Troika's Might & Magic 10 Design

tim-cain troika-games might-and-magic game-design pitch rpg

Abstract

Problem: What was Troika Games' vision for Might & Magic 10, and why did it never materialize?

Approach: Tim Cain shares his rediscovered design notes and proposal document from late 2003, detailing Troika's pitch for Might & Magic 10 after shipping Temple of Elemental Evil.

Findings: Troika created a 10–15 page proposal called "Might & Magic 10: The Source of Magic," built on a systematic analysis of common features across all nine previous Might & Magic games. The proposal was submitted to Atari in early 2004 but never received a response. Troika moved on to Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines instead.

Key insight: Cain's methodical approach — cataloging recurring features across nine games to identify player expectations — reveals a disciplined design philosophy: understand the franchise DNA before proposing a new entry.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ig9tS5Fsx4

How the Opportunity Arose

After Temple of Elemental Evil shipped and Troika completed the few patches they were contractually allowed to release, the studio was approached about submitting a proposal for Might & Magic 10. Tim notes that he later learned from Raf Colantonio (in an interview on the House of the Dev YouTube channel) that Arcane Studios was also competing for the same project — a common publisher tactic of pitting developers against each other. Cain told Colantonio not to feel bad about it; publishers routinely solicited competing proposals.

Analyzing the Franchise DNA

Cain's first step was to play through and study Might & Magic 1 through 9, pulling out common features that fans would expect in a tenth installment. He had personally played Might & Magic VI the most, noting its distinctive blend of science and magic as a franchise hallmark.

His analysis identified these recurring themes across all nine games:

  • Class-based character system
  • Skill training in addition to ranks — something Cain loved and later used in Arcanum
  • Castles — either exploring or building, or both
  • Traveling circuses that moved around the map
  • Audience quests — quests required to gain an audience with important NPCs (rare in other RPGs)
  • Stat-boosting fountains with temporary effects
  • Aging mechanics — both normal and magical, with associated negative effects (also rare in RPGs)
  • Hidden doors, switches, and traps

He also compiled a master spell list of spells that appeared in most entries across the series.

The Proposal: "Might & Magic 10: The Source of Magic"

The proposal was assembled in late 2003 and submitted (likely to Atari) in January 2004. It ran about 10–15 pages. The story premise:

A local hedge wizard asks the party to investigate why monsters are suddenly attacking a small village. The party discovers that a suppression artifact in a nearby cemetery has stopped working, releasing skeletons and zombies. The hedge wizard, baffled, sends the party to his mentor in a larger city. Through further quests, they learn that magic itself is malfunctioning — failing completely in some areas, working at reduced or increased power in others. The main quest becomes discovering the cause, leading the party to the source of all magic and the factions trying to seize control of it.

Cain notes this is very much his signature style: starting small and personal, then expanding outward into a world-scale conflict, always grounding the player's motivation in events they personally witnessed.

The Color-Coded Map and Colorblindness

One detail that amused Cain in hindsight: the design document included a map color-coded by magic intensity — blue, yellow, green, and red zones indicating whether magic didn't work, worked below average, at average, or above average.

The irony is that Cain has progressive colorblindness, diagnosed around age 20 and significant by his mid-30s when he wrote this document. He shares that at Troika, colleague Sharon Showman (Jason Anderson's wife) would sometimes tell him his pants and shirt didn't match, sending him home to change at lunch. By his 50s, the condition was severe — he missed 23 out of 47 Ishihara color plate tests at a recent optometrist visit.

This experience directly influenced his later work on The Outer Worlds, where he required the UI team to design every interface in grayscale first to prove it was usable without color, before adding color afterward. His principle: shapes and value (brightness) matter more than hue.

The Outcome

The proposal disappeared into the ether. Troika never heard back. Cain believes Atari was soliciting proposals from many studios simultaneously. With no response forthcoming, Troika moved on to Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines — "and the rest is history."

Contractual Patch Restrictions

Cain also mentions an important piece of Troika history: the studio was contractually prevented from releasing patches for any of their three games unless the publisher approved each one. Once publishers stopped approving patches, Troika couldn't release them — not even unofficial ones. This applied to all three Troika titles (Arcanum, Temple of Elemental Evil, and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines).

The Design Archive

Cain found the Might & Magic 10 proposal in a folder full of design proposals — not just solicited pitches, but speculative designs Troika created on their own initiative and sent out to gauge publisher interest. This suggests Troika was actively generating game concepts beyond their contracted work, looking for opportunities to sustain the studio.

References