Seriously, it's like christmas presents dropping every day with these videos, as an aspiring game developer you have no idea how valuable this information is to me.
Chris Avellone has mentioned that the inspiration for Arroyo in Fallout 2 was the novel Earth Abides, which features a similar transformation of 'civilized' people into a prehistoric tribe that can't read, write or do mathematics and views the pre-war world in legendary terms. I think you said that was one of the areas you worked on before you left Interplay.
The Master is still the best Fallout villain, and it's not even close. Scary as hell, unique, but also you can beat him without combat, if you do your homework. Not just a "I'll give you a 100 speech check to fuck off", you need to bring actual arguments from data you found to the table to convince him his plan is doomed. Amazing stuff.
@@TrueNeutralEvGenius Dude, he murders a ton of people to reach his goal and to impose his will on the world. He's a villain. But at least a villain that can be reasoned with.
I know I bet this channel will be legendary. It definitely made my day when I discovered it. It's like seeing one of my favorite authors of all times. I met Arlo Guthrie once, but this is definitely inspirational and memories all at once. I never used to listen to Arlo Guthrie as a kid, but I'm like a hippie at heart. It has been a while since Ive played it everyday all day, but still wow. Talk about an awesome Segway from growing up reading choose your own adventure books. These kids don't remember the world before fakebook and horrigan started recruiting for isis and censoring the have nots like vault city while making up reality as they go along. Controlling people with algorithms they say, but they always know where to tap for mass destruction now don't they? They are destroying the spiritual groundwater with depleted uranium shells today. It's our decision what kind of technicians we can be. They think we will all destroy ourselves as they get richer right now at least. Not for long! Horrigan is about to have a foot shoved up his ass like that seventies show Dad. Oh one day hell do it! We should send Mila Kunis to the front to defend "her people". I love how people in Russia see this game in reality as well but I'm not political I just see it's been a LOOOONG time coming. Killing the rest of the world off and inviting civil war to build a vault city PRISON! WE NEED CASSIDY AGAIN! HE WAS BADASS. He even kind of resembles the maga people as well once they bust them up some more. They are already shooting them for stealing lawn chairs from public property on Jan 6th. Choreographed on Fakebook like isis! I hate to tell you but this recession will only get worse and worse as it has slowly since 1985. If I EVER made a video game Zuckerberg would be the most evil villian on the planet. Choreographing people to their deaths! I know he is just a puppet but that entity is running the united states like a shell at this point almost 30 years later
Just finished Fallout 1 for the first time, loved it, I really wish we could go back to the atmosphere and aesthetic it had compared to Fallout 4, it also gave me an even greater appreciation for New Vegas because of how much it feels like a continuation of old Fallout.
New Vegas is hands down the most overrated fallout game, no, most overrated game in general I think. Its litterally just Fallout 3 but worse and with pretentious writing.
@@wordofswords5386 That's funny, I thought it was a cut above all the other recent ones, the writing being a particular strength. Each to their own I supose.
Harold seems to be a remaining proof of the ghoul origin debate. He looks like a ghoul and calls himself a ghoul but according to his backstory, his change was caused by the FEV that also changed the Master.
My dad was a civilian employee for a branch of the US military as an electronics technician. He has lots of stories about defense contractors who wanted him to just approve testing equipment so everyone could go home, quality control be damned. Fortunately for enlisted persons using the equipment, he held contractors' feet to the fire until the testing equipment worked. Thanks again for posting your tales. I really enjoy these.
I was so happy to hear two influences. Gamma World which gave me hours out old school table top fun and secondly LaJetee which I was lucky enough to watch in a film class in college. Thank you for this trip down memory lane Tim.
Have been pleasantly surprised to see some of the influences that went into Fallout as described in different videos on this channel. My first exposure to La Jetee was also in college somewhere around 2009/2010. These videos are awesome
I want to thank you and the rest of the original Fallout team for creating such an entertaining game. I'm replaying the first one and I'm still surprised by the small details. I became so interested in the movies that inspired it that now most of those films are my favorite ones. Thank you!
Love that Wiz-War was mentioned as an influence. My dad taught us with one of the copies he and his group of buddies would play with. I love the mayhem that stems forth from playing it!
I find your remarks about Wasteland super interesting because a "founding myth" about Fallout I've heard for years now (and I believe it was even touted on the wiki) was that Fallout came to be specifically BECAUSE the Wasteland devs, Brian Fargo in particular, wanted to make a sequel but weren't allowed to. I don't know how this legend came to be but I think the truth of Fallout's conception to be substantially more interesting.
This has been such a great series of vids man. Im a lil older closer to 40 and i played fallout 1 and 2 in 98. My old man put me onto bladerunner and obviously mad max all that cool shit. I always got immense water world vibes, especially the Khans lol. Appreciate the lil world you conjured up for us man
Christ, I just had to look to see at how long ago it was. Sure enough '97.damn. I suppose I was a teenager at the time. And then fallout 2 was a mere year later. Not a decade like games now. Looking at you, Rockstar.
Currently trying to finish a game that is stuck in a development hell (4 years for a project that was supposed to last 2) and your videos actually help me stay motivated on this final stage. Thank you, really.
@@TrueNeutralEvGenius that's what a good antagonist is, having development, backstory, a justification and even a redemption arc if you get the best ending
Right?!? He may not get a zillion views the day a video drops, but this is evergreen content that becomes more valuable as time passes. These videos only increase in importance and views and time crawls along. I assume these are made for historical reasons and passion, not for profit. Never stop! I want hundreds of hours of Tim talking about game design.
So glad I found this channel! I have some of the best memories of my childhood opening up the big PC Fallout 1 box on xmas and installing it. The game was something so different and cool, I literally couldnt wait to get home from school to explore the wasteland! Cheers for making a childhood memory sir!
Hey Tim! Thank you for making this UA-cam channel and speaking about Fallout like this. It means a lot to me to hear from you about a game that means so much to me and so many people. Thank you so much for all the hard work you have done over the years!
