I think the contrast between the 80s post-apoc style and the 50s prewar aesthetic is a big part of what makes Fallout 1 work for me, still. That ad hoc approach resulted in a mismatch between the imagined future and reality, in the game world. That's also why I think it was so important that the 50s music is mostly confined to the intro, giving way to the synth soundtrack. And also that the 50s aesthetic is seen mostly in the ruins, whereas the wasteland's actual inhabitants are an eclectic mix that moved beyond that a long time ago.
A lot of sources claim that FO was planned as a Wasteland sequel or was created because the Wasteland IP couldn't be acquired. So I'm glad you're setting it straight.
I always heard that it was a spiritual successor but not that they tried to get the license and failed. But like you, I am glad that now we know the true story
I was first introduced to Fallout when I was 12-13 years old. I played F1 and F2 for an infinite amount of time. I started playing multiple times and didn't get through it to the end until years later. Those safes are still stored on my PC with a special Fallout folder. I don't think it even occurred to me until the final that this game could have an ending. I just lived in it. Now I'm 34, married and will soon have a child of my own. I travel a lot and have lived in more than 10 countries. With a lifestyle like mine, you can't carry around memorabilia, but I carry around a folder of Fallout saves. I remember the first time I finished main storyline on 11/11/2005. Perhaps Fallout is one of the most meaningful experiences of my youth, which is still important and fresh, although I have seen a lot. I am very grateful for your work. p.s. I happened to start my Fallout journey with the second part and remember it more colorfully, but that only increases the importance of the first part and the depth of the world you guys have created.
That's not true at all. There's hundreds of games, from AAA to small indies, that have awesome and original artistic directions. A lack of talented artists really isn't the problem in the modern industry, what we need is good writers :(
@@fixpontt i wouldn't call Bioshock 'Retrofuturistic', it was built during the post war years of 1945 and was the normal architecture, streamlined modernair (1936-1947) and Art Deco (1920-1933) it was stuck, which means it never saw the architecture of the current era of when the game started
Fallout has a unique setting. The idea of retrofuturism with post-apocalyptic elements is just great. I have to admit that at first I had a hard time understanding why this was, but the setting of classic Fallout has a lot of cultural and social depth, even political. An exquisite combination of "satire" and realism. And added to the music composed by Mark Morgan, for me the setting is perfect. Thanks for this video Tim! It's very interesting.
Fallout being an even better and more fleshed out version of Wasteland has always been cool. Wasteland and Fallout today couldn't be more different, and that's crazy. Wasteland still stays quote dark and when they went into a literal nuclear winter in Colorado from the Arizona and L.A. settings were nice change of pace for apocalyptic settings.
Got hardlocked in The Glow. Started playthrough 2. Find alien blaster right before meeting Khans and then Khans think I am their previous leader they killed. This game is awesome
Hey Tim, I'd love to hear how you went about writing notes. Hearing you tell all these stories and being able to recall these little details years later makes me want to write notes of my own.
LOVE junktown, the hub and necropolis. The feel is amazing. The first of these i ever visited was Junktown. I still remember how it resonated with me. I got all tingly inside, something about the atmosphere, setting, graphics, NPCs, sounds.... and it has held my imagination ever since. Thanks a million Scott Campbell for your work on Fallout.
This has probably been said a thousand times but these videos are like a free masterclass in game design. Thank you so much for doing this, and thank you so much for your work in Bloodlines, another masterpiece and one of my top 3 games of all time.
The 1986 movie, Radioactive Dreams, had many of the same themes. The main lead grew up in a fallout shelter leaves to find a ruined earth and everything is stuck in 50s culture. It was an ultra low budget direct to VHS film. Since the main character leaves the fallout shelter to find his father, it seems like Bethesda may have also taken come story beats from it.
I'd love to hear what your version of Fallout 3 would be if it carried on from your version of Fallout 2. I know you don't like the idea of doing sequels but its amazing to hear where Fallout could've gone.
I just wanted to let you know, Tim, that the way you speak, the things you say, and your general mannerisms make you cone across as a really wholesome person 😊
I'm amazed by your consistency, brilliant execution (in one take!), and captivated by your stories. As a software engineer, you've given so much to learn from; and as an RPG fan, you've shown so many fascinating details. Thank you, from Australia. You are a gift.
