I’d gladly fund a kickstarter for this

The name Arcanum alone is just too good to leave it in the past :p A refreshed Arcanum would be absolutely amazing, like going back and finishing the things that got cut short, rebalancing and fixing the little things that hindsight has revealed to you, making the game work on modern displays, maybe upscaling or redrawing the sprites in higher resolutions (or having the game logic drive a 3D engine layer on top of the original game).

Tim Cain remaking Arcanum is my dream.

Arcanum is my "stranded on a desert island" game, if I could only have one RPG to play for the rest of my life. A remake/remaster would be a dream. Honestly, I can't believe the IP has been dormant for so long, especially with the resurgence of the throwback CRPG's like Pillars, Tyranny, Original Sin 1/2, BG3, etc. and all the "Enhanced Editions" of the classic Infinity engine games. It seems like a no-brainer.

The one thing I would add RE: Turn based only, is that I actually really liked that in Arcanum, I could hit spacebar to quickly "auto resolve" an easy fight. I'd love to keep that feature in, but maybe make it more intentional.

One thing I loved in Arcanum (among many, but this one I'm mentioning is rarely addressed), is the "persuasion minigame" not being a minigame at all, it's just (in-game-)logically unfolding dialogue. That's how you turn a game mechanic from immersion-breaking to immersion-enhancing, imho. Thanks for your videos, and for the amazing games you developed with your colleagues!

I absolutely would LOVE a remake or Arcanum 2. I still play Arcanum regularly going for 6 years now. Its a great game, a REALLY great game. I would pay AAAA price for Arcanum 2. (no Jokes)

Arcnaum defeinitley needs more love I mean these guys took medieval fantasy and steampunk and made em have a baby, and it worked! I especially loved the mechanics and the various ways you could build your character

I do like that, Arcanum deserves more love. Would be fun in remake to play halfling or gnome females. Also more companions and existing one should get quests like Virgil or Magnus got. More cities etc. Arcanum remake is the most great idea!

Now that's a Kickstarter I could get behind.

20 plus years game dev here. Arcanum for all its flaws is still one of the most interesting and enjoyable games I have ever played. So much atmosphere and depth. I think I have completed it twice and started many more run-throughs. So much that can be learned from that game, but yes, Harm became a crutch and was all too easy to get "lazy" with. This video introduced me to your channel. I am certainly going to be hanging around to hear your thoughts. Thanks for sharing!

I really hope we see a remake or new Arcanum game someday!

I JUST installed Arcanum yesterday to play it for the first time. I was curious ever since I came across MandaloreGaming's video. Listening to you and looking at the comments makes me really excited to play!

Those all sound like really fun changes. I have a hard time going back to Arcanum just because it is difficult to play on a modern system. Even just bug fixes, graphics, and a quality of life update would make this great game so much more accessible. Here's hoping this channel's popularity makes the Arcanum IP holder interested enough to consider this

Real time was actually quite exciting and enjoyable to play the game on. I think it could use some big tweaks but I loved blasting people with guns or magic, hurling bombs or magic blades while they scramble.

I'd really liked to see this happen tbh. Someone legit start a Kickstarter.

It is technically possible now that Microsoft owns all the IPs and Obsidian. I wish it happens, but, as I understand, the focus now is to make everything "modern". There isn't enough incentive for big companies to invest into more old school games unfortunately.

Tech vs magic is such a genius yet underused concept, like theres games where both are an option obviously, but almost none where theyre diametrically opposed like how it is in arcanum. I love it personally

I would love this. I absolutely love the setting and all the variety in arcanum. Its so unique

I'd LOVE to see Journey to the Centre of Arcanum today, I bet it'd be a very interesting game

I'll always love these. I'm very curious about your views on the world design in Dragons Dogma, if you've ever heard of it. Not necessarily the story or anything, but how it's physically composed. A lack of scaling, inviting exploration but making sure you know it's always at least a challenge, if not impassable, how the map is designed etc. You're a hero in many ways, it's so great to get these insights!

I have to say playing Arcanum really was a treat. I hope that this and other hidden gems get remade into a 3d experience without losing its isometric identity. It really is a shame that we never got a true 3d isometric experience like we could've had with van buren.