Thank you so much for these stories, Tim, it means a lot. Your games mean a lot to me, and did back when I was a kid, and this is just a fantastic thing that you're doing
Ya know, I might not watch these on publication, but I want to let you know that fallout 1&2 are among my favorite games ever, I've played through both dozens of times, along with original wasteland. I really enjoy hearing you talk about them, and game design philosophy. I used to think I could make games, and technically I can, but I'm not able to make anything I'm proud of. You're inspirational. Maybe someday when I'm mature enough I'll try again. (I'm already in my 40s so probably not, but who knows!) I might not be watching these the day the come out, but please understand that this is "evergreen" content that have nothing to to with "today" and thusly are relevant and interesting in perpetuity. Fallout exists and is still being mage and played, and old heads like myself, as well as new fans, will find these videos interesting for 100 years to come. Thank you and please make more!
I always imagined two the biggest movie influences were A Boy And His Dog and The Road Warrior so very interesting to hear about this. Thanks. And yeah, Dogmeat was the name of the dog in A Boy and His Dog - his actual name was Blood and he hated being called Dogmeat. :) A Boy and His Dog also had the "Screaming Meemies?" which are definitely an inspiration for glowing ghouls. It's a good short story and a really gonzo movie too.
It's actually a few stories, including Boy nearly killing himself, and then awkwardly having to work with Blood and a fierce young woman who can also talk to Blood. Harlan just loved adding wrinkles to that weird, destroyed world.
I've been playing through Fallout 1 for the first time and Road Warrior and the Mad Max films I really felt those vibes in there. More so than the other games. There is like a vast emptiness feeling to it.
I am playing Fallout New Vegas and I googled for the inspiration of the fallout series. It is crazy that this video was posted just two weeks ago. This series is very fleshed out lore wise.
I really appreciate that younger you had the presence of mind to keep regular and accurate notes so that this information could be cataloged for the then future.
Люблю Dogmeat! У нас его перевели как «псина», что немного грубо, но учитывая суровый мир наверняка многие так и называли бы его. А ведь он такой хороший мальчик. Тысячу раз сохранялся и загружался, но прошёл полностью с ним всю игру от начала и до конца. В Марипозе было особенно сложно. Сейчас представил как круто бы было, если бы в конце наш персонаж уходил вдаль вместе с ним. Как бонус за спасение собаки. Но тогда наверное была бы слишком явная отсылка к воину дороги.
Ни разу не грубо, а даже мягче, чем семантически dogmeat, что есть по сути собачье мясо. Это больше даже аллюзия на "Boy and His Dog", чем на "Mad Max".
Another great video, thank you. I would love to hear about these influences on Arcanum as well, if there were any in particular. Also, would be really cool to have a video of you talking about some of your favorite games all in all, both new and old, and the effect they had on you.
Okay, commenting again now that I've watched the video a bit. The fact that Sugarbombs are based off of Calvin and Hobbes' in universe over-sugary cereal is amazing. I adored those comics so much and it's so cool to have a link between a nostalgic part of my childhood and a franchise I love
Been really loving all these videos from you. I love the look into the industry, the look into the process, and even the open videos about your personal experiences. Thanks for making these! From a fan perspective, as well as a designer perspective, this stuff is all kind of fascinating.
Tim, you could make a video on your reflections on what has been lost and what has been gained from RPGs like Fallout and Arcanum going full first-person 3d. What is better and what is worse in full 3d games.
Them! Haha, Fallout 3 was my first game, it had a quest called “Those!” which I was afraid to finish as a kid. Love to hear all this stuff, thanks for sharing!
You bet! I loved Crusader when I was a kid and when I played the fallout demo and saw they had similar graphic style I knew I had to get the game. 25 years later, I'm still a fan and watching all of Tim's videos.
As soon as you started talking about Wasteland having quests with moral dilemmas, I thought of the boy asking you to find his dog. In fact, that's the only specific quest I remember about that game. So yes, it stuck with me over all of these years.
That was my favorite video of yours so far. I love the whole fifties vibe, though I think that’s because I lived it - Forbidden Planet is the earliest movie I can remember seeing (at a drive-in theater). Shout out to the late Scott Bennie for Dog Meat!
@@Mushroomshay Older than Tim, and clearly self-aware at some point in the fifties (what time is it? It’s Howdy Doody time. “Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane…”, “Give ‘em what fer, Davy”). The retro-futurism of Fallout always makes me smile. I play more board games than video games these days, though I still play some.
Bigger than the next two or three combined? Try bigger than ALL OF THEM combined. Love your content, Cain. One of the most special channels on the site.
When you talk about comic book covers you can see the influence of pulp comics. But the work I always think of is the work of Spain Rodriguez. If you look at the Zap Comix issue 7 cover, the influence is uncanny and I love it. I also when having to explain Fallout to people who have never played it by saying it's Terry Gilliam's Brazil but after a nuclear war. Thanks for doing these videos Tim ✌️😎👍
I really appreciate hearing this historical context and background on my favourite game of all time. Fallout shaped my gaming/reading/movie/show preferences some twenty plus years later. Thank you so much for all creative work Tim.
Fantastic to hear your insights on the development of such a classic game. There are quite a few movies you mentioned which are now on my to watch list. Love the channel!
I must be one of dozen people in Finland who played and still have Gamma World. And I hosted GURPS in few different time eras, fantasy, cyberpunk and wild west. Love hearing about the influences and origins. Explains why I fell in love with the Fallout franchise.
Mr. Cain, you have created a series that I will forever be a fan of in all its forms. I cannot thank you enough for this gift, a game that I will play for ages all my life.
Love these expos always and forever, it's such a treat to learn all this after 20+ years of loving this creation. One weird question - you mention sugar bombs/chocolate frosted sugar bombs; and I think i remember that showing up in the manuals? But if not, do they actually show up in any of the original games? The earliest i can remember them in the games was fallout 3. I definitely appreciate the reference to Calvin and Hobbes.
Woah, you are right! I see a mention of Sugar Bombs in my notes from the 90s, but there were no items called Sugar Bombs in Fallout or Fallout 2. But they are in Fallout 3, New Vegas, and 4. Parallel design development? Calvin & Hobbes fans at Bethesda? I do not know.
@@CainOnGames Oh hey thanks for the response. The wikis seem to only see it as a 3 onward phenomenon...maybe it was shared in some design notes?... I'd like to think there was some parallel love for C&H for all of us coming out of the 90s/00s. Just wanted to say again what an inspiration you've been and how great it is having these videos and explanations here. Being a queer player of RPGs, it's been revelatory and inspiring to hear from lgbt game designers, particularly one who was so fundamental to my favorite digital stories. You rock!
