Troika's Conan The Barbarian Proposal

tim-cain troika-games conan game-proposal action-rpg source-engine post-bloodlines

Abstract

Problem: After Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines was winding down in 2004, Troika Games needed to secure a new project to keep the studio alive.

Approach: Tim Cain, drawing on decades of personal love for Robert E. Howard's Conan stories — including extensive worldbuilding notes from his high school D&D campaign set in the Hyborian Age — wrote a proposal for "Conan the Barbarian: An Action RPG" and included it in a batch of pitches sent to publishers.

Findings: The proposal envisioned a Source Engine-powered third-person action RPG with stealth mechanics, synchronized combat animations, and a progression system where Conan starts strong and grows stronger — inverting the typical RPG power curve. The proposal never went anywhere, and Tim has no record of which publisher it was sent to.

Key insight: Troika was firing in every direction post-Bloodlines — Baldur's Gate 3, Might and Magic 10, Lord of the Rings, Temple of Elemental Evil 2, a secret Fallout design, and this Conan pitch — revealing both the studio's creative ambition and its desperate search for a lifeline.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsZC8A_XB_k

Personal Connection to Conan

Tim's love for Conan goes back to his teenage years. He owned all the Ace paperback editions of Robert E. Howard's Conan short stories and the sole Conan novel, The Hour of the Dragon. He based his entire high school D&D campaign on the Hyborian Age, partly because it was one of the few fantasy settings with a map that his friends hadn't already read. Lord of the Rings and Thomas Covenant (The White Gold Wielder) were too well-known among his group.

This campaign produced extensive personal notes on countries, languages, cultures, and magic systems — notes he'd been building since age 14. These became the foundation for the 2004 proposal.

The Proposal

Written in June 2004, the document was titled "Conan the Barbarian: An Action RPG by Troika Games." It opened with a gameplay example — Chapter 12: "In the Hall of the Dead" — designed to showcase the game's design philosophy.

The Gameplay Example

The scenario places the player (as Conan) outside a Stygian pyramid temple of Set, searching for the Heart of Ahriman, a magical jewel and the only means of raising a fallen comrade. The example demonstrates multiple player choices at every decision point:

  • Approaching the temple: Kill the guards, find alternate entrances, or sneak past in disguise
  • Inside the hall: Two factions (Priests of Set with curved knives and black magic vs. yellow-robed assassins of Kith with paralyzing strikes) are already fighting over the gem. The player can wait for a victor, attack everyone, or sneak to the treasure
  • The twist: Reaching for the Heart of Ahriman triggers a mummy in the sarcophagus to grab Conan's arm, initiating combat

The example emphasized player agency, stealth as a viable path, and the pulp-adventure tone of Howard's stories.

Technical Vision

The proposal specified the Source Engine (Half-Life 2's engine) with:

  • Over-the-shoulder third-person camera
  • Synchronized combat animations for a cinematic feel
  • Normal map technology (a big deal in the early 2000s)
  • Realistic facial animations
  • Realistic physics simulations allowing Conan to physically toss enemies

System Design

The most distinctive mechanical idea was inverting the typical RPG power curve: Conan starts as a strong character rather than a weakling. Progression involves purchasing additional abilities:

  • Combat moves (strangulation, Cyclone Strike)
  • Stealth moves
  • Damage resistances (crushing, fire)
  • Magical immunities (to counter powerful wizards)
  • Stackable combat moves for devastating combinations

Tim noted that the Hyborian Age is "not your standard high fantasy world but a world struggling towards a modern age after centuries of magical oppression," with unique creatures ranging from degenerate man-apes to magically animated constructs to entities from "beyond the outer dark."

What Happened to It

Nothing. Tim has no record of which publishers received the proposal. There was no attached art, no detailed system documentation beyond what he read aloud — just the gameplay example and brief overviews. He believes he wrote it entirely by himself and tossed it into the pile of pitches Troika was assembling.

The Full List of Post-Bloodlines Proposals

Tim mentions several other proposals from this same period:

  • Baldur's Gate 3 (previously discussed in another video)
  • Might and Magic (likely Might and Magic 10)
  • Lord of the Rings (revisited from an earlier post-Arcanum pitch)
  • Temple of Elemental Evil 2 (the GDQ expansions — Giant, Drow, Queen of the Demonweb Pits)
  • A secret Fallout game — Tim refuses to discuss this one, noting it's dated May 25, 2004. He says if Bethesda ever makes a Fallout game with its features or setting, "I will know it's complete coincidence." He doesn't believe he showed it to anyone.

References