Interview NMA Fallout profile: Sean K Reynolds

Tags: Sean Reynolds

<a href=http://www.nma-fallout.com>NMA</a> has finally posted the <a href=http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=7143>Fallout Developer Profile</a> we've all been waiting for. Without further ado, <a href=http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=7276>Sean the Ping-Pong Reynolds</a>!
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<blockquote><b>Tell us a little about your role in the making of Fallout 1/2/3 (Van Buren)/Tactics ?</b>
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I had nothing to do with the creation of Fallout 1 or 2. For Fallout 3 I started out as a designer when they cancelled Jefferson. Eventually JE Sawyer was so impressed with my phat ping-pong skills that he made me lead story designer for the game, which let him focus on the technical aspects (interface, game mechanics, etc.). As story lead I managed the overall story and continuity, wrote several areas, and beat the other designers into submission with my special Fallout ping-pong paddle, nicknamed "Duck and Cover."
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<b>What were you favourite places in fallout and why?</b>
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For not capitalizing "Fallout" in the above sentence, you should be punished. You're no fan!
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The Necropolis was damn creepy. The Cathedral was, too, mainly because of those damn TV sets and the weird cultists everywhere. I liked Junktown, though I never really felt a strong incentive to befriend that fat bastard Gizmo. I liked the parts where you learned a lot of history (whether world history or personal campaign-relevant history, such as the exploration of the Glow by the paladins or the notes on the FEV research).</blockquote>Discuss if you care.
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Thanks, <b>Role-Player</b>

 

I think we tend to be a bit hard on SKR, especially since what design work he's done (D&D stuff) ain't bad at all. Sure, he's a bit goofy, but he's a good guy and could probably make a decent enough game, just as long as it's not Fallout.

That's probably a good rule of thumb for all developers, really.

 

Imagine what Fallout 2 could have been, if the crew had had the same interests. What a horrorshow game they could've made.

 

Is "horrorshow" good or bad?

 

It's good. It's very good.

 

And unlike many other people, SKR is actually able to joke about himself and his phat ping-pong skillz.

 

Speaking of Ping Pong, a google search for Ping Pong Sean no longer yields SKR's site on the first page....

 

Sean's a good guy and can take a joke. He's got a good sense of humor. So, I agree with Spazmo.

However, I'm not so sure he belongs in the list of Fallout developers because he's never actually developed a released Fallout game. It seems odd to me that he'd be on the list of Fallout developers when we have no idea how good or bad Fallout 3 would have been. I didn't really like a lot of the snippets of info they talked about with the game, and a lot of the stuff I heard about privately wasn't that keen either.

It just seems to me that if you're going to make these guys in special for working on a canned project, they should track down the guys who worked on the console Fallout first person shooter as well, since it was in development for roughly the same amount of time. Perhaps they should also track down all the people working on Fallout 3 when it was cancelled the first two times. Heck, Fallout Enforcer was released, will they be in that list too?

 

Sean's a crazy-ass mofo.

 

The Glow is my favorite "level" in any game I have played, ever. The way the story develops in there is, well, amazing.

 

Whatever it's worth, Sean isn't a stupid person. Far from it. He's just a bit off his rocker, though, isn't he? The memetic influence from ol' Peas & Carrots must have had a vast effect on his psyche.

 

It's from Brugess's Nasdat, a creole of English and Russian, from the book A Clockwork Orange. Thus Horrorshow is hordashow (I can't spell it in Englsih too well), which is good in Russian.

 

Remember kids, Sean had no problem breaking many aspects of Forgotten Realms continuity for the 3E release, so there is no reason to think his approach to FO would have been different.

 

I'm not exactly up on the Forgotten Realms universe, so what all did he break there?

 

That story with Peas &Carrots was comedy gold, oh how I laughed.

 

"Horosho" is "good" in Russian. The way it's pronounced is nothing like horrorshow, for that matter, though I wouldn't think of any closer phonetic equivalent in English.

 

Take hara from hara-kiri. Take sho from shogun. There you go, haraSHO!

 

Sammael, as a long time FR fan, all I can say who cares. Oops, sorry, that's easy. You and the other extremist nuts do. That's who. Quite frankly, change should be welcomed if it better things.

 

Take for example your one man attempt to change the english language. Admirable attempts, fight on brother, fight on!

 

Believe me, on the 'net, I have lots of help in that endeavour.

 

I think "Horosho Horosho" is a line from JA2, no? I know one of the mercs says something similar when you order him to do something, I never knew what it was but "Good, good" seems to fit. If that is a fact, you have your pronunciation guide right there

 

No Elwro is right, actually. It is spelt as if it's pronounced "horosho" but since the first two vowels aren't stressed, they become interchangeable with "a" during pronounciation and it is pronounced "harasho". Funky Russian orthography. Why not just spell it like you pronounce it.

 

Yeah, because English never has that problem. And didn't inflict it on anyone else. (Check out the written systems they inflicted on the Irish, Welsh, and Chinese (that latter of course, being the old Wade-Giles (?) system for Anglicising Chinese. The geniuses that brought us Peking for Beijing and assorted others.)

 

Transcendent One, do you think English is better? Actually I guess my language is more "direct" in pronunciation as in speech than English or Russian. Who would be the first wiseguy to right "arse" sound this way? Only Frenchmen can compete with English in this thing. Monsieur or beacoup - they really tend to stretch the written language...

But that all is bloody offtopic. If I was SKR, I would definetly respond somehow similar because that ping-pong thing was actually a bit rude and made no sense.

 

the stuff about a mad lady scientist running a real horrorshow of a genetics lab in the colorado mountains was intruiging. smacked a little of the angel of mercy from rifts, but the subject matter itself is creepy and brutal, totally belonging in a fallout setting. there were lots of interesting ideas from what i've heard.

i'm still waiting for trinity...

edit: mountains from desert, as colorado has no deserts.