Following the creation of the series has gotten me to try watching and reading many works that inspired it or were inspired by it. I'm definitely picking up Canticle for Leibowitz next library trip!
I skimmed some old Gamma World editions a while back and one thing that just struck me the other day was that the Master's and Enclave's need for vault-dwellers uncorrupted by the mutating radiation of the nuclear apocalypse maps almost 1:1 to Gamma World's Pure Strain Humans who've lived in environmentally protected spaces.
If you havent seen it, I do have a movie to reccomend, well two actually: Metropolis (1927) for its "wall of separation" between the people triving their lifes at the expense of the undesirables and how this obliterates the very core of what made humanity reach the skyes, and Threads (1984) the most accurate despiction in nuclear holocaust that makes both The Day After (1983) and Sarah's nuke nightmare in Terminator 2 (1991) look like episodes of Hello Kitty.
Per your discussion of the American military-industrial complex, can I just say that one of the first images you see in Fallout being an image of an American soldier in occupied Canada casually shooting a Canadian partisan in the head, then waving for the camera while his friend laughs, really stuck in my memory? Fallout has a very, very unflattering portrait of the kind of American exceptionalism and nationalism that flourished almost unchallenged in the '50s and never flinches away from depicting it in the most negative terms possible. I always appreciated that.
Thank you so much for these videos Tim! I wasn't born until years after Fallout released but I've loved going and exploring older games and while Fallout took a bit to get into with the clunky gameplay, I loved it. The realization that I could actually screw up by something that Junktown didn't like and getting put in jail was so cool to me and it (along with Fallout 2) has become one of my favorite experiences in a game and single-handedly (or double-handedly since 2 had a part in it as well) got me into CRPGs. Thank you for the clunky mess that you've helped provide and I hope you end up having a good day today.
So insightful. I've watched a lot of fallout lore videos. But this is like going straight to the core. Much respect for being a part of the creation of such a deep and fascinating universe! West coast for life!
China obfuscates a lot of it's defense budget, they're just a little under the US in terms of budget they just mask alot of their military development under research subsidies and a few other sectors mainly due to propaganda reasons, the exact ones that have you describing the US budget as 'depressing.'
I think the old model synths in F4 are alright from a design standpoint; They partially remind me of the designs of old prosthetics from the 50s rather than "Terminator" even if theyre still overall too sleek/high tech for fallout. The later models are still absurd, however.
The dark humour in the games and especially the Vault Tec meeting from the show with the dark room, round overhead light and the big board, I’m reminded of Dr.Strangelove.
I'd love to see a video on your thoughts regarding the writing, world, gameplay, art, characters, etc of the sequel games. Could do a video for each game in the series.
Hi Timothy, Thank you for sharing your stories. I was wondering if you would make a video about colors and their use in gaming. The subject interests me at the moment because I am witnessing more and more bright and over saturated colors in games these days, it seems to have become the general trend these past few years (2018 onwards)
@@CainOnGames Thanks Timothy. I watched your video about color blindness. I'm glad you still managed to truck on with it in the industry and that your peers even questioned your opinion regarding your condition in relation to games you were creating together. I think my question revolves more around 'stimulative colors' and their implication in games. I understand that the 'fun' factor is a major motivator for game creators, but for me over saturated colors actually diminish the sense of reality which also creates immersion! (I also enjoyed the monochromatic theme of Skyrim/winter hinterlands, like yourself). Thanks for the reply and link.
I hope we can deepen that particular discussion a bit because it's struck me as a trend toward the cartoonish and, frankly, childish whereas RPGs especially were a bit, shall we say, on the countercultural side from their inception. While a great many Fallout fans just think the series "fun" (as opposed to enjoyable), others in the Fallout community have more appreciated its black humor and cultural critique, whether intended or not. It's that last, among other things, that has gone missing in modern Fallouts in favor of "mainstreaming" it for an indiscriminate audience, but when the most destructive device ever created by human beings is viewed and treated as though it were a toy, for example, I would say something has gone horribly and perhaps even irrevocably amiss. I'm sure Tim can't really comment on the direction the industry itself is going for professional reasons, but while I haven't been able to get into more recent Obsidian games, I absolutely adored Obsidian's "trailer" for The Outer Worlds 2, presented at E3 2021, which essentially takes the gaming "industry" itself to task. Brilliant. Some of it is innocuous, I'm sure. Bethesda received a lot of criticism for the monochrome palette of Fallout 3 and perhaps overcompensated in Fallout 4 with its bright blue and red and yellow buildings and catwalks and railings, etc. while the rest of the coloring was fairly subdued. (That's what ENBs are for, of course. Don't like it? Change it.) The latest Dark Souls game (and it is a Dark Souls game) has gone that route also with even the skies of each region essentially duplicating the colors assigned to the vast majority of soceries and incantations and weapon arts to be found in them. One can only suppose From Software thought that would make them more atmospheric as the colors correspond to the "mood" of the various arts -- storm, magic, faith, arcane, frost, etc. From my perspective, however, it was just another layer of video gamey artificiality as opposed to artistry, if that makes sense, that the game would have been better off without. Anyway.... Great, thought-provoking question.
@@lrinfi Thank you for the reply, Irinfi. I must agree with you that for me the selling point in said Fallout is the 'grit, the dark humor, the wit' and we've perhaps forgotten that subtly also has it's impact. For me the over saturated colors are just too intrusive these days and it reminds me of the colorful arcade games which still existed back in the 90's (39y/o), made to catch your eye with color and sounds and bring you to the said device/game. I hope to see a counter to this with upcoming Obsidian games with some nice normal color schemes. I am personally looking forward to Avowed which we seem to have very little information on. Perhaps that is a good thing! I'm a fervent defender of: 'I don't know what I want, make me dream!' Good day
@@Falicon "I'm a fervent defender of: 'I don't know what I want, make me dream!'" Funny you should say that. One of the things you'd least expect to go the way of the dodo bird in modern video games is going the way of the dodo bird in modern video games: actual interactivity. Video games used to ignite and engage our own imaginations, but are becoming little more than interactive movies and passive "entertainment." It honestly sends shivers down my spine when people say, for example, "Elden Ring is the future of RPGs." Arugh? Elden Ring is not even a RPG. It's literally designed for online PvP and co-op combat. Its SP campaign, if you can call it that, consists of being monologued at and picking an ending from a list. At no time is the player given agency to participate in an unfolding story. In fact, it bugs me no end that initial combat build creation screens are still labeled "character creation." The upcoming generation has been raised on that, though. They don't know the difference because they probably haven't experienced the difference if they haven't played, say, the early Fallouts, Mass Effect, a few Bethesda games, etc. So, I hope it means what it should mean when Todd Howard, for example, says things like, "We're going back to some things that we used to do in games long ago that we felt have really let players express the character they want to be." That would be nice.
