Fallout co-creator Tim Cain says "leaving some mystery" and undeveloped lore in games is important so players are keen to play follow-ups and sequels: "If you tell everything, players will want nothing"

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"Just leave a little mystery in there. It'll be good for you. People will like it."

Fallout
(Image credit: Bethesda Softworks)

Fallout co-creator Tim Cain says it's important to leave breadcrumbs of unsolved lore in games so players are interested in it expanding in the eventual follow-ups.

In a YouTube video titled "Leaving Some Mystery," Cain offers some advice: "Don't feel like you need to address every question the player might have." As an example, he says, "In Fallout, we didn't address what Harold was. We didn't need to, wasn't important to the story, isn't important to the setting. It's a fun mystery."

He explains there are two ways to go about it: you could develop a mystery where "there's a lot of evidence in the game that will let the player believe they know what happened, but you never directly tell them." However, Cain also offers "there's another way to do it too, which is just, not develop the lore… "The team doesn't know, the game never mentions it, and the players will never be able to find out in this game."

Scott McCrae
Scott McCrae
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Scott has been freelancing for over three years across a number of different gaming publications, first appearing on GamesRadar+ in 2024. He has also written for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, VG247, Play, TechRadar, and others. He's typically rambling about Metal Gear Solid, God Hand, or any other PS2-era titles that rarely (if ever) get sequels.

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