I talk about how the team converted Fallout from GURPS to SPECIAL in near-record time, thanks to Chris Taylor's homebrew system and a modular programming design philosophy.
I think they really missed a trick there when naming it. When you re-arane the letters of "SPECIAL", it actually could spell out LICE SPA. So much better.
I was told that by someone who visited Troika to pitch us on making a D&D game (we did, that was Temple). I don't know if it's true, but that's what he said.
and perks inspired by GURPS attributes with him talking about GURPS attributes systems I'm reminded of games like: NEO Scavenger Darkwood Tales of Maj 'Eyal and the super-bad game "Project Zomboid" - which needs a narrative and in-game objectives and a non-clunk combat system to be good, for starters
@@zerpblerd5966 Zomboid doesn't need a narrative, it's a sandbox/survival game. Play something else if thats what you want. And for the record, I think zomboid is horrible.
@@DoomnDustI wish more people knew about Birthright. Never has there been a better kingdom management system. WOTC done us dirty not bringing that setting forward into later editions.
Don't have a question. Just wanted to say as a 90's Interplay and Black Isle Studios fan Fallout 1 & 2 are my favorite games of all time and I love your content! Don't ever stop giving us these behind the scenes stories. They're awesome!
I remember the meeting in your office in which we tried to suss out the ranges on stats. GURPS stats use 10 as a base and go up or down from there, since they're set in the middle of the 3d6 bell curve distribution. Moving away from GURPS meant that we needed a new way to determine values! I pitched the idea of your stats possibly being 0 as average, negative values as sub-optimal, and positive values as advantageous, which I had previously played with in Ars Magica. You didn't like that because negative numbers are a little counterintuitive for some players, so we switched to the 1-10 range with 5 as the average. (This also has the hidden advantage that a 1-10 range is on a factor of 10 from the 1-100 range, which was used for skills, so you have a sense of some parity between the two systems.) Then we added the notion that your stats had descriptors-"Average," "Good," "Great"-so that players could look at something and instantly have context for "I have a 6. Where does that lie? Oh, it's Good. Ok, I get it, I'm a little better but not super in that area." That obviously owed a debt to the Marvel Super Heroes game with its stat ratings like Remarkable and Amazing! Then there was the whole discussion with Chris about whether each skill should just tie directly to one stat, or if some skills (or all of them) should use averages. There was the usual concern about some stats being more important than others, like, if you play a high Agility, is it just strictly superior to having a high Strength? Plus the idea of verisimilitude about the skills themselves-is this something that relies on being smart, or having deft hands, or some combination of the above? Chris I think eventually settled on the distributions of where various abilities influenced specific skills. Then when you sent out the email about perks, everyone on the team was contributing ideas. The earliest perks were all combat focused, like "I do more damage with pistols" or "I can reload faster," and then we got the big sea change with perks like Presence ("I get bonuses to social reactions") and Empathy ("I get hints of what dialogs are good or bad"), some of which were a lot more implementation work than others! (Empathy was kind of a bad idea in retrospect...)
I always choose Empathy! In some dialogues, very similar lines for no apparent reason can lead to the opposite reaction, so Empathy allows you to avoid embarrassing situations without using a save reload. On the other hand, I seem to understand why you think this is a bad idea.
@@kujivuniakituo6121 The specific problem with Empathy was not in what it did, but in the implementation headaches that it caused! Suddenly we had to go back through every line of dialog in the game and flag it as being this color or that color. That was a lot of data!
I still remember looking at the original Fallout 1 box and thinking, "SPECIAL - that's so clever!" Amazing to learn how so many iconic elements of Fallout came together...
I know this is more of an art question rather than game design, but would you be interested in talking about the "talking heads" system in FO1/2? They're so charming, and have so much loving detail baked into the way they emote.
@@CainOnGames You should see about bringing Scott on for a joint conversation about it :) Teams is a pretty easy program to use especially since you can do it browser based and then just set up a screen recorder to record Teams. OBS is great for that and also free.
Fun fact: I am from Czech Republic and we rearranged the letters to SLEPICA which basically means a hen or a chicken. Fallout was a big hit here back in the day, we have a Czech version of the Mad Brahmin web and it still works today. Watching your videos is such a pleasure, can you imagine seeing the developer of your favorite childhood game talking about it feels like meeting a god or something :)
SPECIAL was my introduction to real RPG rules and even though I'm adjusted to all the various systems now I will always hold those 7 traits in my head as the "default" RPG attribute system.
