A Chat With Leonard Boyarsky
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ย. 2024
- I talk with celebrated game developer Leonard Boyarsky, with whom I have collaborated for thirty years. We begin the chat with how he got started in the business, and then he answers many questions about Fallout that have been asked in this channel. He promised to return on a later date to answer questions about Fallout 2, Arcanum, and Vampire Bloodlines.
See more about Leonard here:
leonardboyarsk...
• From Fallout to Diablo...
Very nice of Mr. Boyarsky to phase out of his spaceship for a friendly conversation.
Also, a delight to watch two legends talking.
I love it, he looks like a '90s FMV scene. Maybe he's dropping in to help GDI in their battle with Nod?
@@bluemooninthedaylight8073l awww
I was 13 in 1998 when Fallout 2 was coming out. A PC magazine in Hungary was shipping Fallout 1 as the month's free game with the mag. I knew some English to get started, but had to use the dictionary for much of the game's dialogue. It power-leveled my English skill way beyond what elementary school children had at the time in the country, and landed me in a bilingual highschool a year later. The game's aesthetic and grim yet humorous ways stayed with me since. Fallout and Heroes of Might and Magic defined childhood and adult me alike. Thank you for the good times.
Free game with a magazine? That's a hell of a thing! We would sign up for the mags to get demo discs lol.. sadly.. that did not continue into the future, but then neither did magazines so.. still ... I really miss how interactive the community was in modding and whatnot... Now everybody's resigned to their own personal discord servers and it's almost like the conversation has completely cut off outside of if you know exactly where to look and then it's a discord thread which is just not set up for that kind of thing...
And then of course, nobody makes the kind of games that I was kind of hoping that they were going to make at some point.. holodeck, I was I was kind of hoping for the holodeck, and maybe VR can get us there but.. I mean.. we could have gotten there pretty close at least in 2D well 2D 3D... And something happened around 2005 I don't know what, but it's almost like every forward momentum completely and utterly stagnated for the next well.. till now.. maybe maybe 2007 ish for the last fires to die out..
It's weird, my nostalgia is forward progress or the forward progress that we were having... So going back to older games doesn't really help because I know they're not going to make them, if anything it makes it worse to go back and play something like crisis or dark Messiah, vampire The masquerade, cuz those were both really good stepping off points, and it's like they stepped off into a void and just.. Deus ex becomes invisible war, fear becomes fear 2, crisis becomes crisis 2, system shock becomes BioShock, fallout gets bought by Bethesda.... Remember that mechanical freedom, remember all those systems, remember that push to further enhance, make complex make interesting make immersive.. I'm not going to get into dialogue and storytelling because... That's a hit or miss, obviously in fallout's case lol The least qualified development studio took the rights over... Remember when modding was normal and didn't involve basic skin swaps or stat changes on the surface level.. it was just a thing that you did if you were one of the cool kids lol..
It's like it got interrupted in the middle of something really good.. and I've been I've been waiting for it to go back and it just kind of starts like it is and then it starts going left real hard and then backwards... And it's like.. just take what worked before and expand upon it.. but I guess at this point there's the entire generation that doesn't even understand that that was a thing, and then the older generation and my generation, they seem to have completely forgotten, or maybe they just didn't care in the first place? Which sucks cuz I'm constantly reminded the things that I care about in games is something that nobody really cares about it seems... Or at least pay surface level to or.. actually nowadays it's even worse because they're just repeating somebody else's zeitgeist that somebody said about a thing.
Still free game with a magazine? That's freaking awesome... Good game too, only imagine some of the others if fallout was on that list...
Holy shit, dude!
Same thing for me, a few years later, in Germany.
The local public library at the time thought all computer games were for children. I loaned Fallout 1, because few other things would run on my old 486. I started it up and... woah, what an experience!
A few months later, MediaMarkt would sell a boxed set of 1 & 2 called "Fallout Apokalypse" (yes, with a k). It had the OG Vault Dweller's Survival Guide! Again, woah, awesome!
The German localization of FO 1 was good. Of Fallout 2, not so much. It sucked so bad, I learned proper English to play the originals.
I would never have learned English past what they taught in school, if it hadn't been for Fallout completely captivating me.