City of lost children had to have been the largest influence on the art style of Fallout.. How did Ron Perlman get involved with the intro narrative, it has to be tied to that influence?
What about Star Control 2? I was inspired to watch a Let's Play of that game after reading your review of it, and the open world with a time limit, the dialogue trees, the ability to make friends or enemies out of most of the other powers in the game, the sense of humor, and the well-thought-out villains really reminded me of Fallout.
The guns of Fallout 1 and 2 is something soooooo, retrofuturistic, the watts rifles look like M16s with a gigantic delwelt battery attached, as another looks like a Browning auto 5 with a scope slapped atop
I always like how the origin of ghouls is mostly pointed at as being radiation but is left juuuust the tadest bit vague enough for speculation to come up
Hey Tim! great seeing you on youtube. Some rad videos man, been watching a bunch of them. Thanks for sharing all this awesome history of one of my fav. all time games.
What a great way to describe Fallout (and others) as a menu. And the player has control that is important. But ive played games for over 3 decades and the games i mentioned have amazing pacing made by those teams. Just outstanding and it is part of the reason they can be replayed over and over. Edit this comment was started on the pacing video but UA-cam autoplayed and it ended up here : )
I was lucky to have a movie buff dad when Fallout came out. I'd play the game all week and then sit down to movies like On the Beach and Fail Safe that a kid probably would not otherwise know.
Not sure if it’s supposed to be Life Imitates Art or Art Imitates Life, but I think both apply to Fallout, a lot of very interesting and diverse influences and has became an influence in itself. 👏 👏 👏
I'd like to throw in a question - but before that - love these videos Tim. Loving the Behind the Scenes of a fantastic series, diving into the brains of the creators. Something I think a lot of people notice is that the creation/writing/design of games (and really movies and TV shows too) has changed a lot over the last few years. It seems like the game you made, the writing/design has a lot more depth to it then say Fallout 4 has. Fallout 4 has a lot of positives, but the story and the dramatic events seem to lack a lot - the word 'Heart' may be applicable. If you somewhat agree with this sentiment, how would you say the writing styles of today and the past compare? And what would you say you think the cause of these differences are? Thanks Tim!
The big difference between Fallout's robots and the synths is the purpose they have. RobCo's bots were generally designed to serve humans. The Institute's synths are designed to supplant and eventually replace humans. They're both robots, sure, but the design philosophy is the difference between a steak knife and guillotine...at least, that's the impression I get as a player.
![The vault tec conspiracy meeting part two [Fallout]](/img/n.gif)
Seriously, it's like christmas presents dropping every day with these videos,
as an aspiring game developer you have no idea how valuable this information is to me.
i feel the same
@@davidovics92 i feel the game
aspiring game dev lol
"aspiring game dev" lol
@@nurgle-j5n Stop living in the past, let it go already! 😆
Chris Avellone has mentioned that the inspiration for Arroyo in Fallout 2 was the novel Earth Abides, which features a similar transformation of 'civilized' people into a prehistoric tribe that can't read, write or do mathematics and views the pre-war world in legendary terms. I think you said that was one of the areas you worked on before you left Interplay.
Love that book Never knew the connection between it and Arroyo.
Earth Abides is such a great, but grim, novel.
Can't be prehistoric if they have a view on the pre-war world tho.
The Master is still the best Fallout villain, and it's not even close. Scary as hell, unique, but also you can beat him without combat, if you do your homework. Not just a "I'll give you a 100 speech check to fuck off", you need to bring actual arguments from data you found to the table to convince him his plan is doomed.
Amazing stuff.
Funny enough even if you bring proof, if your speech and charisma aren't high enough he will just accuse you of forging the documents and attack you
@@MBSMythic terrific writing
Also Masters plan was in my opinion unintentionally similar to Nazi ideas.. 'One race. One goal. One people.' 'One people. One reich. One Führer.'
Master is not a villain, he is antihero antagonist. True intellectual, mutilated and cursed by intelligence and FEV.
@@TrueNeutralEvGenius Dude, he murders a ton of people to reach his goal and to impose his will on the world. He's a villain. But at least a villain that can be reasoned with.
VATS always reminded me of XCOM hit chances, “if it ain’t 100% it’s 50%” as Xcom players always say.
That's certainly the case in Fallout: New Vegas. And it's a darn good thing that the weapon mechanics are serviceable, unlike in Fallout 3.
These videos have been golden for getting insight on not only Fallout, but game development as a whole
I know I bet this channel will be legendary. It definitely made my day when I discovered it. It's like seeing one of my favorite authors of all times. I met Arlo Guthrie once, but this is definitely inspirational and memories all at once. I never used to listen to Arlo Guthrie as a kid, but I'm like a hippie at heart. It has been a while since Ive played it everyday all day, but still wow. Talk about an awesome Segway from growing up reading choose your own adventure books. These kids don't remember the world before fakebook and horrigan started recruiting for isis and censoring the have nots like vault city while making up reality as they go along. Controlling people with algorithms they say, but they always know where to tap for mass destruction now don't they? They are destroying the spiritual groundwater with depleted uranium shells today. It's our decision what kind of technicians we can be. They think we will all destroy ourselves as they get richer right now at least. Not for long! Horrigan is about to have a foot shoved up his ass like that seventies show Dad. Oh one day hell do it! We should send Mila Kunis to the front to defend "her people". I love how people in Russia see this game in reality as well but I'm not political I just see it's been a LOOOONG time coming. Killing the rest of the world off and inviting civil war to build a vault city PRISON! WE NEED CASSIDY AGAIN! HE WAS BADASS. He even kind of resembles the maga people as well once they bust them up some more. They are already shooting them for stealing lawn chairs from public property on Jan 6th. Choreographed on Fakebook like isis! I hate to tell you but this recession will only get worse and worse as it has slowly since 1985. If I EVER made a video game Zuckerberg would be the most evil villian on the planet. Choreographing people to their deaths! I know he is just a puppet but that entity is running the united states like a shell at this point almost 30 years later
@@ZeeHilalDecided to just start typing your stream of consciousness?
