Game Pacing

tim-cain game-design pacing open-world narrative-design level-design fallout rpg

Abstract

Problem: How do you create effective pacing in open-world, nonlinear games where the player controls where they go and what they do?

Approach: Tim Cain shares his philosophy of game pacing as "roller coasters vs. monorails," drawing on his experience designing Fallout, Arcanum, The Outer Worlds, and his time at Carbine Studios.

Findings: While designers must cede significant pacing control to players in open-world games, they can still create variety through multiple layered systems: the main storyline's act structure, instance/dungeon design, random encounters, dialogue depth options, and combat scaling. The key is providing a menu of experiences rather than forcing a fixed rhythm.

Key insight: Good game pacing is a roller coaster — highs and lows, acceleration and deceleration — not a monorail running at a constant intensity. Even a "game of all bosses" needs downtime between peaks.

1. Pacing as Highs and Lows

Tim defines game pacing as a set of highs and lows the player experiences throughout the game. He frames this primarily as combat versus non-combat ("downtime"), where downtime includes exploration, crafting, returning to town, using vendors, swapping companions, and managing inventory at a home base.

But even within combat itself, pacing exists. Fighting a wolf at low level is tense; fighting a pack of wolves at mid-level is challenging; fighting a dragon early on is impossible, later it's grueling, and eventually it becomes trivial. The intensity of combat encounters is itself a pacing tool.

2. Roller Coasters vs. Monorails

At Carbine Studios, Tim described his pacing philosophy to his boss as "monorails versus roller coasters." A roller coaster is exciting because of its variation — you go high, you plunge low, you accelerate and decelerate. A monorail can be high up too, but it's boring because it's unchanging. The height doesn't matter; the variation does.

Tim was strongly against the suggestion to make "a game of all bosses." People pointed to Shadow of the Colossus as a counterexample, but Tim notes that even Shadow of the Colossus has pacing — you ride your horse through pleasant countryside between each boss fight. It's not boss-boss-boss-boss. The quiet horseback rides are the downtime that makes the boss fights feel impactful.

Similarly, he praises Elden Ring for having pacing even though you're constantly in danger — the game differentiates between instanced areas and open world, named enemies and random ones, creating a rhythm of intensity.

3. Pacing in Open-World Games

Open-world (nonlinear) games make pacing far more difficult because you're not in control of where the player goes. However, designers still control several systems where pacing can be embedded:

3.1. The Main Storyline

Even in a nonlinear world, the main storyline is linear. The acts progress in order, even if the player has multiple paths to advance between them. Different acts can emphasize different activities — one act might advance primarily through NPC conversations, another through finding evidence or items, and another might culminate in a major battle. Tim cites Fallout: New Vegas — when you go to the dam, it's one big fight regardless of your build, but a good talker shows up with more allies and better equipment.

3.2. Instances and Dungeons

Inside individual locations, designers have full pacing control. A dungeon might open with an in-game cinematic (a ghost asking you to find something), followed by light combat, a readable lore item, a trap puzzle, and then a big fight at the end. This micro-pacing within instances works even inside a macro-level open world.

3.3. Random Encounters

In Fallout, Tim used random encounters as a pacing tool. Most overworld encounters are hostile creatures, creating tension. But some encounters pit two creatures against each other (requiring the player to choose sides), and the special luck-based encounters — where you find the Red Rider BB Gun or the Alien Blaster — aren't violent at all. This randomness creates a "gambling aspect" that is itself a form of pacing: the player never knows what's coming next.

3.4. Dialogue Design

Since as far back as Fallout, Tim's teams followed a rule: there should always be an early out in dialogue for players who just want to advance their quest and move on. Nobody should be forced into a 10-minute conversation about an NPC's laundry problems.

However, for players who want to deep-dive, dialogue should support that too. The "tell me about..." system in Fallout was designed to let players discover which NPCs had topics worth exploring. Tim notes this could have been explored further and might benefit from AI today.

4. The Player Controls the Pacing

In any game where the player drives the narrative, the player ultimately controls the pacing. If a player enters a dungeon, finds a bookcase full of books, and decides to read every single one before complaining that the dungeon's pacing was off — that's on them.

Tim frames his design philosophy as a restaurant menu: the game offers variety, but the player selects from it. If you hate cilantro but order the cilantro salsa, you probably shouldn't blame the restaurant. If you only want combat, you can fight-fight-fight. If you want to avoid combat, you can talk and stealth your way through. The pacing at that level is the player's choice.

5. Summary

Tim accepts that relinquishing pacing control is part and parcel of making open-world nonlinear games — and he wouldn't have it any other way. The designer's job is to provide variety at every level: in combat scaling, in dialogue depth, inside dungeons, across storyline acts, and through random encounters. Give the player a roller coaster's worth of ups and downs to choose from, not a monorail's flat line of constant intensity.

Source: Tim Cain — "Game Pacing"

6. References