Abstract
Problem: Should RPGs end definitively when the main quest concludes, or let players keep playing? And how should New Game Plus be designed?
Approach: Tim Cain draws on his experience shipping games like Fallout and The Outer Worlds to explain why he favors definitive endings, then outlines the production and design costs of the alternative. He follows with theoretical approaches to New Game Plus.
Findings: Definitive endings enable powerful long-term reactivity through end slides and strongly encourage replayability. Letting players continue post-ending is viable but must be planned from pre-production — it affects dialogue, level design, and system mechanics. New Game Plus offers many design levers (partial resets, world randomization, unlockable content) but is highly dependent on existing game systems.
Key insight: If you want players to keep playing after the main quest, you must design for it from day one — retrofitting it is a production disaster that creates unreactive worlds and broken power curves.
Why Tim Favors Definitive Endings
Tim's games almost universally end when the main quest concludes, returning the player to the menu. He sees this as a feature, not a limitation, for two reasons:
Long-Term Reactivity via End Slides
In-game reactivity handles immediate consequences — a shopkeeper refusing to sell to you, a companion leaving. But end slides let designers show consequences that play out over decades: a town becoming a political force, a village collapsing, a demon wreaking havoc until another adventuring party stops it. The message to the player is: "I saw what you did. Some consequences are long-term. Own them."
Encouraging Replayability
A definitive ending naturally pushes players to start fresh. After seeing both immediate and long-term consequences, players think: "Next time I'll play a different class, take different skills, join a different faction, kill that group instead." Games with deep reactivity become "fun game toys" that reward multiple playthroughs.
The Case for Continuing After the Main Quest
Tim acknowledges the appeal of letting players keep going, but issues two major caveats for developers considering it:
Caveat 1: It Costs Real Money
Post-ending content requires new dialogue, updated level design, and additional QA. The world needs to react to the main quest's resolution — NPCs can't just say "welcome back, want to buy a vase?" after you've defeated the big bad. Whoever is funding the game (publisher, Kickstarter backers) needs to agree to this scope.
Caveat 2: Plan From Pre-Production
This cannot be bolted on late. Following Tim's design order (setting → story → system → mechanics), deciding that the story ends but gameplay continues affects everything downstream. Specific concerns include:
- Dialogue: Towns, NPCs, and factions need post-ending reactions
- Level design: Locations may change — curses lifted, tombs flung open, areas transformed
- System mechanics: Without a level cap, players become "walking gods" with every attribute, skill, and perk maxed out
Designing for Uncapped Progression
If you remove the level cap, you need diminishing returns. Tim's example: an archery skill that increases hit chance by 1% per point up to 100, then requires 5 points per 1%, then 10, then 20, then 50, then 100. The skill can theoretically reach 1,000 but follows an asymptotic curve approaching a practical ceiling (e.g., 200% effectiveness).
Additional design tools for uncapped systems:
- Maintain a minimum miss chance (1-in-20 or 1-in-50) regardless of skill level
- Convert excess hit chance into increased critical hit frequency
- Keep critical hit effects (extra damage, knockdown) unchanged — just trigger them more often
The key: these systems must be mathematically modeled during pre-production, not improvised.
New Game Plus: Theoretical Approaches
Tim has never shipped a New Game Plus system, so he frames this as theoretical. The core design question is what resets and what doesn't — and there are many levers:
What the Player Keeps
Options range from keeping everything (restart at level 20 with full gear) to keeping only a portion of XP (rebuild your character with a head start) to keeping only achievements. Each creates a fundamentally different experience.
What the World Does
The world doesn't have to reset identically:
- Randomized placement: Those 20 gems you found are now in different locations
- Varied antagonists: The villain has different skills or attributes
- Structural changes: Slightly different challenges even though the story framework remains
Locking Content Behind New Game Plus
Tim is "of two minds" on gating classes, races, or features behind NG+. He doesn't love restricting player choice at the outset, but he sees it working as a hook — especially for content the designer considers non-canonical or experimental.
The Fallout Example: NG+ as a Canonicity Gate
Tim's most concrete idea: use New Game Plus to separate canonical content from fun-but-non-canonical additions. He cites the wild encounters in Fallout (aliens, Time Lords, Godzilla) that players later assumed were canon. If those had been locked behind NG+, the message would be clear: "Play the game as intended first, then unlock the crazy stuff."
This is analogous to Fallout: New Vegas's Wild Wasteland perk — but enforced by requiring one complete playthrough first. Tim describes it as "a mod the designer included in the game — your game comes pre-modded, but please play it without the mod first."
Production Takeaways
- Definitive endings are cheaper to produce and enable unique narrative tools (end slides) that open-ended games cannot replicate
- Post-ending play is a legitimate design choice but requires full commitment from pre-production onward — it touches every system
- Uncapped progression needs mathematical modeling with diminishing returns, not just "remove the level cap"
- New Game Plus is highly system-dependent; there is no one-size-fits-all approach
- Content gating via NG+ can serve as a designer's canonicity signal, separating the intended experience from experimental extras
References
- Tim Cain. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmYBsCOp-OY