Tim Cain, one of the original Fallout's grandmasters and heads of the late great Troika Games, has given some thoughts on the original Fallout and the upcoming sequel made by Bethesda in this month's PC Powerplay. Some quotes as transcribed at RPGCodex (there's a lot more to be found there):<blockquote>We set out to make a non-linear game, which today would be called a sandbox game. We wanted the player to make any kind of character and then go off into the wilderness in any direction and still be able to finish the game. Naturally, some characters would be harder to finish the game with than others, but that was our main goal.
We knew we were making a dark game, based on the horrors that 1950's science had predicted for a future apocalyptic world. So we balanced that with humour, by poking fun at those same predictions in a way that would amuse a modern player.
Once we had settled on a post-apocalyptic setting for our world, we debated over all the different types we could choose. I remember debating modern futurism, like alien invasion or cyber warfare, and even the possibillity that there had been no war at all and this was all an illusion or a facade, but in the end, we felt that the Cold War era had the most visceral appeal of all these settings, and most easily opened itself up for humour.
(...)
After Interplay picked up the D&D license, they almost cancelled Fallout right then so as not to be working on multiple products that would compete with one another. But I pointed out that the setting was so different from orcs and goblins that there would likely be no overlap in the target audience. Marketing believed me, and Fallout was saved from termination.
(...)
After playing Oblivion, I have high hopes for Fallout 3 being an awesome open-ended experience. Bethesda obviously has good people working there, so I don't want to insult them by offering any advice that might sound like a pronouncement. I just want to play the game like any other fan, which means I will be surprised and delighted by the plot twists and turns and also that I reserve the right to complain about any deviation from the Fallout canon.</blockquote>Link: Transcription of article on RPGCodex
Thanks Briosafreak
We knew we were making a dark game, based on the horrors that 1950's science had predicted for a future apocalyptic world. So we balanced that with humour, by poking fun at those same predictions in a way that would amuse a modern player.
Once we had settled on a post-apocalyptic setting for our world, we debated over all the different types we could choose. I remember debating modern futurism, like alien invasion or cyber warfare, and even the possibillity that there had been no war at all and this was all an illusion or a facade, but in the end, we felt that the Cold War era had the most visceral appeal of all these settings, and most easily opened itself up for humour.
(...)
After Interplay picked up the D&D license, they almost cancelled Fallout right then so as not to be working on multiple products that would compete with one another. But I pointed out that the setting was so different from orcs and goblins that there would likely be no overlap in the target audience. Marketing believed me, and Fallout was saved from termination.
(...)
After playing Oblivion, I have high hopes for Fallout 3 being an awesome open-ended experience. Bethesda obviously has good people working there, so I don't want to insult them by offering any advice that might sound like a pronouncement. I just want to play the game like any other fan, which means I will be surprised and delighted by the plot twists and turns and also that I reserve the right to complain about any deviation from the Fallout canon.</blockquote>Link: Transcription of article on RPGCodex
Thanks Briosafreak