If there were more people like you in this new gaming industry, we would have nothing but quality titles. ...And I would probably be found skeleton remains in front of my computer.
Tim, you're a massive inspiration to me and the team; Fallout has been such an important part of my life growing up and its influence extends to nearly everything I write about games. I've always wanted to ask - it's no doubt that Fallout inspired some of the direction of Outer Worlds; how difficult was it to create a game that was so reminiscent (in a good way) of the modern Fallout games without borrowing too much from the Fallout universe? Did you need rules or guidelines in place for yourself or the team to prevent "rehashing" elements from Fallout? Thanks for what you've created these last years - you've inspired a generation. -Max
I love actually seeing people who know and have direct experience with what they're talking about... talk about it! Much better than second hand sources and third party commentary essays on design and history.
Another amazing video by Tim. I hope we get a video on the GURPS change history. Also Tim would be a really fun stream to play old games on Twitch and just doing commentary on.
Hey Tim, thanks for making these. I mostly watch info/gaming/dev/lore vids while I'm working and your stuff recently popped into my feed. I'm the "Lead Quest Designer" (fancy title!!) on the Sim Settlements 2 mod for Fallout 4. You mentioned in your last vid that you were currently in a FO4 playthrough. Hope you had a chance to play our mod. We're hard at work on our 3rd chapter. So good to hear your experiences. Keep the stories coming!
I just stumbled upon your channel and I feel like I have made an important discovery. Fallout 3 was one of the 1st games I ever really got fully immersed in. Since then, I have enjoyed all the games that came out after but then I felt like something was missing as in, I had no clue about Fallout and Fallout 2. I have since played through those games and been watching all of your content. I cannot thank you enough for your contribution to the gaming community. You basically turned me into a gamer. Thank you sir!
I just wanted to put out there that your work on the classic Fallout still brings in new fans to this day! My first Fallout experience was New Vegas, and then I played 3 and 4 after that. Then while I was in college, I got kind of desperate for new Fallout content (2021ish). I decided to try Fallout 1 and 2. I was born in 2000, so you can imagine the learning curve for me trying to play games that were made before I was born. After I got over that small hump, I ended up LOVING Fallout 1 and 2! They are now some of my favorites in the series! Anyway, I’m an example of how your games still impact new players, even with all of the modern advances in game technology! I love your work!!!
You guys made game that inspired so much people all over the world. I played Fallout recently because I was too young when I first get it. It's masterclass of games, so much fun
Given that the SPECIAL plus perks system has become such an integral part of the identity of fallout and its sequels, is there anything you would change about the system in hindsight?
RPGs wouldn't be what they are today without the efforts of people like you, Mr. Cain. Thank you for making this channel and sharing your legend with us!
In case anyone wants to know how an early Fallout 1 build looked like: th-cam.com/video/haKOhyUqk4c/w-d-xo.html. In this early build, it was possible to shoot at the neck and at each different arm in VATS which got stripped in the main release. I wonder why it got cut. The Character sheet was way different too.
I love the way you tell these stories!! It reminds me of listening to my dad tell stories as a kid haha, thank you for sharing these interesting backgrounds to such memorable parts of the game :D
Hopefully you're not tired of Fallout questions, but I'd absolutely love to hear what the inspirations for Fallout were and how they affected the writing of the game. I've thought of plenty of potential parallels like the Brotherhood of Steel and the Tech Marines of Warhammer40K, and the Enclave compared to the Space Marines as a whole. Love that you're on YT and makin vids. Subbed and got notifications on. Can't wait to see more from you
Hey Tim! Big fan of your work - would love to hear more about the Lore of Fallout and what inspired you (i know you have already gone over the Vaults) - FEV, The Master, Super Mutants and such! I love your content and insights!
