Companions

1. Controllability Depends on Perspective

In isometric games, Cain leans toward full party control. After experimenting with AI-driven companions in Fallout and Arcanum, he adopted player control in Temple of Elemental Evil and found it superior — dying because an AI companion made a bad decision feels terrible.

In first-person games, he prefers companions to be autonomous. Designing a control scheme that feels good in first person is extremely difficult, especially in real-time combat. Pausing to issue orders breaks flow and adds unwanted complexity.

2. The Main Character Must Be Special

Even with full party control, Cain believes one character should clearly be you — the one you created, the one who talks to NPCs, and the one whose death means game over. This lets you swap companions freely while keeping a fixed narrative anchor.

In Temple of Elemental Evil, all four player-created characters shared protagonist status (any one alive = game continues), but Cain generally prefers a single defined player character who drives the main story.

3. Party Size: Two to Four, Pick from Three to Six

Cain's preferred formula:

• Active party slots: 2–4 companions
• Available companion pool: 3–6 total

This forces meaningful choices (you can't bring everyone) while keeping combat manageable. Larger parties push the game toward turn-based — real-time with 8–15 characters becomes uncontrollable. The Outer Worlds settled on two companions specifically because balancing for both solo play and a five-person party would have been prohibitively difficult.

4. Each Companion = One Gameplay Archetype

Every companion should represent a clear mechanical role: melee tank, ranged DPS, healer, crowd control, face/charisma. When a player meets a companion, they should immediately understand how that character fills a gap in their party composition.

5. Companion Quests Should Explore the World, Not the Main Plot

Cain's strongest narrative opinion on companions: their personal quest lines should be side quests that reveal the world, not extensions of the main story.

Bad: "You're killing the bad guy? I also want to kill the bad guy!"

Good: "I'm trying to recover a lost crown for my people. Help me, and I'll help you."

The second approach teaches the player about factions, cultures, and conflicts organically. Companions also deliver lore effectively through party banter, environmental barks, and dialogue interjections — all lighter-touch than books or exposition dumps.

5.1. Narrative Must Align with Gameplay Role

There is a constant tension between a companion's narrative identity and their gameplay function. The narrative team and the systems team must collaborate: if someone is your melee tank, don't give them a backstory about being raised by pacifist monks who fear monsters. The two roles need to reinforce each other.

6. Romance: Mostly Skip It

Cain has never been enthusiastic about companion romance. His objections:

• It often feels like a tacked-on subplot disconnected from the companion's actual quest
• To work with any player character, every companion ends up being attracted to the player regardless of race, species, or personality — making the world feel implausibly horny
• It dilutes the companion's identity when their arc pivots from "recovering my people's lost artifact" to "also I find you attractive"

His preference: either remove romance entirely, or limit it to one or two companions while the rest clearly aren't interested.

7. Solo Play Must Be Viable

Cain applies the same rule to companions as to side quests: the main story must be completable without them. No companion should carry a required skill or item. No companion should be force-joined into the party. You should even be able to kill potential companions on sight.

Players who skip companions shouldn't feel like they're getting a lesser experience. And every build should encounter at least some companions who complement their playstyle — but wanting them and needing them are different things.

7.1. The Balancing Cost

Optional companions create a serious balance challenge. If one player goes solo and another runs a full party of five, the difficulty curve has to accommodate both. The more companion slots available, the harder this becomes — which is another reason The Outer Worlds capped the active party at two.

8. Recap

9. References

• Tim Cain. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qX1pJLDMEI