I would love to play this version of Arcanum. Hopefully it gets made someday.

Tim, have you heard of Arcanum Multiverse Edition? A group of enthusiasts polished Arcanum for many years, fixed bugs, added content which was in the game files but was not implemented. Just check out their patch notes, they are awesome! A few years ago I played it and with all those bugs fixed it reminded me once more of how much this legendary game means for me, why, imho, it is among the greatest games of all times and why I have so many warm feelings in my heart about Arcanum! PS: I’ve read comments on Steam that the Multiverse version uploaded there has some noticeable problems including the keyboard language set to ru, however, when I played it I didn’t notice any of them and everything was smooth. PSS: In the times of remakes and remastered version of classic games I hope to see the news about the remaster version of Arcanum release! And it would be great to have some of the ideas mentioned by you implemented in it!

Don't play with my heart!

Would love a video on the music, sound effects, voice acting. The sound design of Arcanum is beautiful. Did you have a design document about it, or was it mostly improvised? Specifically, it'd be awesome to see a chat with Ben Houge, since there's not many interviews out there.

You have my support 100%

I think unless you have a centeal authority planning roads you'd probably be able to use a polynomial algorithim. The hard part would be deciding which pairs of places get roads, then you just us pathfinding to connect them in a way that makes sense. Could probably use different cost functions depending on how important the road is so that a road between two major cities would be willing to cross bigger obstacles and generate things like big bridges or mountain cuts. It's only NP hard if you're doing global optimisation of the road network, but I don't think any road network was ever designed that way, at least not entirely. Most roads are basically evolved from where people tent to go a lot, so the most covinient path between two places. They usually follow the path of least resistance, unless you have soneymthing like Rome to take bigger more planned things, but even the Romans went around big hills and mountains for most roads.

I want to play this remake yesterday!! 😄 I've been waiting for this video! Thank you for the insights. One question regarding one of your suggestions. You mentioned the removal of level caps for the remake. Are you concerned that such a gameplay feature might lead players (under the current character system in Arcanum) into generating same-y characters with no flaws or limitations likely removing the "consequence" from the character building choices? If a character can do everything, is that an interesting character to play? Admittedly Arcanum is well designed in that respect as it forces the magic/tech dichotomy which in turn helps alleviate some of the overpowered capabilities that can come from infinite leveling. I can also see the argument that such a feature is optional and players that do not want to create a perfect character can ignore it and thus don't have to worry about the level cap and it's potential abuse. Having said that, I can't help but wonder if level cap removals could be better paired with additional "vertical scaling" (increased damage, duration of abilities, decreasing costs etc) as opposed to the ability of learning everything.. Anyhow apologies for the rambling; I am curious about what you think. 🙂 Thank you again for another great video!! There is not enough Arcanum discussion on KZfaq! Also Microsoft if you are listening please please pile some $ in front of Tim (maybe as an advisor/lead along with Leonard) and make this happen! Have a great day Tim!😊

Hey Tim! I think a lot of people, including me, would really enjoy an Arcanum remake!

I was enthralled with this game. It makes me so happy to hear Tim just talk about it. Remake! Remake! Remake!

I wonder if the suits at Microsoft could be made to view Arcanum as a potentially profitable investment. It'd be absolutely amazing to play a remake (not to mention a sequel), if you and your colleagues from Troika would be the ones working on it.

Arcanum is one of the games I love best. Took me a few attempted playthroughs to get through the starting area with the wolves, and the first village - somehow got stumped by the bandits guarding the bridge. But then! Once I got builds figured out enough to get through the starting area, the world opened up, and it *really* opened up. It´s one of those games (like Deus Ex, Torment, Morrowind, and V:TM Bloodlines) that really left me a feeling of having experienced another world. Thanks for uploading your thought on this! Arcanum definitely deserves a remake.

I love these ideas for an Arcanum remake. Same old Arcanum we know and love but now with some fun new additions. :)

this video gives hope that one day we can play a great game again.

The great thing about Harm spell in Arcanum is that I randomly found it on my first play without any guides, then I was like "This is awesome, are all spells so great?" Which made me hyped for the game and I am happy for it. I started kinda unorthodox for a first time player, I decided to be an evil elven sorceress, who hated technology, so I went bad right away xD I gave the spells and everything else some scrutiny and decided to go this, this, and this magic.