One hour of you and Leonard talking? I know what I'm doing for the next hour.
The whole hour of pure awesomeness!
What?
What are you doing?
Masturbating?
Ah, just kidding everyone, calm your tits. All in good fun
Masturbating?
Just when I thought this channel couldn't get any better, I hope Leonard won't be the last guest,
I would love to see a chat between you and Brian Fargo.
Would be amazing, Mr Fargo is another of my favorite dev personality, a true genius!
@@OscarGiudici Yeah, I don't think that's gonna happen. See the video he posted before this one for details.
@@endlessstrata6988 Do you mean the "Why I left Fallout 2" video?
Sounds like Tim and Leonard didn't leave Interplay under the best of circumstances, they might not be on speaking terms with Brian.
What about Josh Sawyer? 🤔
fun fact for leonard at 42:42 when he's talking about alien & the WWII bomber influence, the original draft for alien actually had it taking place on a b-17 in WWII
the same man, dan o'bannon, that wrote alien ended up using this original draft to write a small scene involving zombies on a b-17 in 1981's heavy metal
amazing detail
Good ol' Dan O'Bannon. A genius. He worked with legendary comic artist Jean Girard Moebius to create "The Long Tomorrow" which Ridley Scott used as his inspiration for the look of Blade Runner.
O' Bannon was a visionary of the 70s and 80s who had his fingers in a lot of pies that the world are still inspired by.
When you mentioned that bomber this scene popped into my head as i love Heavy Metal. You should have seen my face when I read your second paragraph lol
What a pleasant surprise!! Thank you Tim for bringing Leonard on, and thank you Leonard for joining!
1 Hour of Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky. Now my weekend is SET.
Regarding those "no one cared" details talked about around 58 minutes .. I did and still do care. Just that kind of attention to detail is satisfying and can make a difference.
Leonard is a creative genius. He really made a pop cultural icon that goes beyond gaming. People who don’t even game know about Vault Boy. And kudos to Tim for seeing the vision.
Two legends of gaming 🎉
Just want to express my gratitude to mr Cain who wills to share his experience and stories with the community. And by the occasion - to mr Boyarsky as well, it would be great to hear more stories from legends of gaming industry.
Cheers!
Two freakin legends!
Leonard Boyarsky is one of the reasons why I got into game dev myself a decade ago
All those details paid off big time when it comes to the atmosphere of the game and immersion when playing. The iconic power armor on the cover. The no sliding steps. You feel the care. But Fallout is SPECIAL because those ideas all melded to create the best thing in entertainment. The vault boy, the ambient music, deathclaws, super mutants, ghouls, corvega, mr handy, FEV, the intro of our boys keeping the peace, war war never changes. The result is magic. And why we have talked about it for 25 years and keep talking about it.
You may not think anyone noticed the detail you put into the animations and textures of the game, but I did. They really made everything feel special.
I love it when
Tim was like: Next time we are going to chat more.
Leonard: I'm not so sure...
Tim: yep, we are gonna do it!
Pure gold, two pillars of this industry!!
Tim, Leonard I will never thank you enough for all the amazing hours of fun you gave to us through all these years. So thank you both!!
"I was working 14 hours not because I was required to but because I thought I was slow" fuck me that hit me right in the feels, man. I feel seen xD Slow artists, unite!
Thanks guys. You brought much joy into my life. Fallout has a special place in my heart.
My mother worked for a company in the 90s responsible for packaging design for id software (Quake II, III: Team Arena, Game Boy Advance port of Doom 93, Return to Castle Wolfenstein). So I've always gravitated towards the gaming industry both consciously and unconsciously. Hearing stories from developers from this crucial time of game history is so fascinating.
I want to say, I noticed back in the day that characters really felt connected to the world, especially character anims not sliding around! I'm really glad you put in the work for all the small details like that.
Concerning the walking animations in Fallout: I did noticed how hand piked they were, specialy on the shoulder and legs movment when you travel sideways. The character feels like it is carrying the weight of the armor and the gun itself wich helps to convein the fact that this person (the player) must feel misserable walking un the sunny dessert under that green metalized armor carrying a heavy laser rifle.
