Meet the Fallout 3 Devs

[Tannhauser]

Recently on the official Fallout 3 forum, a number of Bethesda developers have been answering non-Fallout related questions in a series of Q&A threads. No Mutants Allowed has collected their answers into a single, easy-to-browse article for anyone interested in learning a bit about the personalities behind Bethesda's Fallout 3.

Link: Meet the Devs.

 

[Goweigus]

Generally it was a nice read, surely some of you will come out and say They're they are know we know who to blame!" and others will say, "See they are Fallout fans, have some hope!"

I'll take both sides and turn a positive cheek on this event, nice little interviews and all...

ya...

 

[Brother None]

The "RPG is just a term, it doesn't mean anything as long as the game is good"-guys are on the wrong tack as far as we're concerned, but overal, good people.

I like Caponi, he seems a good guy, even if he is one of those "doesn't mean anything!"-types

 

[Tagaziel]

So far so good.

Burgess:

Talk about enjoyable research. Let's see... Books; The Road, the Postman, the Wasteland comics, The Martian Chronicles, Tank Girl, heh. Film; Testament, The Day After (not tomorrow...), A boy and His Dog - which is really the closest-to-template Fallout film I've seen - the Mad Maxes, some campy 50's flicks, Six String Samurai, Damnation Alley, Soylent Green, Omega Man (gotta love Heston), and of course the games - Arcanum, Bloodlines, Planescape, Fallout 1&2 - obviously all of those, but so many other games that we can be inspired by or learn from - from Zork to Facade to STALKER.

Sounds promising... but good intentions pave the hell... right?

Caponi:

To that end, I’ve been reading [...] Kurt Vonnegut

Awesome.

I originally picked up Fallout on a whim because someone had told me it was a sequel to Wasteland (Yes, I know it isn’t, but we didn’t have words like “spiritual successor” back in the dark days of the 90s).

Sounds pretty good to me... although these are "just" words.

System Shock 2 is one of the finest games ever made by human hands.

This is uberwin.

Grandstaff:

Too little content.

Lobe:

I'll try not to mangle any old favorites you might have.

Sounds pretty reasonable... but we all remember Chuckie and his "doesn't contradict" stance.

Since we're talking Fallout, I remember playing the game a long time ago and wondering what Deathclaws did in the wild, away from humans? Did radscorpions stay motionless in their cooler caves, their massive claws tucked in tight while their soft, pale brood squirmed on their backs? What was it like being a supermutant living with other supermutants? I mean, those [censored]ers weren't evil, even if they always wanted me dead. Yeah, I think of this kind of thing a lot. I should probably stop talking now.

For me, this sounds perfect.

Ross (even though he's just a tester):

I've played through Fallout 1 more than a few times, and I loved it every time. That being said, I'm a huge fan of the 50's style and dark setting so let's go with "GOBS" for now.

+1

Tresnjak:

I really wish we could tell you all about what we're doing with Fallout 3. It's very cool and we're all excited about it.

Last time I heard "very cool" and "all excited" from a developer working on a title that had Fallout in it's name, something bad happened.

I think certain hardcore RPGers tend to lose sight of the overall achievement that it represents because it violates some tenet or other of what they consider RPGs must be. Personally, I'm tired of hearing people squabble about that kind of nonsense--over all these silly, limiting acronyms we've come up with to pigeonhole our games.

Does not compute.

Are you kidding? Pete and Co. work some freakin' magic up there.

Uh.

Zeleny:

Green, for me. It's a bit of a family color.

Hehe, Zelony, green, hehe.

original Wasteland, which I used to play as a kid with my dad on our Commodore 128.

I say, awesome. At least for the time being.

Regardless of either, I'd rather talk my way out of a fight than see it progress to violence.

He's a quest designer...

...

?



Note: This list is preliminary and subject to revision as more material surfaces.

 

[Vault 69er]

Talk about enjoyable research. Let's see... Books; The Road, the Postman, the Wasteland comics, The Martian Chronicles, Tank Girl, heh.

If I see ONE talking kangaroo in Fallout 3 I now know who to fire. Out of a cannon. Into the sun.

Film; Testament, The Day After (not tomorrow...), A boy and His Dog - which is really the closest-to-template Fallout film I've seen - the Mad Maxes, some campy 50's flicks, Six String Samurai, Damnation Alley, Soylent Green, Omega Man (gotta love Heston), and of course the games

Well he gets 5 bonus points for not mentioning Battlefield Earth.

- Arcanum, Bloodlines, Planescape, Fallout 1&2 - obviously all of those, but so many other games that we can be inspired by or learn from - from Zork to Facade to STALKER.

Darn, my respect for him was soaring until he mentioned STALKER.

 

[Tagaziel]

Darn, my respect for him was soaring until he mentioned STALKER.

And why is that? STALKER came closest to capturing the feel of post-apocalypse in my opinion.

 

[The Commissar]

Darn, my respect for him was soaring until he mentioned STALKER.

Perhaps a bad look for gameplay as far as Fallout is concerned, but STALKER did a good job creating an atmosphere of apocalyptic decay and despair which included many Cold War elements. I certainly think thats enough to warrant taking a look at. And there is certainly no reason why playing STALKER makes someone the Anti-Fallout.

Edit
Oi! I agreed with the Furry! Its not contagious I hope?

 

[Vault 69er]

Darn, my respect for him was soaring until he mentioned STALKER.

And why is that? STALKER came closest to capturing the feel of post-apocalypse in my opinion.

Well, maybe parts of it. But overall I didn't like it.
Though primarily my concern is that they'll be *too* inspired by it, it being an FPS and all.