Hey Tim! If you read this, I hope you're well. Arcanum led to an undying in-joke/game term between my best friend and I. Circa 2009/2010 we were playing our own separate playthroughs, and the recurring topic of discussion was that I was having such an easier time of it than he was. One day, right before he was about to enter the game's final areas, we considered what might have been the reason for this struggle. After a long discussion, we realised he had much less money and much less gear than I did. I mentioned that most of my money came from selling enemy equipment from random encounters, and then it slowly dawned on him: he had no idea you could loot enemy equipment. We both had a manic meltdown about it, laughing about all the items he could've used, and all the gear he could've sold, all the unique items he might've missed, now forever lost, all because he didn't catch on to what we considered a vital part of the game's progression. We coined the phrase "Arcanum Moment": where a basic or vital feature that could've made a night/day difference eludes you for a long length of time. No matter how long we've carried on, "Arcanum Moments" never seem to die. They're big events that immediately catch the other's attention; all we have to do is say it: "Arcanum Moment". We've had many major and minor "Arcanum Moments" over the years, and something tells me they'll never stop coming. 😁

Yes. The answer to an Arcanum remake is a resounding YES. Thank you so much for that gem of a game, Tim.

I remember when I first played Arcanum in 2001, I assumed all the forests were randomly generated, but I thought maybe if I traveled far enough in any direction, I'd find things. It was actually a little unsettling that it was just a sea of trees in the middle of nowhere with no points of interest, lol. Stumbling upon secrets is so fun, even years later. My favorite is Old Blind Master, especially as a real-time player on "hard" (I enjoy kiting enemies), to find one of the best throwing weapons among the mountains is awesome. More secret areas / silly references would be awesome. The road path system would really help, especially with some signs that are damaged or misplaced to give hints. Absolutely love the idea of using that unused space in forests/caves for procedurally generated events (that mark the map once you travel over them). It'd be so much fun to replay Arcanum like that, if the variance is big enough. Hopefully you reconsider multiplayer / real-time. Would be great to have more games like BG3, where you can hop on and join your friends. Especially when I was in a Diablo 1 / Diablo 2 mood, Arcanum was the only thing that could compete.

Hey, Tim! You probably wouldn't have time to do this sort of project, but I think it would be REALLY interesting to watch a series of you playing through games you've been involved~

I bought arcanum yesterday as a result of all your in depth videos and your excitement about the game. Also the idea that people thought it was too complex made me want to buy it more! Cheers and thank you for your work Tim :)

I do love this channel and drop by often to watch the videos. Not sure I'd like a turn based Arcanum though. Although that is just my opinion. For me personally, Arcanum is a classic and sometimes I just feel these things are best left alone rather than be remade. Having said that at the time when I discovered it I was probably one of the few who noticed it's potential. I believe it was a game that was quite a bit ahead of it's time and a unique experience that still lives with me to this day.

The world of arcanum is such a facinating place, so i would rather have a sequel over a remake because i would love to see how would the world evolve given a couple of decades.

I have about a dozen games on my console that I haven't played yet. Top notch graphics, well reviewed...everything you'd ask for in a modern game. And yet I just reinstalled Arcanum a week ago and haven't even touched the console since. That's just how engaging and fun that game is to me...Playing as grenadier/gunslinger tech character and having a blast with it. Good things there's guys like Drogg Blacktootth and his famous UAP that kept the game alive and possible to run these days plus the KZfaqrs that show how to patch it to run on modern rigs. You guys delivered an absolute gem of a game back then and it truly deserves a sequel.

Thanks for expanding on this, I'm glad you had so much more to say! One thing I would note is that a LOT of people enjoyed the real-time experience, balanced or no. You mention looking at what other patches did, but I am willing to bet money at least 60% of players would like it to be left in, at least as an option. I think your ideas for refining turn-based were great, but real-time was its own experience, and for many of us, it's an iconic Arcanum experience. If we're talking about balancing, spells are balanced by fatigue cost, and the fun mechanic where physical actions during combat also cost fatigue, making falling unconscious a threat mages must remain aware of. Aside from Harm, I never felt the magick system was at all unbalanced. Tech objects and combat skills were balanced by preparation and carry weight, so in many cases that actually seemed more exploitable. What I'm getting at is keeping both real-time and turn-based systems in the game is both important to the experience, and absolutely viable.

