Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky Talk About Making of Fallout

Podcast DaveGameClub has published an interesting audio interview with Leonard Boyarsky and Tim Cain. The two developers, who worked together at Interplay and Troika and recently reunited at Obsidian Entertainment, talk at length about the making of the original Fallout.

If you’ve been hounding info on the development of the two original Fallouts like I’ve done in the past, there isn’t much that is new here in terms of raw information, but it’s an extremely good look at the philosophy, mood and work environment that produced what is perhaps the most influential post-apocalyptic RPG franchise. In other words, I highly recommend a listen.

If you want a more thorough list of the subjects, here’s one from the podcast’s page:

[T]he Wild West of early studio game development, the meta-installer, making engines in your spare time, tabletop after-hours, abstracting the operating system, GURPS character generator, working you way up, pizza and game dev, RPG renaissance, bold theme choices, filtering passionate ideas, making your dream game, career paths into game development, clubhouse Interplay and a creative atmosphere, business incursion, from the garage to the office park, right place right time, QA preferring your game over being paid, By Gamers For Gamers, making your colleagues laugh, companions in scripting, wearing multiple hats, making a Tarrasque into a Death Claw, making heads from clay and digitizing, cavalier oblique and making the tools work, bringing various sensibilities to the game, throwing a party for your return, a family of talking raccoons, finding your creative partners, system and story *should* work together, what makes good level design, digging yourself a big hole, exposing variables and state to designers, managing teams of small size, ambient music, art influences, Vault Boy instead of icons, voice talent, everything coming together, consequences, “games should be fun,” freedom, setting the world on fire, Tim Cain’s grandfather and mother, constraints and necessity, Fallout DNA.