Jason Anderson interview at NMA
Jason Anderson interview at NMA
Interview - posted by Vault Dweller on Tue 25 September 2007, 17:49:07
Tags: Fallout; Jason AndersonNMA has tracked down Jason Anderson, one of Fallout key designers and Troika's founders, and had an interesting chat with him:
I worked on the original Fallout. I was the second person on the team, was brought in to do art, and worked closely with Tim on developing how to get the art into the game engine. In the beginning, the genre of what was to become Fallout was unknown. At that point, all we knew was that it was going to be a GURPS game.
Ultimately, I became the Technical Art Lead on the project, creating a majority of the tile sets, 1/2 the wall sets, 1/3 of the characters, lots of the interface art, lots of the creatures, the opening movie and vault overrun movie and a few of the end game shots. Near the end of production I also wrote a lot of dialog and designed quests in order to make the game feel more complete.
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I have a few favorite memories. I think one of the best is when we came to the conclusion that the player was going to have to get kicked out of the vault at the end of the game. Leon and I shared an office and he was struggling to think up an end movie for the game. Originally, it was going to be a celebration... You are the returning hero of the vault in classic rpg fashion. This was decided on early in the game's design. And while we sat there wracking our brains trying to figure out how to make the movie work, it dawned on us that the whole idea of this celebration sounded kind of ordinary and lame.
Leon made the comment that, through the whole game, the vault dwellers are completely xenophobic... I mean, why would they even *let* you in? And I responded, well, then we should just have the movie being them kicking you out.
It was so funny. Over and over again we said we can't do that! But we absolutely loved the idea - it was just so cool! So we went to tell Tim. Tim wasn't sure of the idea. He thought it would flop with the fans, nothing like that had ever been done. But he finally gave in (we could be pains in the asses when we wanted something our way.) That movie is one of my favorite parts of the whole game - the returning hero getting kicked out. Absolutely perfect!That was a brilliant move. I'm surprised that it was considered risky. KOTOR's end-game celebration was shockingly lame.
I worked on the original Fallout. I was the second person on the team, was brought in to do art, and worked closely with Tim on developing how to get the art into the game engine. In the beginning, the genre of what was to become Fallout was unknown. At that point, all we knew was that it was going to be a GURPS game.
Ultimately, I became the Technical Art Lead on the project, creating a majority of the tile sets, 1/2 the wall sets, 1/3 of the characters, lots of the interface art, lots of the creatures, the opening movie and vault overrun movie and a few of the end game shots. Near the end of production I also wrote a lot of dialog and designed quests in order to make the game feel more complete.
...
I have a few favorite memories. I think one of the best is when we came to the conclusion that the player was going to have to get kicked out of the vault at the end of the game. Leon and I shared an office and he was struggling to think up an end movie for the game. Originally, it was going to be a celebration... You are the returning hero of the vault in classic rpg fashion. This was decided on early in the game's design. And while we sat there wracking our brains trying to figure out how to make the movie work, it dawned on us that the whole idea of this celebration sounded kind of ordinary and lame.
Leon made the comment that, through the whole game, the vault dwellers are completely xenophobic... I mean, why would they even *let* you in? And I responded, well, then we should just have the movie being them kicking you out.
It was so funny. Over and over again we said we can't do that! But we absolutely loved the idea - it was just so cool! So we went to tell Tim. Tim wasn't sure of the idea. He thought it would flop with the fans, nothing like that had ever been done. But he finally gave in (we could be pains in the asses when we wanted something our way.) That movie is one of my favorite parts of the whole game - the returning hero getting kicked out. Absolutely perfect!
