Abstract
Problem: Game directors and lead designers often have ideas that never make it into the final product — what can we learn from those rejected concepts?
Approach: Tim Cain walks through his own rejected ideas across six major projects (Fallout, Arcanum, Temple of Elemental Evil, WildStar, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Pillars of Eternity, and The Outer Worlds), explaining what he proposed, why it was cut, and what replaced it.
Findings: Ideas get rejected for three main reasons: someone else has a better idea, there isn't enough time to implement it, or the scope is too ambitious. Even game directors regularly have their ideas overruled or cut.
Key insight: No matter how high you are in the hierarchy, you won't get all your ideas into a game — and that's a good thing. Better ideas often come from unexpected team members.
Fallout
ASLIPS vs SPECIAL
When Chris Taylor designed the new attribute system to replace GURPS, Tim suggested adding Luck. At the next team meeting, he realized the attributes now spelled out "ASLIPS." Jason Swin pointed out it also spelled "SPECIAL" — a clearly better acronym. Tim conceded immediately, and SPECIAL became one of Fallout's most iconic systems.
The Party Ending
Tim pushed for Fallout to end with a celebration — the player returns to Vault 13 after saving everyone, and there's cake and balloons. This was rejected in favor of Leonard Boyarsky's idea where the Overseer kicks you out. Tim admits in hindsight that the rejection ending was the better choice.
Arcanum
Scaling Skill Point Costs
The original design had skills costing more points at higher levels. Players disliked having leftover points they couldn't spend, even though they could roll over to the next level. This was replaced with the one-point-per-advancement system.
Expanded Tech Skills
Tim designed a full range of additional Tech skills beyond the four that shipped — combined mechanical, advanced tech repair, create bullets, create dynamite, create batteries, create fuel, and more. All were tied into the orthogonal skill advancement system (beginner, expert, master). These were cut in favor of Jason Anderson's Tech schematics system, which Tim acknowledges was the better idea.
Temple of Elemental Evil
Filler Locations on the World Map
The northwest corner of the world map was empty, so Tim created filler locations — some for lower-level content, some for higher-level — that had nothing to do with the temple. These were cut early when the team realized they had no time to populate, balance, and bug-fix them. The game has since been criticized for lacking things to do outside the temple, and these cut locations would have addressed that. The vignettes were also supposed to be more detailed but time ran out.
WildStar
The In-Game Newspaper
Tim championed an in-game newspaper for WildStar that would aggregate news from your server and across all servers — guild achievements, auction house activity via classifieds, local events. It was meant to advance the social aspects that set MMORPGs apart. It never got implemented.
The Sex and Violence Internal Video
While making an internal team video for WildStar, Tim set it to the Scissor Sisters song "Sex and Violence," showing players doing typical MMO activities (killing monsters, looting). It was never used.
South Park: The Stick of Truth
Unreset Combat Positioning
Tim designed an alternative combat system where characters did not return to their starting position after their turn. You'd run to an enemy, attack, and stay there — meaning opponents could then flank you. It made combat more frenetic and tactical, forcing players to think about where they'd end up. The team went with a different system, though Tim still wonders what it would have been like.
Pillars of Eternity
Ghostly Trap and Secret Door Visualizations
Since the Watcher can see and communicate with the dead, Tim proposed visualizing trap detection and secret door discovery through ghostly apparitions. Instead of just seeing a trap outline, a translucent ghost figure would walk into the trap and trigger it, showing what would happen. Secret doors would show a ghost pulling a lever to reveal the passage. It was all achievable with shaders, no new animations needed — but every trap and secret door would need individual visual verification. It was cut as too much work.
The Outer Worlds
Companion Skill Visualization
When a companion boosted your skill enough to succeed at a check you'd otherwise fail, Tim wanted to visualize the companion's contribution. In dialogue, your companion would lean in and whisper advice before you delivered a persuasion line. During lockpicking, you'd hear them say something like "don't forget those tumblers are a little tricky." It served as a reminder that you were succeeding because of your companion. Cut due to the scope — especially the additional dialogue cinematics required.
The Pumped Up Kicks Trailer
Tim originally set an internal team video to "Pumped Up Kicks." But an assistant producer made her own version in a single evening, and it was so good Tim scrapped his. When he asked how she did it, she revealed she had a film studies degree. Tim put her in charge of all future trailers. He occasionally wonders what the Pumped Up Kicks version would have been like.
The Lesson
Tim's overarching point is threefold:
- Your ideas will get rejected — no matter how senior you are, not everything makes it in. Even game directors get overruled.
- Other people often have better ideas — the best concepts frequently come from unexpected team members (Jason Swin with SPECIAL, Leonard Boyarsky with the exile ending, Jason Anderson with schematics, the assistant producer with the trailer).
- Not everything in a game is what the director wanted — some ideas are in because of time constraints, some are missing despite being good, and many came from other team members. Games are collaborative products.
References
- Tim Cain. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZJ-1AS4UKA