I'll have to revisit this game, so much praise. I still know where the disc is. Haven't even played the video yet. Love your work Mr Cain!

What great timing for this vid! I just finished my first playthrough of Arcanum last night. I would really like to see the Bedokan and the Vendigrothian people get some extra screentime in the sequel as well. It's such a cool world you guys made. I did a black necromage so I'm gonna go back and play it again with the training wheels off lol.

It's interesting how turn-based had a revival in the last few years. It's great from my PoV.

My younger brother is currently guiding my grandma-age mother through a playthrough. For my part, I first played Arcanum when I had just hit my teens. Out of all the games I've played (many!) it's the one that stuck with me the most. It really made an impact.

I know you want to remove it, but I think real-time was one of the things that made Arcanum quintessentially unique - or rather, the ability to switch between real-time and turn-based freely. Some of my lingering memories of playing the game back then was trying to determine which mode would be better for certain encounters, or changing mid-battle. In modern terms, it's almost like an auto-resolve mode, or very nearly, and it was fun to see the party attack like crazy. I have yet to find a game that can create that same feeling, though I think I've gotten close a few times. I think the tricky bit with an Arcanum remake is determining things like that - bugs or unintentional effects that became part of the player experience and is in our childhood memories. I would absolutely jump on a remake and try to help develop it, but figuring that out is probably the hardest part.

Remake could finally give us the diving helmet

This would be sick

Hi, Tim and thank you for all the interesting insights on the video game industry. As we already have a Fallout tabletop RPG, I would like to ask if there’s any other computer game that you’ve worked on that you would like to see made into a pen-and-paper version? Would there be any gameplay mechanics, features, or world building details that you would be particularly interested to see transitioned onto a tabletop version and if there would be some things that would be difficult to implement? Also, did you ever consider making tabletop RPGs yourself?

The procedurally generated caves and ruins sound awesome. It would be even cooler if each one also generated a book or similar item somewhere in world (like the libraries) where players could find the coordinates). For example, if the cave generated with the dwarven mine tileset, there could be a newpaper article pointing towards it.

Both me and my best friend are from those few people who actually enjoy the chaos and deadliness of real time combat much more. We did a lot of coop of official modules, as well as a few tries with Arcanum module port to MP. While I understand the preference for discarding MP and RT combat, I can't discard the dream of coop Arcanum - simultaneously influencing different parts of the world and experiencing each others' influence, becoming either allies or enemies. I've thought about the issue with isometric RT combat, and there's one game that I think did it right: *Robin Hood - The Legend of Sherwood*. I wholeheartedly recommend this game as is, but speaking with Arcanum in mind - RT combat in this game is slow, as characters in combat are fencing/on guard. There is loads of strategy and planning, there are both automatic attacks and ordered special attacks, there's automatic movement and targetting as well as directly overriding those. There's definitely enough time in this combat type to e.g. cast and throw an aoe spell, or to order Virgil via commands to back off. All of this, while being much faster than turn based and definitely much more engaging. Arcanum skills would definitely fit right into this type of combat system. There's also one feature I don't see often in video games - you draw patterns with your mouse in order to execute a special attack with similar weapon path (e.g. if you draw a circle around your character, it spins and knocks enemies around, drawing a short line into enemy will make a stabbing attack). It is extremely intuitive, and in this type of slow RT I think it complements better than hotkeys and artificial cast times/cooldowns. It could be extended to spells, requiring a simple drawing of spell's college symbol in order to cast said spell. This would also enable additional skills like for example concentration.

Arcanum is one of the best underrated CRPG's of that era and it's in my top 10 of all time. Every time I think of it I hear that phenomenal music in the back of my brain playing. I would totally replay an Arcanum remake. Another idea would be to make an Arcanum sequel in that isometric style. Too bad it's still stuck in Activision's vault and I don't think MS will do anything with the IP.

Hey Tim, I love your videos and have been thinking about buying and playing Arcanum based on everything you've said about the game on this channel. Out of curiosity, what programming language was Arcanum written in? And as a secondary question, is it still possible to access the world editor and the script editor today?