Talking about this gun, I love how it's weight plays in the walking animation, you actually see the character adjusting its movment to fight back the weight of the gun itself and thus, it transmits how much of a pain it is to carry it.
Those little details, that I'm sure were a pain in the ass to make, are the ones that does more for the immersion than any other piece of lore or bulletin board, because they are the way in wich the character, aka us, interact, explore and endure this fictional world.
As a final example, and I might be wrong on this but: The type of armor you put on do affect the animations in slight ways, for example the leather armor is fast and looks very stylish on walking, the green one is similar but a bit stiff, the big white one is slower on movment and has a kinda different torso animation while running, like the character is fighting against it's stiffness and of course, the Power Armor is just a Transformer made out of chunks of Tiger Tanks found in Soviet lands.
Anyhow my overall point is, I did noticed those hand crafted animations, I appreciate them a LOT (since they served as a pivot for immersion) and I thank you for the extra effort of making them.
I agree. Maybe the majority won't notice them, at least not consciously, but this kind of attention to detail makes a big difference for the general feel of any given game.
I always have them sped up because ive gotten stuck on too many town battles waiting for a million losers to shuffle around.
So glad I clicked this. I’ve wanted to find a podcast where game developers just sit and talk about their experiences developing, but everyone I find is so structured and geared towards encouraging aspiring developers. Which is all fine and well, I just love to hear the fun stories they have, it makes me want to get back into it more than anything. Thanks for uploading!
Hi Tim, what an absolute joy to hear these stories! Your channel is a gem, love every second of your videos!
Thank you for inviting Leonard, both of you are legends!
Would be amazing to see Chris Taylor, Jason Anderson and Mark Morgan! Would that be possible? 😇
I am glad you didn't stick to the questions only, and it all went very natural and interesting places (just like Fallout!) and was exclusively about Fallout. My question about sprite models was answered, though, so I'm relieved. 🙂I'm again inspired and buzzed with energy after watching this to work on my projects with similar passion as you guys have.
I have to repost this here:
Thank you guys so much for coming up with this World / IP / Game, it means a lot to me. The Fallout and Baldurs Gate series made me fall in love with the RPG genre. You are living legends.
Thank you
Loved every second of this conversation. Just wanted to say to Tim and Leonard that I have very clear memories of starting up Fallout for the first time, working my way over to Shady Sands, and going to talk to Aradesh. When the dialogue box opened and he started talking to me, it absolutely blew my mind. INCREDIBLY effective. Those heads were a major part of why I enjoyed Fallout so much. Thank you!
I really appreciate all the work you both did. Watching your videos resulted in me installing Fallout 1 again but then I started The Outer Worlds.. I tried to play it on release but I'd some personal stuff going on and couldn't get into gaming at all. I stopped after a few hours of playtime back then but now I'm thoroughly enjoying every minute of it. Seeing and listening to you guys.. and Scott & Jason.. the passion, the kinda same corporate/business bs you went through, the fact that some of these games you guys worked on (Arcanum, Vampire, Starfleet, even Battle Chess or MAX.. and yes, Fallout 1) had a big influence in my childhood and youth gave me the motivation to get into games again. I really enjoy listening to you guys and it makes me appreciate those gems of entertainment even more.
I was 11 years old and fallout was one of the 5 games that came with our first family computer. I still remember me and my brother saying how awesome the overseer intro video looked. Amazing to hear you and and leonard talking about this.
Its funny how both of you have worked in some of my favourite games where not only the plot, but the mechanics and the art are what stays in my mind decades later.
In the early 90s, Leonard and Tim find it interesting to base Vault Boy on a character from Monopoly. Now the stores sell a Fallout monopoly) I wish all creative people to find such a team as they were when creating Fallout. It was very interesting to watch. I hope in the future there will be videos with Jason Anderson, Chris Taylor and my favorite Mark Morgan) thank you Tim and Leonard!
I love both of y'all
This was such a great interview. Would love to see a part discussing you and Leonard’s troika work/era
Thanks for coming on, Leonard. This was absolutely great. It's so cool hearing how the industry worked back then, and all the behind the scenes stuff. This didn't even feel like an hour to me. Please do more of these. I can't wait to hear more about Vampire.