I loved hearing about how this came about! Gurps is by FAR my favorite system and Fallout is one of my favorite RPG settings. Ive actually adapted it back into Gurps 3rd ed and have been running Gurps Fallout for over 10 years now. I would love to hear more stories about games you ran and the creative process and world building choices even homebrew rules and changes you made. I've been trying to actually put together a full free PDF world book so to speak so others can run Gurps Fallout and only NEED the The basic set and compendium 1 to run it. Ive also found that teaching people gurps can be overwelming for some and using Fallout as a starting point has been easier for people to understand the advantages/disadvantages dynamic and it unique character building process
It would be cool to have a fallout directors commentary in the style of Grim Fandango Remastered, you enter an area and click a button to play a short clip of commentary
Thank you, Mr. Cain. Fallout was the one thing I had during college and early adulthood that kept me sane, kept me dreaming, and made me excited to get out of bed. FO3 was my first back in 2005-ish, then my friend sent me a flash drive with Fallouts 1 and 2 on it, getting me through summers at my abusive mom's house between semesters. I discovered New Vegas when I got my first Xbox 360, then when I got an XB1 I got the legacy FO3 and NV. NV really took me for a ride and a half. ... I then played FO Tactics: BoS _AND I FRIGGIN LOVED IT!_ No matter who you make games for, or how you may dislike them, know that someone loves every one of them. Thank you again, so much, for giving me friends and brothers in Atom 😎👍
Fallout is very SPECIAL. Have played the rpgs Fallout serie since i first tried Fallout 2 in 1999. Dozens upon dozens of runs in 1,2,3,NV and 4. Will continue to play. I have made my own mod for all of them (and Arcanum). Great entertainment. Awesome team that worked on Fallout to keep the bellow 4 Intelligence choices down, like AESLIPC : ).
Hey Tim, your such a pleasent fun and knowledgable guy! Thank you for these videos. My first Fallout was Fallout 3, I loved that game and fell in love with New Vegas shortly after. New Vegas had many ways to tackle a problem which made it more fun for me. I then saw your GDC presentation and instantly wanted to play Fallout and Fallout 2. I was intimated at first but gave it a shot and started playing Fallout 1. The area design, gameplay, dialogue and music make Fallout 1 one of my favourite games of all time. I felt that it was balanced and really fun. My question is, about the Time limit in Fallout 1, you have touched on this in the past but I would love to know more about that debate of Urgency vs Freedom within the team and your thoughts looking back on it. Thanks again
I plan on doing a video on Fallout's music. I found my original list of tracks that I mailed our Audio Director with a note that said "Music like this please".
I'm just compelled to tell you that the game you made sir is one of the greatest works of art I ever had the pleasure of consuming. It had a colossal impact on me. Nothing since has come near the genius that is Fallout. Every aspect of that game blended into perfection. I pretend the bethesda titles never happened. I also saw you say Mark Morgan did a great job, which is a huge understatement for which you should apologize. APOLOGIZE! Another thing - I usually just shitpost on youtube, but since I find Fallout such a monumental work of storytelling, gameplay and just entertainment in general, I simply cannot resist but let you know how much admiration I have for it. It is a standard to which I measure all other media and, like I said, nothing ever comes close.
Hey, Tim. Would be very interesting to hear your opinion on the people's efforts to restore original code of Fallout from machine code. I wonder how close what we have now with the recent project is to the original. Considering you were the main "brain" behind the code, maybe it will be of some interest to you to see what people came up with? :)
Hello Tim, thank you a lot for your content. I would like to ask two questions, that have been on my mind for some time now (I bet it can be told about in the videos, but anyway). What were the inspiration sources for the fractions in Fallout (like BOS, Raiders, Supermutants and etc.)? And the second one about the power armor: how did you come to create it the way it was realised in game? Thank you for your insights once again!
Speaking of programming, I imagine that the code for the Fallout 1/2 engine is owned by Bethesda now. I assume this means that you can't create anything to help the very few modders in the Fallout 1/2 community with understanding the code or with mod tools? As I understand it, due to limited fan knowledge of the engine, it is remarkably difficult/niche to code for those games.
@@CainOnGames Thanks, Tim. Hopefully they put in the effort to reverse engineer the code one day for something like an 'enhanced' edition and develop some mod tools, too. Unlikely, but still. :)
I just want to hear more about all the tabletop campaigns you've played and ran over the years. 2D prototyping isn't talked about enough and how important to video games tabletop has been, always love hearing these stories.
as much as i would've loved to see it with GURPS, as i imagine it would be more fleshed out for general roleplaying, but SPECIAL is so iconic now, and so uniquely Fallout that I can't imagine it with anything else.
You made 3 engines in that short span of time? What? It took me 6 months to write my own rasterizer and that was with resources online. You guys are insanely crazy. I couldn't have written 3 engines in that short span of time even if my life depended on it
Love the vids Tim, quick question though. There is alot of whacky dialogue especially in Fallout 2, like power armor recycling urine and anime being canon in the fallout universe. Is all of the more zany stuff supposed to be tongue and cheek pop culture references, or actual canon lore (or both)?