Always great to hear your thoughts on Arcanum. Should you ever work on it, please, do not remove real-time but at least make it an option. Its absence would ruin my childhood memory of the game. Thank you.

I know the IP is probably in hell but, I would buy a stable version of the game in a heartbeat. When I was a kid and played Fallout 1 and 2, I found out about Arcanum and gave it a try. It now rivals Fallout 1 for my favorite game of all time. Honestly I'm just going to start another playthrough today just because you lit that fire again.

I am totally in for a remade version. One thing I would definitely want to change is the weight of electricity. It never made sense to me that a battery with lots of charges weighed so much more than a battery with no charges. I'd also like to see a lot of rebalancing of spells and skills. And one thing I still don't quite get is the relationship between magic and technology. Sometimes they interfere with each other, but I get the implication that it's possible to have both. So a character could master tech and magic, and possibly even have the two interact in interesting and unexpected ways. But I suppose that would require too much programming.

Back in 2005 we were making a LARP based on Arcanum, and we wanted to continue the story from where the game left off. We came up with a lot of new content and lore, including a new continent to the West, a new species of Bedokaan who were completely unrelated to those living in the Old World, a physics model that tried to describe the way magick and technology interacted with each other, and a lot more. At some point my friend and I found ourselves discussing this crazy idea where the world of Arcanum we see in the game is actually a product of a nuclear war that happened millenia ago, and magick and technology were the forces that held everything together (so one can't exist without the other as it would literally unravel the fabric of the universe). At some point we had a question about the Panarii religion and I wrote to Leonard Boyarsky to ask about that. We didn't get the answers we were hoping for, but I remember him thanking us for being such hardcore fans of the game :) The world of Arcanum shouldn't end on telling just one story. If there's any official remake (or, hopefully, a sequel), I'd be happy to help fund it

My people and I tried, a few times, to get online going wayyy back in the day. I would have liked to see that work, but I'm with you when it comes to taking it out for a better single player experience.

Probably my favourite game of all time, thank you for all. I would really love a ramake

I definitely like the idea of options when it comes to changes to points etc. Always appreciate choice. I also think turn based only would be great for balance, because then bow and arrow wouldn't be an insane mega instant kill option.

I they would add if the player dies or a companion, his body is bones or the body can be revived, taken to a special temple to get the potion or immediately doused with the potion on the spot and flying on dragons or Reptiloids, I have an endless number of ideas and the most difficult thing in the game is to build a time machine and neural networks will do what you did it in the game in the past when you built a time machine, this is probably the most difficult thing

Yes please! And tell us if there's anything we can do to help make this happen! Hype! Hype! Hype!

Never played another game quite like Arcanum. An absolute masterpiece with the greatest soundtrack in gaming to boot. I'd love to see it brought back or even just updated to work on modern systems. Everytime I go back to play it I have to spend awhile getting it to run.

I wonder with the state of the industry after BG3 if Microsoft would consider this, or at least granting the rights to a studio that would enthusiastically take this one. I sure hope to see it one day!

Great video! Thanks. The thing I wished for the most was just more stories in this world. A sequel in the same engine with the same dev pipeline but with more stuff. Or a toolkit for users to make mods and additions so players could keep the world going.

If Larian Studios were able to do get the IP for a remake, I believe it would be an absolute masterpiece!

I want! Even though it's one of my favorite games of all time, I hesitate to recommend Arcanum to people interested in crpgs because of all the jankiness. I could see past that twenty years ago, but it's not something people new to crpgs are likely to get past. But the writing and immersion of it was breathtaking, and I'd love for people to experience it.

I would pay top dollar for Arcanum 2! I have been playing that game for the last 20 years on and off! A masterpiece for sure…

I. I loved everything you said. The only thing I'd probably change is that instead of rerendering the sprites, I'd redo everything in 3d, but keep an isometric perspective. Oh! And also make modding easier. Nothing keeps a game going beyond it's life cycle than mod support.

Hi Tim. What you described is more akin to the enhanced edition than a remake. Remakes, usually, tends to be from the ground up. New engine, new project, remade assets, revised history etc. A enhanced or remastered edition would be neat though.