Man this small little content talk was actually a super big reveal for fans,glad this happened
Just finished Fallout 1 for the first time, loved it, I really wish we could go back to the atmosphere and aesthetic it had compared to Fallout 4, it also gave me an even greater appreciation for New Vegas because of how much it feels like a continuation of old Fallout.
I don't think Bethesda ever really understood fallout.
Please make your own thoughts for once.@@davidhughes8795
New Vegas is hands down the most overrated fallout game, no, most overrated game in general I think. Its litterally just Fallout 3 but worse and with pretentious writing.
@@wordofswords5386 That's funny, I thought it was a cut above all the other recent ones, the writing being a particular strength. Each to their own I supose.
Try to praise one Fallout game without shitting on a Bethesda Fallout game afterward: Impossible
Dude, as someone who grew up replaying fallout 1/2, I am sooo stoken to have discovered your channel
Harold seems to be a remaining proof of the ghoul origin debate. He looks like a ghoul and calls himself a ghoul but according to his backstory, his change was caused by the FEV that also changed the Master.
Then he became a tree and got lit the fuck up
@@kafkabigmonstill one of the most insane things bethesda’s ever done like why is he a tree lmao
@@jess648 I thought it made sense. Fallout 4 with androids is a worse break from established lore, in my opinion.
Fallout 2 changed more lore from the previous game than any other Fallout. But sure, keep shitting on Bethesda Fallouts
@@Flismz This is a bold opinion to state, but I'm really glad someone voiced it.
My dad was a civilian employee for a branch of the US military as an electronics technician. He has lots of stories about defense contractors who wanted him to just approve testing equipment so everyone could go home, quality control be damned. Fortunately for enlisted persons using the equipment, he held contractors' feet to the fire until the testing equipment worked.
Thanks again for posting your tales. I really enjoy these.
Your dad and people like him are unsung heroes.
I was so happy to hear two influences. Gamma World which gave me hours out old school table top fun and secondly LaJetee which I was lucky enough to watch in a film class in college. Thank you for this trip down memory lane Tim.
Have been pleasantly surprised to see some of the influences that went into Fallout as described in different videos on this channel. My first exposure to La Jetee was also in college somewhere around 2009/2010. These videos are awesome
I want to thank you and the rest of the original Fallout team for creating such an entertaining game. I'm replaying the first one and I'm still surprised by the small details. I became so interested in the movies that inspired it that now most of those films are my favorite ones. Thank you!
Love that Wiz-War was mentioned as an influence. My dad taught us with one of the copies he and his group of buddies would play with. I love the mayhem that stems forth from playing it!
love these fallout videos
I find your remarks about Wasteland super interesting because a "founding myth" about Fallout I've heard for years now (and I believe it was even touted on the wiki) was that Fallout came to be specifically BECAUSE the Wasteland devs, Brian Fargo in particular, wanted to make a sequel but weren't allowed to.
I don't know how this legend came to be but I think the truth of Fallout's conception to be substantially more interesting.
TIM tysm for this because you are helping me prove a point about defense contractors I have always said
Thank you SO MUCH for answering my question, Tim. So great!
You made this video happen?
Why vault 5?
This has been such a great series of vids man. Im a lil older closer to 40 and i played fallout 1 and 2 in 98. My old man put me onto bladerunner and obviously mad max all that cool shit. I always got immense water world vibes, especially the Khans lol. Appreciate the lil world you conjured up for us man
Christ, I just had to look to see at how long ago it was. Sure enough '97.damn. I suppose I was a teenager at the time. And then fallout 2 was a mere year later. Not a decade like games now. Looking at you, Rockstar.
Currently trying to finish a game that is stuck in a development hell (4 years for a project that was supposed to last 2) and your videos actually help me stay motivated on this final stage. Thank you, really.
the master was such an original grotesque but compelling villain you just would not see things like that in modern day fallout
All I need in life is a Fallout 1 remake by Obsidian
@@ProtoPurityGod I fucking wish
Master is not a villain, he is antihero antagonist.
@@TrueNeutralEvGenius that's what a good antagonist is, having development, backstory, a justification and even a redemption arc if you get the best ending
He was actually the example what couldv happened with Vault dweller.
Never stop uploading Tim. Your work has been inspiring for many of us, and these videos provide invaluable insight!
Right?!? He may not get a zillion views the day a video drops, but this is evergreen content that becomes more valuable as time passes. These videos only increase in importance and views and time crawls along. I assume these are made for historical reasons and passion, not for profit. Never stop! I want hundreds of hours of Tim talking about game design.
So glad I found this channel! I have some of the best memories of my childhood opening up the big PC Fallout 1 box on xmas and installing it.
The game was something so different and cool, I literally couldnt wait to get home from school to explore the wasteland!
Cheers for making a childhood memory sir!
Hey Tim!
Thank you for making this UA-cam channel and speaking about Fallout like this.
It means a lot to me to hear from you about a game that means so much to me and so many people.
Thank you so much for all the hard work you have done over the years!
Thank you so much for these stories, Tim, it means a lot. Your games mean a lot to me, and did back when I was a kid, and this is just a fantastic thing that you're doing
Ya know, I might not watch these on publication, but I want to let you know that fallout 1&2 are among my favorite games ever, I've played through both dozens of times, along with original wasteland. I really enjoy hearing you talk about them, and game design philosophy. I used to think I could make games, and technically I can, but I'm not able to make anything I'm proud of. You're inspirational. Maybe someday when I'm mature enough I'll try again. (I'm already in my 40s so probably not, but who knows!)
I might not be watching these the day the come out, but please understand that this is "evergreen" content that have nothing to to with "today" and thusly are relevant and interesting in perpetuity. Fallout exists and is still being mage and played, and old heads like myself, as well as new fans, will find these videos interesting for 100 years to come. Thank you and please make more!