Like others keep saying, I love these videos. They scratch a game design itch that I've had for years but has fallen by the wayside as I've pursued my career, etc. Watching these has really sparked a drive to do something creative again. I had a few questions that might be a bit vague, not the right scope, etc. But figured I'd throw them out there! 1. Did you all have a vision for the in-game future of Fallout? Any ideas about how much the world could recover, how far society could rebuild, etc.? I played the games out of order and I initially came away feeling like it was all meaningless because there was no recovering from the devastation and mass extinctions. It wasn't until I played New Vegas and Fallout that I realized how much the world was being rebuilt. Fallout 3 in particular left me with this sense that I'd arrived just before mankind's extinction. 2. Were you influenced by Deus Ex when creating Bloodlines or was that the influence of other team members? Or was that convergent design from designing a first person FPS RPG? My first instinct is to try playing New Vegas and Outer Worlds like an immersive sim and it takes me a while to shake that since those were the tyoes of games I cut my teeth on. If I play Dishonored around the same time, I usually end up killing myself via fall damage a few times before I remember what I'm doing. 3. From a software perspective, have you ever discussed what went into developing your engines? For example, preliminary planning for methods/functions, architecture, memory considerations, etc.? The idea of putting together an engine from scratch is daunting these days since modern engines handle so much. Considering the difference in available resources and needs, it seems like it'd be a different beast entirely when dealing with hardware restrictions and lack of readily available resources on game design in general. Last thing isn't a question but a suggestion. Not sure if you've ever read Wool by Hugh Howey - but it's an excellent novel. It's based on the day-to-day struggles of living in a Vault-like environment. It obviously seems like it'd be up your alley!
I’ve been loving this “webseries?” of your development history. Such a learning experience and great things to hear about such a well crafted world y’all had put together. Thank you Tim Cain
Tim, thank you so much for posting these. I'm working on my own systems driven game, and it's an absolute slog. Listening to your adventures in development is very helpful for charting my own direction! I frequently find inspirations on how I can build out my tech to make things easier for myself (I'm investing heavily in tooling, after listening to your conversations with Leonard). Again, thank you so much for putting these videos out, and I hope you keep going for many years to come!
Great stories, Tim! I am loving all of your videos peeling back the curtain of the past. They've definitely been providing extra context during my recent re-playthroughs of Fallout 1 and 3.
You touched on something fascinating at the end of the video. That fallout wasn’t just what you all came up with, but also was what the players all came to it with. It’s funny to think also about what you said regarding the 50’s music, it was really only that intro that had retro music in it! Fallout 3 to my memory really drove the old 50’s music usage home, a great addition IMO. But consider this - Fallout 3 was made by a lot of fans of the first games! It was itself an interpretation and reimagined version of those ideas you all came up with. Fascinating stuff to think of how our perception of such a thing becomes colored by our knowledge of its future, even in retrospect. Cheers as always Tim!
This is great. I always had the impression that Brian Fargo wanted to realize his dream of a bigger Wasteland universe. It’s interesting to see that it started out as an adaptation of GURPs that evolved into a post apocalyptic future and only once it was decided that it would be this genre did the Wasteland and Gamma World fans influenced the elements. But the most important element that remains from Wasteland is the comedy/satire and the good writing.