 

[Tagaziel]

Still, you're taking it a bit too far.

 

[The Commissar]

And Arcanum was a buggy mess with broken combat. You don't fear they will take too much from that as well?

 

[Vault 69er]

And Arcanum was a buggy mess with broken combat.

Yeah people say that. Though personally, I can count the number of game breaking bugs/crashes I've encountered in Arcanum with my two hands, while Oblivion.. I'd need a whole file cabinet.

You don't fear they will take too much from that as well?

Psh. They already have..

 

[The Commissar]

Yeah people say that. Though personally, I can count the number of game breaking bugs/crashes I've encountered in Arcanum with my two hands

Ten or more game breaking bugs (Assuming you didn't lose some fingers to an angry watermelon) is far too many. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy (As in, continue to replay) Arcanum. But it has things we don't want to see in Fallout 3. Just like STALKER. I really don't see a reason to single STALKER out as bad medicine for a Fallout developer. I mean, they are playing Fallout 2 also! There are certainly elements from that we don't want in our Fallout 3.

 

[Vault 69er]

Ten or more game breaking bugs (Assuming you didn't lose some fingers to an angry watermelon) is far too many. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy (As in, continue to replay) Arcanum. But it has things we don't want to see in Fallout 3. Just like STALKER. I really don't see a reason to single STALKER out as bad medicine for a Fallout developer. I mean, they are playing Fallout 2 also! There are certainly elements from that we don't want in our Fallout 3.

Well you know, for some the mere mention of STALKER sets off the "Oblivion with Gunz!" alert. Alarmist kneejerk reaction? You betcha. But there it is.

Oh and I regard 10 or so bad bugs as fine. Given that Oblivion has given me like.. 50 or so. Then again I'm just really unlucky. Or in fact, lucky with Troika games, unlucky with anything else.

 

[Hellion]

I saw the thread's title and immediately thought that perhaps some developers had answered to some game-related questions exclusively for the people of NMA or something...

Anyway. It is funny how some discussions turn out in the "meet the devs" threads. One developer mentions Star Wars, and a flame begins on whether the prequels or the Expanded Universe are worth anything, and ends debating on whether KotOR was better than NWN2.

(quite similar to the STALKER discussion in the posts above, now that I think of it )

 

[The Commissar]

I'm not debating which games are better or worse. I'm trying to point out that baseless and knee jerk reactions don't just fail to help, but in fact, cause damage and unnecessary panic. I don't care if you like STALKER or think its the worst game ever made. They said they might be able to learn something from STALKER. You disagree?

 

[Stag]

They seemed like nice guys and all, but there wasn't the same sort of kick as reading something from Fargo or Cain or whatever.

I liked the artist a lot.

 

[SpaceKungFuMan]

I know we haven't gotten any substantive info from my threads, but I think we've gotten a lot of encouraging info none the less. We haven't been told anything that makes Oblivion with guns any more or less likely, but at least now we know a lot of the team members really do love Fallout, are well versed in PA material, and appreciate the value of good dialog. The quest designer's posts have been particularly exciting imo. Personally, these responses make me feel more confident in the developers, should they make a real fallout game instead of Oblivion with Guns.

But (and I know it won't be popular to say this) the only reason they're posting at all is because those have been threads where people don't jump down their throats. I think its worth cutting them some slack on their own forums to get this kind of information out of them. I don't think there's a whole hell of a lot of info about the game that you can glean from the developer posts, so just take these responses for what they are. At least now we know the developers aren't all blind Oblivion robots who aren't interested in Fallout or the PA setting.

Edit: I was only referring to the single poster talking about STALKER. I did not mean to imply that NMA posters in general overreact like this. I just wish we could stop seeing this particular brand of knee jerk reaction from any posters on Bethesda's forum (and its very common there). I see no reason to post there but to get developer interaction, and when people react like this, it makes that interaction less likely.

 

[Brother None]

But (and I know it won't be popular to say this) the only reason they're posting at all is because those have been threads where people don't jump down their throats.

Really? Please show us which dev of the ones that posted on NMA (MSFD, Burgess and Emil) got their throat cut after posting here?

I think its worth cutting them some slack on their own forums to get this kind of information out of them.

No, this kind of information isn't worth that, or much of anything else.

I'll be willing to co-orperate more when they make the first step towards betterment. I'm not going corporate lackey in the hope of them giving me the time of day.

 

[SpaceKungFuMan]

Really? Please show us which dev of the ones that posted on NMA (MSFD, Burgess and Emil) got their throat cut after posting here?

I wasn't referring to any particular instance. I was just talking about the reaction to seeing STALKER on the list of references. I just don't see what anyone can gain from digging so deep into such an innocuous comment. Hell, he might have even said STALKER in part because it got so much coverage here and at dac.

No, this kind of information isn't worth that, or much of anything else.

I'll be willing to co-orperate more when they make the first step towards betterment. I'm not going corporate lackey in the hope of them giving me the time of day.

You're entitled to your opinion. Personally I feel that my time on their forum on these threads has been more worthwhile than when I was just attacking the game. You can call me a corporate lackey if you want, but I'm sure as hell not buying the game if its not really fallout in pretty much every sense. But for now I'm just trying to get some info for the community.

 

[Tannhauser]

I was just talking about the reaction to seeing STALKER on the list of references. I just don't see what anyone can gain from digging so deep into such an innocuous comment. Hell, he might have even said STALKER in part because it got so much coverage here and at dac.

One person with under fifty posts and only a couple days on the forum starts going off on that point, and several more senior members comment that it is an over-reaction in response? Not all that significant of a reaction.