I always imagined two the biggest movie influences were A Boy And His Dog and The Road Warrior so very interesting to hear about this. Thanks. And yeah, Dogmeat was the name of the dog in A Boy and His Dog - his actual name was Blood and he hated being called Dogmeat. :) A Boy and His Dog also had the "Screaming Meemies?" which are definitely an inspiration for glowing ghouls. It's a good short story and a really gonzo movie too.
A Boy and His Dog also had vaults. It's definitely those two movies at the top.
@@DACFalloutRanger Vaults, raiders, ghouls, insane robots/androids IIRC? Lots of good stuff there.
It's actually a few stories, including Boy nearly killing himself, and then awkwardly having to work with Blood and a fierce young woman who can also talk to Blood. Harlan just loved adding wrinkles to that weird, destroyed world.
@@RedSiegfried And giant mutant critters, too.
I've been playing through Fallout 1 for the first time and Road Warrior and the Mad Max films I really felt those vibes in there. More so than the other games. There is like a vast emptiness feeling to it.
I started playing Fallout (1) for the first time thanks to your channel! Love hearing all the details and behind the scene facts as I'm playing.
boy, do I envy you
honey wake up tim cain just uploaded
I am playing Fallout New Vegas and I googled for the inspiration of the fallout series. It is crazy that this video was posted just two weeks ago.
This series is very fleshed out lore wise.
Look up GDC fallout New Vegas
I really appreciate that younger you had the presence of mind to keep regular and accurate notes so that this information could be cataloged for the then future.
Люблю Dogmeat! У нас его перевели как «псина», что немного грубо, но учитывая суровый мир наверняка многие так и называли бы его. А ведь он такой хороший мальчик. Тысячу раз сохранялся и загружался, но прошёл полностью с ним всю игру от начала и до конца. В Марипозе было особенно сложно. Сейчас представил как круто бы было, если бы в конце наш персонаж уходил вдаль вместе с ним. Как бонус за спасение собаки. Но тогда наверное была бы слишком явная отсылка к воину дороги.
Ни разу не грубо, а даже мягче, чем семантически dogmeat, что есть по сути собачье мясо. Это больше даже аллюзия на "Boy and His Dog", чем на "Mad Max".
These videos remain fantastic. Love to see the next one in my feed.
Would be great to get a closer look at the stuff in the background.
Another great video, thank you. I would love to hear about these influences on Arcanum as well, if there were any in particular.
Also, would be really cool to have a video of you talking about some of your favorite games all in all, both new and old, and the effect they had on you.
Okay, commenting again now that I've watched the video a bit.
The fact that Sugarbombs are based off of Calvin and Hobbes' in universe over-sugary cereal is amazing.
I adored those comics so much and it's so cool to have a link between a nostalgic part of my childhood and a franchise I love
Been really loving all these videos from you. I love the look into the industry, the look into the process, and even the open videos about your personal experiences. Thanks for making these! From a fan perspective, as well as a designer perspective, this stuff is all kind of fascinating.
Tim, you could make a video on your reflections on what has been lost and what has been gained from RPGs like Fallout and Arcanum going full first-person 3d. What is better and what is worse in full 3d games.
Them! Haha, Fallout 3 was my first game, it had a quest called “Those!” which I was afraid to finish as a kid.
Love to hear all this stuff, thanks for sharing!
Nice list. Cool to see Crusader no Remorse mentioned. That game was sweet :)
You bet! I loved Crusader when I was a kid and when I played the fallout demo and saw they had similar graphic style I knew I had to get the game. 25 years later, I'm still a fan and watching all of Tim's videos.
As soon as you started talking about Wasteland having quests with moral dilemmas, I thought of the boy asking you to find his dog. In fact, that's the only specific quest I remember about that game. So yes, it stuck with me over all of these years.
That was my favorite video of yours so far. I love the whole fifties vibe, though I think that’s because I lived it - Forbidden Planet is the earliest movie I can remember seeing (at a drive-in theater). Shout out to the late Scott Bennie for Dog Meat!
How old are you? Please don’t take this as rude. Are you still playing video games?
@@Mushroomshay Older than Tim, and clearly self-aware at some point in the fifties (what time is it? It’s Howdy Doody time. “Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane…”, “Give ‘em what fer, Davy”). The retro-futurism of Fallout always makes me smile. I play more board games than video games these days, though I still play some.
Bigger than the next two or three combined? Try bigger than ALL OF THEM combined.
Love your content, Cain. One of the most special channels on the site.
you're a legend for dropping these Tim!
>dropping
When you talk about comic book covers you can see the influence of pulp comics. But the work I always think of is the work of Spain Rodriguez. If you look at the Zap Comix issue 7 cover, the influence is uncanny and I love it.
I also when having to explain Fallout to people who have never played it by saying it's Terry Gilliam's Brazil but after a nuclear war. Thanks for doing these videos Tim ✌️😎👍
Fascinating as always. Thank you for sharing, Tim!
I really appreciate hearing this historical context and background on my favourite game of all time. Fallout shaped my gaming/reading/movie/show preferences some twenty plus years later. Thank you so much for all creative work Tim.
Gash I enjoy your talks, Ty for being such a big part of my childhood, even if it was without ever knowing you where, until now 🙏
Fantastic to hear your insights on the development of such a classic game. There are quite a few movies you mentioned which are now on my to watch list. Love the channel!
I must be one of dozen people in Finland who played and still have Gamma World. And I hosted GURPS in few different time eras, fantasy, cyberpunk and wild west. Love hearing about the influences and origins. Explains why I fell in love with the Fallout franchise.
Mr. Cain, you have created a series that I will forever be a fan of in all its forms. I cannot thank you enough for this gift, a game that I will play for ages all my life.
So Sugar Bombs is a Calvin and Hobbes reference? Nice! 👍 🐯
Love these expos always and forever, it's such a treat to learn all this after 20+ years of loving this creation. One weird question - you mention sugar bombs/chocolate frosted sugar bombs; and I think i remember that showing up in the manuals? But if not, do they actually show up in any of the original games? The earliest i can remember them in the games was fallout 3. I definitely appreciate the reference to Calvin and Hobbes.
Woah, you are right! I see a mention of Sugar Bombs in my notes from the 90s, but there were no items called Sugar Bombs in Fallout or Fallout 2. But they are in Fallout 3, New Vegas, and 4.