WOW! Tim, what a treat to discover your channel! Thank you for bringing Leonard on - you guys are a big inspiration, and I can't thank you enough for making Fallout, my all-time favorite RPG since the late 90s. You are LEGENDS! My sincerest gratitude to both of you!🍻
Need to binge watch all of your other videos now!
Absolutely fantastic video! I hope Mr. Boyarsky can make it on again sometime. You have a dedicated fan here who isnt even interested in getting into game development, im just here for the amazing stories! Ill be around for as long as you feel like making content and im 100% sure im not the only one. I would really like to see you talk with Brian Fargo if possible. It would also be interesting to see the perspectives of the designers for two different fallouts games - specifically a conversation between you and Josh Sawyer would be really awesome. Thanks Tim!
Also, I dont usually comment so I want to say; Thanks for creating my favorite media franchise ever!
Two of my heroes right here and I could listen to them talk for literally forever ♥️ I love you Tim and Leonard and I appreciate everything you two have done for the video game industry! Fallout 1 & 2 are my all time favorite games and they changed the way I looked at video games at a very young age. Sincerely thank you again 😄
This, like all your content, was exceptional for me. I think it's due to the way you guys communicate and tell stories - it's off-the-cuff, free-flowing, stream of consciousness, but not confusing. My ADHD mind just connects with it. I also love that it's just you (or you and guests) telling stories and talking. No sound effects, no video effects, no distractions from the story itself.
I don't have any questions (although I did absolutely love Fallout when I first played it in the late '90s!), but as long as you still have stories to tell, I'll be here listening to every one.
It's wild how the fallout boy idea just came to Leonard out of nowhere, and then they implemented it. You'd think that was one earliest ideas because of how brilliant and essential it is. It's my fondest memory of the game actually, seeing all those cool icons at the start. Especially the bloody mess perk art. Set the entire tone.
Such a great conversation! I've been following your careers since 1998 when I first played Fallout 1, then shortly after, Fallout 2. I was obsessed with those games growing up, and always followed the developers of each game as you guys went off to different companies. Collectively, you have all made my favorite games of all time.
Enjoying your games at Black Isle/Interplay, Troika, Obsidian, and the guys that went off to form Inxile.
Thank you for putting so much time, effort, blood, sweat, and tears into your work.
I love it all so much. I am 39 now, and your creations have been a fixture in my life for decades. Wouldn't have it any other way.
I wish nothing but the best for all of you and your future endeavors. (Because I will be playing them!!)
This channel is such a gift. Thank you for answering my question btw! You guys rock.
This makes me so happy - you guys are living legends. Thanks for all the years of fun, and here’s to more wonderful games and (hopefully) collaborations! 🤜🤛
This was a genuinely great way to spend an evening for me
It's so cool to learn a bit about the backgrounds of y'all and of how the first fallout was developed. I'm so glad y'all sat down and recorded this, absolutely wonderful
Fallout was the game that I've learned a lot of mature concepts from, as a kid :D
A unique experience at that point, and an influence for a long time, still one of favorite game series. And with most memorable death animations in games, of all time!
Later I grew up and became a game artist/developer, for an ongoing career of 16 years.
Thanks, Tim and Leonard!
I wish more industry veterans did this sort of thing, hearing these stories is very inspiring. Does anyone know of other channels that are like this?
I have spent t decades looking for things like this in regards to Fallout.
Search Ultima Online Design Talk.
I forget who it is but there is a lecture series with the creators of a lot of games doing talks in front of people. If your lucky they do one one your game but for the life of me I can't remember the name. It's the only other thing like this Ibe ever seen but it's in a q&A / talk format so great but not on the level of this.
There are a lot of good GDC talks out there from people in the Industry
this was great, hope you have more guests in the future tim!
Agh! This flew by. I am loving these candid videos on game development. I hope there is another interview with Leonard in the future; I'd love to hear more about Bloodlines.
This is amazing to witness, as a long time fan since the FO1 Junktown demo thanks for starting this channel Tim!
What an absolute pleasure to listen to you two chat for an hour. I hope there is an eventual part 2 or perhaps even other guests.