Thanks tim for uploading all of these little booster packs of information pertaining to fallout and your career. So amazing to hear. I played fallout 1 after my brother hung out with his friends and they where playing either 1 or 2 and he was saying how big the world is, i was used to playing the new PlayStation 1 at the time, i think i was 3-6, and i was so facinated with it. My parents did not like me playing violent games (we had a sort of "games are the devil and cause mass shooters" scare running through the country) So racing games and bright coloured characters telling me what a special boy I am lol. My older brother (i think he moved out to study at that time) would tell me stories when i saw him of him playing fallout and how you could spend days exploring from one side to the other and you would have random encounters and there are mutants and ghoulies, eventually i saw a copy of fallout 1 when i was 10 at my local game store, i think it was like 19.95 by that time, they had a DVD style copy or the big folding box style (i wish i bought that now aha) which i still own and cherish. Little bit of my own trivia is i was allowed to play M rated (my mum literally thought if i played GTA i would do what i saw in the game) games here in aus, and the rating system was going througu overalls so at that exact moment m15+ was not MA-15+ (R is next) so i bought it and i was so excited. My dad worked for the government here in aus and back then they would just go, eh we are going to throw out x computer or Y desk, hey do you want it? Here you go just dont say anything. Turns out this laptop, it was 2006-2008 when i got it somewhere then. It was made in 1999 or something but was like top of the line at the time, like $5000, it had a 512mb graphics card or 1gb one which even now is still amazing let alone 25 years ago, i unfortunately tried to repair it a while ago and absolutely destroyed it, it doesnt use SATA drives its the one before and it had 40gb of hard drive space, I'm assuming that would of been insane back then. Sorry anyways aha, young me had trouble installing fallout onto that computer (dad got the new Windows XP from the previous windows...98?) I was very tech illiterate (now im modding 300 mods a day into my games no probs lol) and i asked my dad if he could get the IT guy at his work to get the game working and he eventually did. Unfortunately, the opening scene where the US annexs Canada scene in the opening had someone killing a tied up person and my dad was like "uhhh... Maybe don't tell mum about this game". Anyways, sorry and my ultimate reason for writing my comment. I as a young boy played the absolute shit out of that game. I loved it, i would die and not save and rage aha. Back then, we had no internet and still dont as a country (we had a media giant lobby our government to make sure the whole "internet" thing would not undermine their media buisness) But for the life of me, Vault 13 would die of being thirsty fellas indeed. This made me have to stop and think and check all areas and recheck and try new things. No other game has ever treated me like a person and allowed me to fail, it made the successes even greater. Its so interesting to hear how this game was deemed as meh B-tier yeah whatever from interplay, any wonder they went the way of the Dodo. "By gamers for gamers" wasn't that the tagline? Unfortunate it went "by board members and conglomerates for no one". I am yet to play fallout 2 to this day, i have played every other fallout game except brother for the ps2? Or xbox original? Loved tactics. That computer i was talking about, for the life of me, i nor anyone could get fallout 2 to install on it, or any conputer, even my PC rig today, that disc just does not compute. Hearing how fallout 1 nearly suffered from a porting issue relating to windows 95-98 to windoss XP is it? Just crazy to hear. Sorry im rambling aha. Anyways aha, if you ever feel like you should not upload your thoughts and feelings please do, love listening while i paint my minis :)
Really cool to hear about "how the sausage is made" so to speak but it really tells you how much work went into coming up with an idea for a setting and how successful it has turned out over the years.
I barely remember what project i did for which customer last month and here i listen to Tim vividly recalling details from 30(ish) years ago.. geez :D it clearly shows when your job is your passion and you loved the projects you worked on
Seeing things like your videos talking about this, which I just was looking up where the 50s post apoc thing came from. Then I got the Star Control people talking about game design and making their new game. It's brilliant, it's what the internet should be all about. It's so cool we have such great art and technology.
They say to never meet you heroes but I'm glad I'm learning more about you, your life experiences, the knowledge you've gained, and all the behind the scenes stuff. I've met my hero and he is a cool guy.
Hi Tim! I have some ideas that you could use to make a video. The first is "what books and movies did you use as inspiration to create Fallout?". On the other hand, there is a popular discussion about whether modern weapons belong in Fallout. Personally I am one of those who thinks that it is not only from the 50s (In the older Fallouts you can find weapons from the 80-90s era). Maybe what fits best is that most were 50-60s style and some modern weapons like the New Vegas marksman carbine. PS: I love that decision to set Fallout in a retrofuturistic world. It's something that makes Fallout unique and original
I always saw Fallout as spiritual successor to Wasteland but these videos have shown that it wasn't . That doesn't take anything away from how cool Fallout 1 was. I remember picking up my copy at Brokaw Fry's and loving the cover art.
4:30 I hoped the one line note was going to be along the lines of "Yes, this is the setting. It's so perfect in it's conception and execution!" After that it's never mentioned again. xD Thanks again for the wonderful video!