Parallel design development? Calvin & Hobbes fans at Bethesda? I do not know.
@@CainOnGames Oh hey thanks for the response. The wikis seem to only see it as a 3 onward phenomenon...maybe it was shared in some design notes?... I'd like to think there was some parallel love for C&H for all of us coming out of the 90s/00s. Just wanted to say again what an inspiration you've been and how great it is having these videos and explanations here. Being a queer player of RPGs, it's been revelatory and inspiring to hear from lgbt game designers, particularly one who was so fundamental to my favorite digital stories. You rock!
Following the creation of the series has gotten me to try watching and reading many works that inspired it or were inspired by it. I'm definitely picking up Canticle for Leibowitz next library trip!
Is there a mod that lets you collect the box tops and send them in for a helicopter beanie? They're should be
Mentats => Dune?
I love how Mentats are a Dune reference. All the inspiration was awesome, especially Monty Python influence or Mad Max.
I skimmed some old Gamma World editions a while back and one thing that just struck me the other day was that the Master's and Enclave's need for vault-dwellers uncorrupted by the mutating radiation of the nuclear apocalypse maps almost 1:1 to Gamma World's Pure Strain Humans who've lived in environmentally protected spaces.
This is really cool to listen to, would love to see more creators do this kind of breakdown. thanks!
I would like to know about the influence in The Outer Worlds and Arcanum too!
Same. I wonder where the steampunk influence came from.
These are my favorite videos on this website right now.
Lovely to see how much "the team" seemed to be on the same page, in one way or another. Reading the Hugo books, and so on. Very cool! :)
If you havent seen it, I do have a movie to reccomend, well two actually: Metropolis (1927) for its "wall of separation" between the people triving their lifes at the expense of the undesirables and how this obliterates the very core of what made humanity reach the skyes, and Threads (1984) the most accurate despiction in nuclear holocaust that makes both The Day After (1983) and Sarah's nuke nightmare in Terminator 2 (1991) look like episodes of Hello Kitty.
Per your discussion of the American military-industrial complex, can I just say that one of the first images you see in Fallout being an image of an American soldier in occupied Canada casually shooting a Canadian partisan in the head, then waving for the camera while his friend laughs, really stuck in my memory?
Fallout has a very, very unflattering portrait of the kind of American exceptionalism and nationalism that flourished almost unchallenged in the '50s and never flinches away from depicting it in the most negative terms possible. I always appreciated that.
Thank you so much for these videos Tim! I wasn't born until years after Fallout released but I've loved going and exploring older games and while Fallout took a bit to get into with the clunky gameplay, I loved it. The realization that I could actually screw up by something that Junktown didn't like and getting put in jail was so cool to me and it (along with Fallout 2) has become one of my favorite experiences in a game and single-handedly (or double-handedly since 2 had a part in it as well) got me into CRPGs. Thank you for the clunky mess that you've helped provide and I hope you end up having a good day today.
Your videos are awesome! Fallout is my favorite game/series and I love all this info. Thanks!
So insightful. I've watched a lot of fallout lore videos. But this is like going straight to the core. Much respect for being a part of the creation of such a deep and fascinating universe!
West coast for life!
Can't believe the Crusader shout out! Loved those games, never hear about them.
Even though it hasn't aged as well as fallout, Crusader is such an underrated game! I wish it made a comeback.
Unimportant depressing side note, the US spends more than the next 10 biggest militaries combined, not “just” 2 or 3. 😬
China obfuscates a lot of it's defense budget, they're just a little under the US in terms of budget they just mask alot of their military development under research subsidies and a few other sectors mainly due to propaganda reasons, the exact ones that have you describing the US budget as 'depressing.'
based
based
I think the old model synths in F4 are alright from a design standpoint; They partially remind me of the designs of old prosthetics from the 50s rather than "Terminator" even if theyre still overall too sleek/high tech for fallout. The later models are still absurd, however.
The channel we all needed and didn't know it!
Honestly can’t get enough of these videos! Keep them coming ❤
The dark humour in the games and especially the Vault Tec meeting from the show with the dark room, round overhead light and the big board, I’m reminded of Dr.Strangelove.
I'd love to see a video on your thoughts regarding the writing, world, gameplay, art, characters, etc of the sequel games. Could do a video for each game in the series.
Hi Timothy,
Thank you for sharing your stories.
I was wondering if you would make a video about colors and their use in gaming.
The subject interests me at the moment because I am witnessing more and more bright and over saturated colors in games these days, it seems to have become the general trend these past few years (2018 onwards)
ua-cam.com/video/fHUAFYDzN3U/v-deo.html
@@CainOnGames Thanks Timothy. I watched your video about color blindness.
I'm glad you still managed to truck on with it in the industry and that your peers even questioned your opinion regarding your condition in relation to games you were creating together.
I think my question revolves more around 'stimulative colors' and their implication in games. I understand that the 'fun' factor is a major motivator for game creators, but for me over saturated colors actually diminish the sense of reality which also creates immersion! (I also enjoyed the monochromatic theme of Skyrim/winter hinterlands, like yourself).
Thanks for the reply and link.
I hope we can deepen that particular discussion a bit because it's struck me as a trend toward the cartoonish and, frankly, childish whereas RPGs especially were a bit, shall we say, on the countercultural side from their inception. While a great many Fallout fans just think the series "fun" (as opposed to enjoyable), others in the Fallout community have more appreciated its black humor and cultural critique, whether intended or not. It's that last, among other things, that has gone missing in modern Fallouts in favor of "mainstreaming" it for an indiscriminate audience, but when the most destructive device ever created by human beings is viewed and treated as though it were a toy, for example, I would say something has gone horribly and perhaps even irrevocably amiss.
I'm sure Tim can't really comment on the direction the industry itself is going for professional reasons, but while I haven't been able to get into more recent Obsidian games, I absolutely adored Obsidian's "trailer" for The Outer Worlds 2, presented at E3 2021, which essentially takes the gaming "industry" itself to task. Brilliant.