No need to feel guilty about the length. Many people love mainstream podcasts that are over 3 hours long. I had always wondered where the retro-futurism idea entered into the development of Fallout and to know that ONE guy is behind it is gratifying and a bit scary. If things were a bit different the whole series could be humourless and grim
One hour of Tim Cain *and* Leonard Boyarsky? Tim, you absolute legend!
This was great. FO was my first real RPG and it was the big box and that crazy looking helmet that got me to buy this game I'd never heard of.
Now to see if a part 2 with Leonard has been recorded yet.
This is the kind of stuff we've been waiting a decade for. Thanks for these videos Tim!
It makes me so happy to see this, you guys have great chemistry (still!). It's a joy to hear the stories for these games that meant so much to me and others when growing up.
Can't wait for the next episodes! I love Fallout to death, it's my favorite game. But I would love to hear more in-depth stuff for Arcanum and Bloodlines.
And maybe, if possible, would be supercool to hear from other people as well who contributed to these games. Scott Everts is a legend too for example, having worked on so many great games, but rarely talked about.
Thanks a lot for doing these videos, they are a lot of fun!
Great video! I don't remember the last time an hour passed that quickly for me. Would love to see Leonard come back again for more videos. You guys have such a great chemistry and probably stories enough to make 25 more videos like this (if not more ;).
I loved every second of this conversation.
I'm sorry to blow up your channel, but discovering these interviews on TH-cam really made my week. I have had so many questions about it and speculations since internet was dial up. I probably played it by hand back then and found every single ending. I was just playing it the other day for fun the other day. Wow. Good job. It really is that good. And WAY ahead of it's time. I never want that game or it's mechanics to ever go away. It should be a standard in format almost like what haikus are to poetry. It's a good mix of strategy RPG and story telling ability. Imagine the stories!. Fallout was made by creative people that's for sure. You tied mad max to dnd and that is awesome. You guys are kind of my heroes just cause of how you think. I always wanted to be a blue sky ranger when I was 5 years old so it makes sense. You guys changed computing games forever. I was just a kid back then and you all were living the dream! Lol. Right? It's always a nightmare lol I was just too little to notice it as it was pre 9/11. Wow I saw America turn into vault city and it sucks. I'm more of a new Reno kind of guy. See that's how I talk. Thank god fallout didn't fade out of memory or else people would think I was even weirder and wouldn't get what I was saying. I am like you never played fallout or fallout 2? What planet are you from... Unless they are younger. I have even DREAMED. ABOUT MAKING IT A HANDHELD CONSOLE LIKE A SUPER MARIO BROS 3 HANDHELD TOY THEY SELL IN CHINA NOW. A console built just to play fallout and fallout 2 for 50 bucks! How hot would that sell? Like fire. Plus maybe Bethesda would cut you two off another slice of the pie you made. Your so ahead of your time people don't realize fallout is like PAC man in ten years. I hope fallout and fallout 2 become pop culture in expressions of jest like "look at those jet heads". I think the vault dweller suit resembles women's yoga pants now. Are you all pyschic or CIA agents or something? Women wear them walking around our streets shopping now not just in the gym like vault citizens. When I first played fallout women were still wearing baggy jeans with worn down holes in the knees like Kurt cobain. Did you come to these ideas through logic? Or did you have a crystal ball? Maybe you just lived in a much bigger city than I did back then, but maybe it's that the video game somehow rubbed off on our culture. I still think about this as a metaphysical philosophical endeaver. Well this long rambling text is just my way of saying thank you. I subscribed. If you ever visited Charleston SC I would buy you dinner in a fancy restaurant and bring some girls
*raises hand* I noticed the fact that the characters weren't sliding in their walk animations! Details like that are what reveal how much the developers care about their project. 😊
I want to say thank you Timothy Cain and Leonard Boyarsky for creating the fallout franchise, fallout is one of my most beloved art media i ever experienced, fallout games have made me fall in love with RPGS and Old vibe from 40s and 50s , i watch movies from that era while i imagine about fallout and listen almost everyday songs from that era because of your work. You guys created one of the most beloved franchises from fallout 1, 2 and even later titles are still permiated by your work.
thank you very much!
pd: i hope someday you tim and leonard can work in a new fallout title, if that ever happens thats going to be probably one of the happiest day of my life.