I cannot speak to that, since those dialogs were added after I left Interplay. I worked on Fallout 2 for about three months and then left in February 1998. The game shipped eight months later with a lot of new content.
@@CainOnGames I think you can at least point to the Fallout Bible released by Chris Avellone in the early 2000s as evidence that the writers who continued after you left seem to have regrets over how 'wacky' Fallout 2 ended up being. It's the one big criticism I always see directed at that game even from its fans, especially as jokes that revolve around things like Mike Tyson's love of ears or the Monica Lewinsky scandal become increasingly dated. I haven't read the Fallout Bible stuff in awhile, but the impression I got from them is that the more ridiculous stuff is non-canon.
That's interesting, because just a couple month ago I come to an idea of extracting all the actor-actor interaction code from the actor's class into a singleton. And instead of doing something like `target.take_damage(actor.weapon.damage)` do `CombatServer.attack(actor, target)`. Not only this decouples actor from the particular combat calculations, but also CombatServer might operate over the network.
Gurps space is a great sourcebook. Wouldn't mind you talking more about rpg systems along with all this other great stuff :) Can you imagine the SPECIAL system as a tabletop system in its own right, or something similar? The way Luck worked in Fallout might wind up a bit weird if there were a bunch of players, though... You find a crashed UFO but it turns out it's just a bunch of people in costumes (several luck rolls as you discover things change the reality of it)
hi tim thank you for fallout and getting me into rpgs. have you watched any of ghostcharm's villainpedia videos on some of your characters? would be interested in how a lot of them came to be.
In Poland they translated SPECIAL into SPECJAŁ (which is more of a delicacy/rarity describing a dish): S - siła (strength) P - percepcja (perception) E - energia (energy) C - charyzma (charisma) J - jasność umysłu (clarity of mind) A - akrobatyka (acrobatics) Ł - łut szczęścia (stroke of luck) To be honest I didn't even know this for a long time since I was playing English version as a kid. As I didn't understand English that good (I would even say I understood only some words) I remember when I talked to Set in Necropolis and asked him what has happened to his face and called him spaghetti face - he wasn't very happy about it and he attacked me :D
gurps star system generator made me think of starsector, iirc the dev mentioned his influences in a blog post years ago and old scifi ttrpgs were among them (this is a bait comment to get more people to play starsector)
I would be really interested to see a video on why GURPS got replaced with SPECIAL. I read that Steve Jackson was opposed to the violence in the opening cinematic to Fallout. The scene where the guy in powered armor shots the bound person in the head. Which seems strange, considering how detailed GURPs can be with damage to your characters. I'm sure there is more to this story. For others reading this that might not be familiar with GURPS, Steve Jackson runs the company Steve Jackson Games. Which owns GURPS.
Hello Tim, in one of the early preview videos for Fallout 1, there is a build that uses GURPS stats like IQ, do you have this particular build anywhere?
Thank you for giving kids an escape from this crazy world fallout has always been S.P.E.C.I.A.L. to me and will continue to be my favorite franchise but it was the first game that got me hooked i remember finding my uncles copy of fallout 1 when i was a boy and it killed so many hours such an amazing experience dads out drinkin well im gonna go travel with dogmeat and defeat the master 😂 seriously you may have just been a nerdy dude wanting to make a fun game but you did so much more you created a masterpiece that will forever be loved thank you Mr Cain
And how iconic and central it became to fallout as a whole. I do hope bethesda doesnt do away with the attributes next. Fallout needs to keep the SPECIAL. its got such a cool origin story to boot
This is one of your older videos so I don't blame you if you don't see this. Have you tried the shadowrun ttrpg? If so whats your favorite edition. Very great videos by the way.
Hello Tim! Don't you think the progression system in games today, and especially in rpg games, is overly simplistic and primitive? (some as dragon age -2-3(inq)) Or conversely heavily overloaded, taking too much from DnD without adapting the mechanics (some as pathfiender)
Afternoon Tim, I was just curious as to whether you had any consultation with the use of SPECIAL in Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader? I realise it was only Published by Black Isle/Interplay but Chris Avellone was involved, as was Jason Suinn.
Hey Tim! Big Fan. Could you please talk about cut content of fallout 2 and what led to it being cut and how the whole release process for fallout 2 was. Thanks.