Some of it is innocuous, I'm sure. Bethesda received a lot of criticism for the monochrome palette of Fallout 3 and perhaps overcompensated in Fallout 4 with its bright blue and red and yellow buildings and catwalks and railings, etc. while the rest of the coloring was fairly subdued. (That's what ENBs are for, of course. Don't like it? Change it.) The latest Dark Souls game (and it is a Dark Souls game) has gone that route also with even the skies of each region essentially duplicating the colors assigned to the vast majority of soceries and incantations and weapon arts to be found in them. One can only suppose From Software thought that would make them more atmospheric as the colors correspond to the "mood" of the various arts -- storm, magic, faith, arcane, frost, etc. From my perspective, however, it was just another layer of video gamey artificiality as opposed to artistry, if that makes sense, that the game would have been better off without.
Anyway.... Great, thought-provoking question.
@@lrinfi Thank you for the reply, Irinfi.
I must agree with you that for me the selling point in said Fallout is the 'grit, the dark humor, the wit' and we've perhaps forgotten that subtly also has it's impact.
For me the over saturated colors are just too intrusive these days and it reminds me of the colorful arcade games which still existed back in the 90's (39y/o), made to catch your eye with color and sounds and bring you to the said device/game.
I hope to see a counter to this with upcoming Obsidian games with some nice normal color schemes. I am personally looking forward to Avowed which we seem to have very little information on. Perhaps that is a good thing!
I'm a fervent defender of: 'I don't know what I want, make me dream!'
Good day
@@Falicon "I'm a fervent defender of: 'I don't know what I want, make me dream!'"
Funny you should say that. One of the things you'd least expect to go the way of the dodo bird in modern video games is going the way of the dodo bird in modern video games: actual interactivity. Video games used to ignite and engage our own imaginations, but are becoming little more than interactive movies and passive "entertainment." It honestly sends shivers down my spine when people say, for example, "Elden Ring is the future of RPGs." Arugh? Elden Ring is not even a RPG. It's literally designed for online PvP and co-op combat. Its SP campaign, if you can call it that, consists of being monologued at and picking an ending from a list. At no time is the player given agency to participate in an unfolding story. In fact, it bugs me no end that initial combat build creation screens are still labeled "character creation." The upcoming generation has been raised on that, though. They don't know the difference because they probably haven't experienced the difference if they haven't played, say, the early Fallouts, Mass Effect, a few Bethesda games, etc. So, I hope it means what it should mean when Todd Howard, for example, says things like, "We're going back to some things that we used to do in games long ago that we felt have really let players express the character they want to be."
That would be nice.
Im playing the original fallout 1 and 2 right now! Love your work my dude
City of lost children had to have been the largest influence on the art style of Fallout.. How did Ron Perlman get involved with the intro narrative, it has to be tied to that influence?
Appreciate all of this that you are sharing! Loving it
What about Star Control 2? I was inspired to watch a Let's Play of that game after reading your review of it, and the open world with a time limit, the dialogue trees, the ability to make friends or enemies out of most of the other powers in the game, the sense of humor, and the well-thought-out villains really reminded me of Fallout.
"La Jetée" is an absolute masterpiece, which inspired innumerable quantity of other ingenius creators and works of different kinds of art.
the well known one is 12monkeys ( both movie and the tv show)
Yep, one that comes to mind is the album Celestial by the band ISIS (they disbanded before that name became a taboo.)
I am so glad you've kept all your notes! 😃
This is the kind of behind the scenes info i love!
Oh boy so much great content!
Thank you TC!
Love this so much.
IIRC, in A boy and his dog. he insults the dog at some point calling him dogmeat
Power armor also has a Warhammer 40K feel to it, did that franchise ever come up during the design phase?
The guns of Fallout 1 and 2 is something soooooo, retrofuturistic, the watts rifles look like M16s with a gigantic delwelt battery attached, as another looks like a Browning auto 5 with a scope slapped atop
La Jetée takes me back to film school! Not surprised it had influence.
I always like how the origin of ghouls is mostly pointed at as being radiation but is left juuuust the tadest bit vague enough for speculation to come up
14:04 one of the oldest and best fallout modders Wild_QWERTY had Crusader as his avatar on all the forums for YEARS, and probably still does.
I always wondered after I saw the movie Radioactive Dreams, if that was one of the inspirations. Thanks for the vid!
Hey Tim! great seeing you on youtube. Some rad videos man, been watching a bunch of them. Thanks for sharing all this awesome history of one of my fav. all time games.
Thank you for helping to create my favorite video game series!!!
What a great way to describe Fallout (and others) as a menu. And the player has control that is important. But ive played games for over 3 decades and the games i mentioned have amazing pacing made by those teams. Just outstanding and it is part of the reason they can be replayed over and over.
Edit this comment was started on the pacing video but UA-cam autoplayed and it ended up here : )
I was lucky to have a movie buff dad when Fallout came out. I'd play the game all week and then sit down to movies like On the Beach and Fail Safe that a kid probably would not otherwise know.
we fallout nerds are eating good lately, im so hooked to these videos
This is sooo good for documentation. Wow. Thank you.
Not sure if it’s supposed to be Life Imitates Art or Art Imitates Life, but I think both apply to Fallout, a lot of very interesting and diverse influences and has became an influence in itself. 👏 👏 👏
thank you for all the great work. i cant watch the video fully right now but i will soon
A Boy and his Dog is one of my favorite movies, to me it really has the same vibes as Fallout 1
5:40 I'm suprised of how much this FEV and radiation mutation result in a very big discussion topic on the fandom.
How did I just find out you have a UA-cam? What a gift!
I'd like to throw in a question - but before that - love these videos Tim. Loving the Behind the Scenes of a fantastic series, diving into the brains of the creators.
Something I think a lot of people notice is that the creation/writing/design of games (and really movies and TV shows too) has changed a lot over the last few years. It seems like the game you made, the writing/design has a lot more depth to it then say Fallout 4 has. Fallout 4 has a lot of positives, but the story and the dramatic events seem to lack a lot - the word 'Heart' may be applicable. If you somewhat agree with this sentiment, how would you say the writing styles of today and the past compare? And what would you say you think the cause of these differences are?
Thanks Tim!
Love the videos Tim, keep'em coming!! Greetings from Argentina 😁😁
The big difference between Fallout's robots and the synths is the purpose they have. RobCo's bots were generally designed to serve humans. The Institute's synths are designed to supplant and eventually replace humans. They're both robots, sure, but the design philosophy is the difference between a steak knife and guillotine...at least, that's the impression I get as a player.