price difference would suggest.

4. The Power of Niche

Some of Tim's favorite fragrances are deeply niche products with limited appeal:

• Zyien Dark Water — made by drag queens, described as "chlorine and moss," smells exactly like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Its sillage was so powerful that during development of The Outer Worlds, lead designer Charlie Staples could smell Tim from the opposite side of the office building the moment he opened the door
• Escentric Molecules (Molecule 01 or 02) — primarily Iso E Super, a molecule that half the population literally cannot smell, and the half who can disagree on what it smells like
• A bubblegum fragrance (James Heeley or Frédéric Malle) — smelled exactly like Bazooka Joe bubblegum, later renamed to "Jasmine Chic" because that sold better
• Zoologist — an entire brand of animal-themed niche scents, including Cow (lactic/milky) and Seahorse (marine)

The game design takeaway: niche products can be extraordinary. Not everything needs mass appeal to be great.

5. Samplers Are Like Game Demos

Tim strongly recommends discovery sets (samplers) — small collections of mini-bottles that let you try a range of fragrances before committing. They come in brand-specific sets or curated theme collections (summer, holiday, etc.).

He connects this directly to game demos on Steam: try before you buy, because everything is subjective. Some companies even give you a coupon equal to the sampler price when you buy a full bottle — the fragrance equivalent of a demo discount.

His most expensive sampler was a Frédéric Malle set of about 15 fragrances for a couple hundred dollars, but it let him precisely identify which ones he loved.

6. Brands You Can Trust (and Can't)

Through experience, Tim has found brands where he likes virtually everything in their lineup:

• Diptyque — French brand, phenomenal across the board
• Acqua di Parma — extensive citrus range, all excellent
• Jo Malone — huge lineup, everything smells fantastic

And brands that don't work for him despite their quality and reputation (Bulgari, Penhaligon's). Others are mixed — Tom Ford, Le Labo, Frédéric Malle all had some hits and misses.

The game parallel is obvious: we all have studios whose games we'll buy sight unseen, and studios whose style simply doesn't click with us regardless of quality.

7. Know Your Preferences

After decades of collecting, Tim has mapped his taste profile:

• Loves: Citrus, green (grass/stems/leaves), woody (sandalwood, cedar, pine), marine/ocean
• Mixed: Floral (generally no, but Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb is "the bomb"), vanilla, watermelon
• Dislikes: Gourmand (food-like scents — "I want to eat a brownie, not smell like one"), animalic/civet, pure musk, spicy, resinous

Knowing your preferences helps you navigate efficiently, just as knowing what game genres and mechanics you enjoy saves time and money.

8. Find a Reviewer Who Matches Your Taste

Tim uses the same strategy for fragrances that he uses for games: find a reviewer whose past opinions align with yours. Check if they liked what you liked and disliked what you disliked. Once you find that match, look at what they recommend that you haven't tried yet. This gives you a curated shortlist for your next store visit or sampler order.

9. Everything Is Subjective

The overarching theme Tim returns to repeatedly: both fragrances and games are deeply, irreducibly subjective. Just because you think something is great doesn't mean someone else will, and it doesn't even mean it will work the same way in a different context. The best you can do is try things, learn your own preferences, find trusted guides, and stay open to surprises from unexpected places.

10. References

• Tim Cain. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIYa7NjTMxY