Hi Tim, sorry if you've covered this already but I was wondering if you could make a video about what the various roles in game dev and so on actually do? For instance, what actually is a producer and how does it differ to game director? What do they do as part of their job specifically? I've always wondered but as someone who's not in the game dev arena I don't really have the faintest idea!
9:16 - I think the thing is people have been led to believe (by RU-vidrs/content creators, etc.) that Fallout was "clearly" created as a spiritual successor. I can personally say I've watched many videos over the years that always make a point of mentioning Interplay's connection to the Wasteland series and infer that Fallout was an indirect sequel. It's a natural conclusion for people to make, considering the history involved, but Fallout has always been its own thing. I think it's hard for most people to see that unless they've played Wasteland & Fallout though. The connection seems to just come from both games being post-apocalyptic and tied to Interplay. I also think the number of modern Fallout fans plays a role in spreading that bit of "trivia" in the fanbase.
Marketers have jumped aboard the social media "influencers" train with a passion, but it has its dark and light sides like everything else and I'm not sure most people are even paying atention. I'll watch a couple episodes of a Let's Play (spoilers and all) to see if a game is something I might be interested in playing these days, but as soon as the "influencer" starts trying to sell me on it, I'm out. Some channels are essentially just rumor mills, so I don't bother with them at all. Et cetera. If scientists really want to prove that the mind is not confined to the brain, they should study the social media "influencer" dynamic with a microscope.
Hi Tim! I have been binging your videos recently and I love all the intel on how Fallout came to be and other dev stories. Where did you get that vault boy shirt? Absolutely love it haha keep up the great work man.
I was 11 when fallout came out and I was so used to side scrollers but I was so interested in fallout, I remember playing it on a old gate way PC, once I got it down, I loved it. I recently beat Wasteland 88, love all these games. I was born in 85 lol
Hey Tim! Love these videos, thanks for making them! I was wondering, do you know what songs you would put on the radio in fallout? I love the ambient soundtrack for the original fallout but think the radios in the new ones are a really fun addition too :)
the new fallouts are an abomination but if more Fallout was made in homage to the spirit of the originals, then I'd say what would make most sense is a 'pirate radio' where a gang of musicians have taken over the radio station so they can broadcast their tunes that they play live would allow for a whole tracklist of unique songs from an inspired group - some Ledbelly or Doc Watson traditional folk with a twist listen to the song "Sly Feel" by John Hartford
I think it's a fun addition, too. I think maybe people are confusing the ambient soundtrack of the game itself with tracks that play on the game world radios and certain stations the Pip-Boy can pick up. There's still an ambient soundtrack in Bethesda's games. It's not like radio tracks are playing all the time. If people don't like them, they can turn the radios off. What's strange is that the prewar radio stations in Bethesda's Fallout games were apparently all stocked with 50's classics. Bethesda's Fallouts actually appeal more to nostalgia than anything else and that's one of the most insightful criticisms of Bethesda Fallouts there is. As Noah Gervais put it in his critique of 76, Bethesda confused the retrofuturistic setting of the original Fallouts as a "source of black humor and cultural critique with a genuine celebration of mid-century consumerism." Whether the confusion is intentional or not is anyone's guess, but my guess would be that it is.
Absolutely fascinating to learn where the raider look came from. It coexists seamlessly and organically with the "frozen in the 50s" content. It never seemed like the two aesthetics might have been from two different phases of the game's conception; in fact, the more feral and aggressive raider style seemed like a natural counterpart and response to the deluded idealism of the previous era.
Fallout is a very special game. I played it after Fallout 3 and New Vegas and I think the original still is the perfect experience. The soundtrack is outstanding!
Hey Tim! I've been watching since your first vids, and I always wanted to ask a question, and I think I finally thought of something interesting. I'm fascinated by 90s pre-rendered graphics. To me, they are just on the edge of the uncanny valley, some of the pre-rendered stuff aged great (DKC, but obviously Fallout's talking heads, models too. Great art direction ensures graceful aging) while others, not so much. Do you know if the raw 3D files for the models of FO1/2 still exist somewhere? I would love to see these models up close with modern eyes, I always wanted to see how the overworld models really look like (one of my fav screens is the one where the vault dweller is facing a deathclaw head on, I think it's from the manual? I love it!) I would love if they ever did remake the first two games, they would use the actual models, just in HD. On the fallout wiki there's this incredibly high quality render from the ending, where the male vault dweller is walking away from the camera. I have no idea where that came from, I've been trying to track it down for ages. Also, do you know what became of the talking head and other clay models? I imagine they are amazing statues.