It was really cool to hear these stories. Bummer that you didn't have time to talk about Arcanum.
I know that there is much more interest/demand for videos about Fallout and Fallout 2, but I would love to hear more about the design and development of Arcanum. Hopefully Leonard is willing to come back on the channel for another chat.
Fallout was a bit before my time being born in 93 but Ive always recognised it as another great 90s IP and its great to hear these stories about how it was made.
Amazing that people gave you so much autonomy in your 20s and it really goes to show what some people can create when theyre given space to do their own thing.
I hope to have something similar in my lifetime although a lot of companies dont seem to operate this way any more. There seems to be a laid back confidence that is missing now. Too much anxiety maybe? No risk taking. I dont know.
Watched it in its entirety, can't wait for next ones on Arcanum & Vampire! Thanks to both of you!
Some of the best creative works in human history happened via serendipity. Hearing that Fallout followed the same path doesn't surprise me, and places it quite high. And yes, we DO notice those tiny details, even if we don't KNOW we notice them. They're almost subliminal, something we can't quite put our fingers on. We just know it works.
This was an amazing interview. To think the whole seed of Fallout's essence came from driving back and forth to work, sometimes stuck in traffic. Inspiration can come from just having some time to yourself, the world around you, and all of your past influences culminating together in a moment of thought.
Came here after watching you guys play fallout in the Obsidian livestream haha. Maybe you guys are too busy, but it'd be fun to watch you guys continue playing whilst answering questions!
I appreciate your candor. My only beef with 2 is the tutorial.
So glad you are recording this slice of game/art history! Arcanum is one of my favorite games of all time and the visuals/aesthetic is a big part of it so would love to just hear about the inspirations/how it came to be when you do a part 2.
Excellent interview! It inspired me to download and play Fallout 1 on Game Pass.
It seems you guys talk a lot about Stonekeep as well. I really can't find a video talking extensively about it. Could you please consider dedicating a video on the development of Stonekeep? What a diamond and what an interesting dev story behind. Fallout dev story though is always one of my favs. Good Job there.
Thank you so SO much lads!
Really insightful and inspiring (in more ways than one xD)
Hope to hear more from Leonard, would be really nice to hear about some more work if he's cool with that (especially VtM:Bloodlines and Outer Worlds)
Thank you Tim for all your sharing and creating for us plebians!',;)
i love just shedding the light on what exact processes and programs used like Power Animator / Maya etc cause a lot of indie devs sometimes wonder about old programs to recreate some of the old pre-rendered look, which I think is becoming a retro throwback along with low poly. A lot of current 3D rendering tools come with a lot of bells and whistles which makes it hard to reverse engineer stuff so some people have been digging up old software with VMs and such and looking into NURBs etc. It's really interesting.
After binging so much of this channel my conclusion is that Tim is both a beautiful person as well as an awesome game designer. I really admire you dude!
I could listen to these guy talk about literally anything there so passionate
This is the most incredible insight that I have ever watched.
Oh what a nice surprise! Five minutes in and I'm already enjoying this.
very cool and interesting. watching part 2 next. Love how things came together and how the creative process was.
I worked with Leonard for a few years at Blizzard and had no idea of his part in the creation of Fallout since I wasn't a big fan of the series at the time. This is well before Fallout 3 released. I knew him as the story guy who could illustrate. I only discovered this about him recently and man, he lucked out because I would've been the most annoying starstruck coworker. My ignorance of this is one of my biggest game industry regrets, the other being when I met Mark Hamill when he pitched a game idea to Konami and I got a picture with him but totally forgot that I had green and red lightsabers in my car lol.
Such an amazing video. I love game development, 90s, fallout, war stories, art, project management, passionate people, nostalgia... all here. *please* do more!
This was a lot of fun. I enjoyed listening to the insights into Fallout's creation and even Leonard's story as to how he got into the industry during what I've affectionately called its wildcat years.
