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Creator of Arcanum Shares Thoughts on Its Revival and the Best Element in Games

The creator of Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura and co-author of Fallout — Tim Cain — has published new videos with reflections on game development. In one of them, he explained why reviving Arcanum is nearly impossible. In the second, he discussed what makes games like Minecraft and Skyrim the best.

The situation with the creation of Troika Games and Cain himself is trivial. It's about the legal and economic situation surrounding Arcanum. It has passed through many "hands" and is currently the intellectual property of Microsoft. Due to tax rules and the specifics of tax deductions in the USA, buying back the rights to it is a very expensive and laborious affair.

The developer also noted that Microsoft itself is unlikely to invest in a remaster or remake. Unfortunately, the audience for the legendary RPG is loyal but not very large. So, for a big company, such a project is simply not profitable.

Nevertheless, the game designer proposed an alternative — to create a game that would become the spiritual successor to Arcanum. Yes, it won't be possible to use the place names and character names, but the concept of a mix of magic and steampunk, fantasy races, and role-playing gameplay are still available to everyone.

Another video is dedicated to the idea that games benefit from elements that make them resemble toys. Cain defined the difference:

"A game is something you play, and a toy is something you play with."

As examples, he named Minecraft and Skyrim, which he loves very much. He enjoys not following the plot, but simply creating a hero without a specific goal and setting off on a journey. Such a "purposeless" and potentially endless process, in the game designer's opinion, is what many gamers want, including himself.