I was always mesmerized by Arcanum, even though I was never able to play past the first few moments due to the clunkiness of the UI and my own lack of patience. I, for one, would love a remake. So, the true question is: where can I throw my money?

Ok so I got know; if you were to make a random dungeon generator for Arcanum how would you do it? Would you stick to dungeon generator techniques of the time Arcanum was released (like using a bsp tree to arrange rooms ) or would you try some newer and more fancy stuff like wave function collapse? What procedurally generated games would you research or draw inspiration from? What drawbacks of procedural generation would you try to mitigate? What special considerations would you have to make for Arcanum? (I know that was a bunch of questions, but I'm a low key fan of procedural generation.)

I really liked that you could switch between realtime and turn based! The realtime mode was especially suitable for fighting easier enemies

I mean maybe I'm too young to get used to and appreciate it (early 30s), but the main thing that stopped me from playing Arcanum was the UI and outdated graphics, everything else looked fantastic. It'd be fantastic to see a new version with updated CRPG controls in the near future.

Hey Tim, what are your thoughts about the different OSes that are out there, and how perhaps they suit certain programmers and designers best?

Do you think that the overall quality of writing in the gaming industry has decreased in the recent years? With your tenure, I’m sure you could explain the phenom of older game devs cycling out, passing along major franchises to younger writers/devs, and the youth totally dropping the ball for some cash - or maybe I’m just an old cynical man myself! I’d like to hear your opinion!

I would love to see more voice acting in arcanum. The parts that were voice acted were so good but the amount of voice acting was really low in comparison to the volume of text

Hi Tim! I *love* Arcanum immensely, and I think the world is brilliant. My question for you is.... if you were to convert the world and systems of Arcanum into a tabletop RPG, what system would you use? Would you use a custom system, or would you use something like GURPS or BRP as a foundation?

Arcanum is one of my favorites. A lot of these ideas sound great as a remake.

Dude..... please.... do it! I love this game so much, probably my top 1 game, do not care about all the glitches and bugs or imbalances lol. The story, the chaos, the choices. Being able to freaking charisma the final boss like WTFFFFF 🤣. Yes, no multiplayer, I want to experience the game for myself. Also more looooot 😎

Make it happen -) Patreon project, kickstarter, whatever ...

Crowd funded or company project id love to support anything with arcanum. What ifs are cool

Tim, have you ever seen SsethTzeentach’s review of Arcanum? It has millions of views and is hilarious.

Hi Everyone Its me Tim

Mostly agree, although I am a sucker for coop multiplayer and always regretted not being able to do that in Arcanum, would be quite fun to adventure with a buddy :D

After finishing BG3 this past week, I would love to see Larian's take on Arcanum. Aside from that, I agree with all your suggestions except procedural dungeons, I'm just not a fan of procedurally generated gameplay. Thanks for making my favorite classic crpg!

adding UI scaling to any modern remake of an old game is an absolute must.

Last time I played Arcanum I noticed a strange behavior with the Stillwater Blade. The animals it summoned did not cost fatigue to maintain, and they persisted trough fast travel (usually all upkeep spells end). It was an intended unique feature or a bug?

I want 3d arcanum 2 with trains and planes. 😅 that’s not quite a remake though :) Real time was really awesome though. I really like shooting guns in real time speed. It was one of the things that really makes me say arcanum is a favorite.

7:35 something like this was implemented in Fallout Nevada, a mod for FO2.

8:40 divide map to squares chek for encounter roll every time you exit from and mark last (x) amount of square as safe square encounter change calculated by time of the day type of squares you are in ,how long since your last encounter etc

I'm ready to start, just let us know.

Have you seen the video that Warlockracy made on Arcanum? It isn't a Let's Play but more like a 2 hour summary of the plot. It's one of my favorite videos about Arcanum.

The people demand an Arcanum remake

I realize that this will probably never happen, but I loved Arcanum to bits, it's one of my favorite games even to this day. If a remake ever does become a possibility I hope that you would consider putting on the director's hat again, I'm only really interested in Arcanum if its original creator is the one at helm.

Theres benefits to keeping real time combat code for AI purposes, players can walk into or wait out a battle hes not involved with. As seen in under rail, albeit this was a leftover from when they tried realtime combat in full