It's so refreshing just watching 2 friends chat about the series they started almost 30 years ago and whatever other information just gets released inbetween
This is just an incredible interview. Of course i know Fallout, but Ive never played the originals myself. However as a game development story this is probably the best I've heard. I'm a single person trying to make AAA games by myslef. I could never imagine working gamedev for a company. Its so fascinating these stories about creativity thriving in small teams , within larger corporations that largely stumbled during the 90's.
You cant plan for what you don't know, but you can plan to know that you will know.
This was lovely. I'm generally familiar with Leonard's early journey from watching his SINFO talk a couple times, but it's simply nice to watch you two hang out and reminisce.
as an artist i love hearing people that are now in late in their career having some of the same struggles that other artist have when starting out
You two guys, I don't know if you read these comments, but _thank you_ - it is sooo much fun. These ARE things people notice. I'm a younger guy and I remember seeing that helmet, the details and thinking "could they DO that back then". That helmet, that power armor, sold the game - is the soul of the game. Thought the same with the overseer.
And yes, walking animations matter. It is a question of felt ambition. When the player looks at the game, what do they feel? That this is "it", the dude is walking, or "this is an abstract animation symbolizing that the character is moving". I does a ton for immersion, IMHO.
Hell, I didn't know about "Hard boiled" and the gun. Myths and legends. Thank you
I think people who like to be creative and also like to solve problems are perfect for jobs like this.
That's why constrictions work to make people find more innovative solutions.
When you're not willing to compromise and you will focus for hours on end to find a way.
I have felt this myself. Time slips away, I am engrossed in literally 128x128 pixels on my screen.
I can only imagine how much more difficult and ground breaking it was working on this stuff in the early days.
This is awesome, thank you both for your time.
I could listen to you both talking for hours.
Also, I never noticed the walking animation, but like a great sound design, it lasts and does enhance the gameplay on psychological level. I bet there are hundreds of things I never noticed but are part of the reason I am still fond of it and why it looks good even now in my eyes
Fantastic interview!!! So much great experiences and perspectives
And this is why Fallout stood the test of time, despite the old tech it still looks good thanks to the art and style and all the details like all those different death animations - even modern games dont have that! and the clay faces still looked better than 3d in some games 20 years later.
I've never been more interested in behind the scenes of game development and been really enjoying these talks. Also, fingers crossed we get to see that Fallout 2 box art design you guys had made internally that Interplay didn't use.
It’s hard to comprehend the brilliance of what you two have conjured up together
Thank you both for doing this -- these conversations reminiscing about the "old days" give me the warm fuzzies. Please do more; I could listen to this stuff all day long :)
Zork and Wizardry were my first two games I played on my Apple ][ . Great chat between you two.
This channel has been a gold mine for watching while playing games.
Thank you for the wonderful content! I loved your games growing up, and still play them to this day. Games like Fallout, Arcanum, and Bloodlines have this amazing quality to them that is even greater than the sum of their parts, and I feel that it's because they are such labors of love and were designed by teams that have this singular creative mindset. I can't wait to hear more from Leonard, so I hope you do at least another couple of these videos with him. If it's possible I would also love to see you do a video with Mark Morgan! The music he composed for the classic Fallout games (and Planescape: Torment) is just incredible.
This was a great watch, thank you Tim! It took me two days to complete it (had to split the pleasure), and it was worth it. It's so cool you are able to invite guests who would not necessarily share any of this cool details otherwise. I wonder if you could invite Scott Campbell for a talk. I remember sending you his email like 10 years ago when I contacted you regarding your GDC presentation. Again, fantastic vlog. Leonard is so cool :D
I loved this Tim! Please have Leonard back. Yall in Troika made my favorite games of all time. Please have him back!
What a treat, I could listen to you two talk about this stuff all day.
2 legendary game developers having a chat about games. Now, this is my kind of podcast.
To Leonard: YES, all those little details are very important. We noticed! I remember working on implementing running animation in a Fallout 2 engine remake project so that legs land exactly where they should and there is no sliding. As perfectionist myself, I can totally relate to that obsession )
Awesome interview/discussion. Surely, the magic ingredient to quality is people being passionate about something, beyond its intended purpose. Having some obsession thrown in never hurts either.