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Interview Jason Anderson interview at NMA

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,035
Tags: Fallout; Jason Anderson

<a href=http://www.nma-fallout.com>NMA</a> has tracked down Jason Anderson, one of Fallout key designers and Troika's founders, and had an <a href=http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=38981>interesting chat</a> with him:
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<blockquote>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.
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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.
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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.
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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!</blockquote>That was a brilliant move. I'm surprised that it was considered risky. KOTOR's end-game celebration was shockingly lame.
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Deleted member 7219

Guest
Sounds like a nice guy. A shame he no longer works in the game industry.
 

Jora

Arcane
Joined
Mar 14, 2003
Messages
1,115
Location
Finland
Planescape: Torment has a great ending movie as well. Fallout and PS:T both went against the traditional formula. The endings are immensely satisfying despite being seemingly unsatisfying.
 

cardtrick

Arbiter
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,456
Location
Maine
Matt7895 said:
Sounds like a nice guy. A shame he no longer works in the game industry.

QFT.

This was a great interview. I really came away from it liking the guy and missing Troika even more.

On the other hand, his love for MMO's was pretty depressing.
Jason Anderson said:
Hell, even my kids play WoW with their grandma who lives 500 miles away.
Eh?

Sounds like he'd really, really love to work on a Fallout MMO . . .

By the way, that photo of his was pretty unflattering . . .
 

Andyman Messiah

Mr. Ed-ucated
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Messages
9,933
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Narnia
cardtrick said:
By the way, that photo of his was pretty unflattering . . .
Hell no, that facial hair is (was?) awesome! Plus, he's wearing James Bond clothes. The man's got style. :)

It's nice to hear from Jason. Wish he'd get back into the industry again. Hey, Jason! Less swimming pool building, more game developing!
 

aries202

Erudite
Joined
Mar 5, 2005
Messages
1,066
Location
Denmark, Europe
And this Fallout ending is courageous and should ´be what devs. all over would think of - when they're making endings to a game, I think. The fallout ending ties in nicely with the game's concepts of survival etc. in the desert. The person coming home is now an outcast, especially since he has experienced the things he have when he was away - from the group.

More of such games, please :)
 

VonVentrue

Cipher
Patron
Joined
Jul 16, 2007
Messages
814
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HPCE
Divinity: Original Sin Wasteland 2
Wonderful interview. Brings back fond memories...

I have just been struck with the realization that it is a cruel and unfair world we live in... Talented people too often end up being unappreciated and unrewarded.
 

NiM82

Prophet
Joined
Jun 21, 2007
Messages
1,358
Location
Kolechia
Good interview, quite interesting overall. He seems like a cool guy.

His comment on MMO's made me cringe tho :P
 

Brother None

inXile Entertainment
Developer
Joined
Jul 11, 2004
Messages
5,673
You guys do realize Tim Cain works at NCSoft these days, rite? [on MMOs and Fallout devs in general]

Wish I could find Jason Taylor and Scott Campbell, then our list of original game designers would be finished. David Hendee would be fun, too
 

Ausir

Arcane
Joined
Oct 21, 2002
Messages
2,388
Location
Poland
I found T-Ray Isaac, he said he'll answer the interview questions, but he never did... Maybe you should try to bug him?

Chris Jones would be nice too, you'd have all the leads. And of the Fallout 2 people, Matt Norton. And Brian Freyermuth, the only person on the FO1 team that also worked on FOBOS.
 

Brother None

inXile Entertainment
Developer
Joined
Jul 11, 2004
Messages
5,673
Ausir said:
I found T-Ray Isaac, he said he'll answer the interview questions, but he never did... Maybe you should try to bug him?

Chris Jones would be nice too, you'd have all the leads. And of the Fallout 2 people, Matt Norton. And Brian Freyermuth, the only person on the FO1 team that also worked on FOBOS.

Chris Jones and Matt Norton are both people I tried chasing down but couldn't find. Leads, contacts and searching only take you so far. Getting to JDA was hard enough ;)

It's always worth it to try again every few months. I once had a lead on T-Ray that I lost, a few months before I mentioned it and you found him on a single google search.
 

Ausir

Arcane
Joined
Oct 21, 2002
Messages
2,388
Location
Poland
I tried to contact one of the devs through his wife that I found a lead on, but it turned out she's been an ex-wife for years.

Also, any idea whether the Fallout Scott Campbell is the same person as the Incognito Entertainment one?
 

Saber-Scorpion

Learned
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76
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Lurkland
Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong BattleTech
Vault Dweller said:
KOTOR's end-game celebration was shockingly lame.
Indeed. Although I quite enjoyed the Dark ending. Thank goodness there were two.

But you have to remember, the corny ending celebration is a Star Wars tradition (half of the movies end with one). A stupid Star Wars tradition, but oh well...
 

sabishii

Arbiter
Joined
Aug 18, 2005
Messages
1,325
Location
Gatornation
Brother None said:
Ausir said:
I found T-Ray Isaac, he said he'll answer the interview questions, but he never did... Maybe you should try to bug him?

Chris Jones would be nice too, you'd have all the leads. And of the Fallout 2 people, Matt Norton. And Brian Freyermuth, the only person on the FO1 team that also worked on FOBOS.

Chris Jones and Matt Norton are both people I tried chasing down but couldn't find. Leads, contacts and searching only take you so far. Getting to JDA was hard enough ;)

It's always worth it to try again every few months. I once had a lead on T-Ray that I lost, a few months before I mentioned it and you found him on a single google search.
WTF is this?

Stop using deception, you're ruining the journalist name.
 

Nameless0ne

Novice
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Messages
81
Location
City of D00rs, Sigil
Wow! Great interview.

The ending movie of Fallout...hehe...i was laughing after PC gets rejected by the Vault on returning :)

So, Jason Anderson may design/ conceptualize a future MMORPG...hmmm...nice!
 

Texas Red

Whiner
Joined
Sep 9, 2006
Messages
7,044
He thought it would flop with the fans, nothing like that had ever been done.

Yeah, because an unexpected ending with a twist would definitely cause an uproar among the fans :roll:.
 

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