Have been loving you recent videos, really special to hear these things from you. Absolutely adored bloodlines and fallout 1 and 2. Would be super interested to hear some thoughts on bloodlines. Thanks for the vids.
Hey Tim! Great video! I was just curious if the movie Radioactive Dreams had much impact on the mélange of Fallout? It's probably just coincidence that they share so much in common, but I wouldn't mind hearing it from you.
I ran a multi-year Gamma World game where the players had no charts, no specs, no roll to hits. Used dollar store figures, vehicles, and monsters figs. I clearly recall the first time they unearthed an un-looted 7-11. They, and I, had glorious times.
Good to hear this. Whether it was fargo himself or people interpreting his words wrong, the narrative for years was that the game was a planned wasteland 2 that had to be essentially reskinned. I knew there was more to the story.
One of the guns in F2 , dont remember if its the caseless or the pancor, was featured on an episode at Forgotten Weapons channel here on youtube. And he talked about it being in Fallout 2, which was funny because the weapon never got produced in masse, just a prototype.
Yeah he has videos covering both the H&K G11 and Pancor Jackhammer, though the Pancor is the one that only made it as far as prototyping. The G11 was a completed gun, it just never went into wider production because the German military chose the G36 instead.
I'm curious how big the Master's army was, dozens, hundreds, thousands? The Unity has occasionally been described as a horde and I've always wanted to know what this means.
I dunno if this serves as an answer but in the game we have some clues about the size of the Unity. 1) Harold mentions that his group found the military base (Mariposa) filled with mutants. Probably 100+ 2) The following invasions into Necropolis and The Hub show a lot of shock troopers in stationary positions. In total probably 100+, but the size of Necropolis (shown in the map art) would require a even higher number of troops to execute an "final solution to the Ghoul problem." 3) The invasion into Vault 13 also shows a chunks of mutants rushing in. Around 50-ish maybe? 4) Bellow the Cathedral we can see around 50+ of those critters mounting guard. 5) Since one can find patrolls in the far outskirts of Mariposa and The Angels Boneyard, with heavy equipment, it would mean that there are at minimum 500+ troops moving across the wastes. 6) The fact that you can find one half-dead Mutant inside the Deathclaw cavern, it means that they have a heavy (for that time) communications and strategy link, therefore they are more than capable of sending reinforcments and personel to do a search in their intended targets. So there is a structure than can sustain the requirements of such operations and the burden of when things go wrong. 7) Mariposa Military Base has an entire company of mutants inside, I would say 60+ of them (not counting the FEV tanks area where the player cannot enter). Overall I would say that their total amount of units (based on in-game evidence) would be in the thousands across the coast of California, with two main central groups located in Mariposa and The Angels Boneyard. My guess would be 3000 to 4500 total units.
Can you please give more information about the Junktown Demo level? Who designed it, and what were their goals when creating it? I got a demo disc from PC Gamer magazine with that level on it back in fall of 1997 and it was a perfect introduction to the game. I knew I had to own the full game within minutes of playing that demo!
Mr. Cain, I want to thank you for stealing endless hours of my life and my finances. I have thoroughly enjoyed every version of Fallout from the original to 76 and everything in between. Wonderful insight into creation. Thank you and Brian for one the best parts of my life. Love the part about correcting SJ on the rules of Illuminati!
I am old enough to have played Wasteland on the C64 when it came out and enjoyed it. Fallout was obviously more advanced as a game, deeper (games were advancing REALLY fast in those days) and had that very cool 50s vibe thing going on, but I really did think of Fallout as an updated version of Wasteland, which, in my mind, took NOTHING away from it, only improved it for me.
Wasteland was my favourite game until Star Control 2. I SO looked forward to this "great new successor to Wasteland!" (let's not talk about Fountain of Dreams!). I saw the other influences, but loved the Wasteland connection and thought that was the main influence. I fell in love with the retro-future idea, but was upset we didnt get a Wasteland 2. But now, we have both!