My second program that i wrote was a calculator for Fallout skills based on stats in HTML/JS. Needless to say it was not modular and was barely working. But i just liked the idea so much, it made sense for a novice programmer. Computing numbers based on other numbers.
Very late to the party but a question I always wondered about you may have answered already is , how was decided who gets a talking head and who doenst? Personally the head on the thieves leader is wasted and could have been used elsewhere but mabye there were restraints not allowing that? Another one is , how aware are you and the other people like Mr. Boyarsky and Mr. Campbell about the literally millions of people who you directly or indirectly influenced or just gave them hundreds or thousands of hours of beloved childhood memories? In the Outer Worlds interview togheter with Mr. Boyarsky he was supriesed by the dude in the video about the game absolutly loving it and that made me wonder if you really took in that A LOT of people loved your works and hold the memories they made possible very dear to this day :) Hope this message reaches you as Im really interested in your answer to both of them. Have a great day and thank you for your works!
We used SourceSafe for the code. It was exclusive check out back then, which meant if one programmer had a file, no one else could work on it until they were done. For art, sound, documents, and even game builds, we relied on constant backups, to other drives, to the local network, and even to digital tape storage,. For the art pipeline details, I'd have to bring Leon or Jason on the channel to talk about that.
@@CainOnGames I would love a video like that. It feels like an overlooked detail in game development history. Even in the modern day it can be a nightmare to collaborate art and code in a project. Learning fron the techiniques, both successful and not, from the past would be amazing
Well now you gotta tell us about the license switch! I remember reading (think it was in a physical magazine) that Steve Jackson pulled the license because he thought the game was too violent. Especially the opening cinematic with the guy's head exploding. Or maybe it was violence to kids? In either case, please don't leave us hanging! :)
"Oh Jason, I don't know... 'SPECIAL' has some negative connotations." -Tim
"On the other hand, 'ACE LIPS' has some sexual connotations." -Jason
It’s like you were there!
I think they really missed a trick there when naming it. When you re-arane the letters of "SPECIAL", it actually could spell out LICE SPA. So much better.
There is this idea that Fallout's perks (1997) was the inspiration for D&D 3.0's feats (2000).
I like to believe so.
I was told that by someone who visited Troika to pitch us on making a D&D game (we did, that was Temple). I don't know if it's true, but that's what he said.
and perks inspired by GURPS attributes
with him talking about GURPS attributes systems I'm reminded of games like:
NEO Scavenger
Darkwood
Tales of Maj 'Eyal
and the super-bad game "Project Zomboid" - which needs a narrative and in-game objectives and a non-clunk combat system to be good, for starters
I'm pretty sure that the basis for the D&D 3rd edition feats came from the TSR campaign setting "Birthright".
@@zerpblerd5966 Zomboid doesn't need a narrative, it's a sandbox/survival game. Play something else if thats what you want.
And for the record, I think zomboid is horrible.
@@DoomnDustI wish more people knew about Birthright. Never has there been a better kingdom management system. WOTC done us dirty not bringing that setting forward into later editions.
Don't have a question. Just wanted to say as a 90's Interplay and Black Isle Studios fan Fallout 1 & 2 are my favorite games of all time and I love your content! Don't ever stop giving us these behind the scenes stories. They're awesome!
Have you played arcanum? If not you should. Og fallout and arcanum are the best RPGs
I love the setting and mechanics
Also Planescape Torment was something.
But Fallout is probably my most favourite and Arcanum has its own place in my heart. Very... SPECIAL :)
@@FluffySylveonBoi Black Isle was on fire in the 90’s
Real
I remember the meeting in your office in which we tried to suss out the ranges on stats. GURPS stats use 10 as a base and go up or down from there, since they're set in the middle of the 3d6 bell curve distribution. Moving away from GURPS meant that we needed a new way to determine values! I pitched the idea of your stats possibly being 0 as average, negative values as sub-optimal, and positive values as advantageous, which I had previously played with in Ars Magica. You didn't like that because negative numbers are a little counterintuitive for some players, so we switched to the 1-10 range with 5 as the average. (This also has the hidden advantage that a 1-10 range is on a factor of 10 from the 1-100 range, which was used for skills, so you have a sense of some parity between the two systems.) Then we added the notion that your stats had descriptors-"Average," "Good," "Great"-so that players could look at something and instantly have context for "I have a 6. Where does that lie? Oh, it's Good. Ok, I get it, I'm a little better but not super in that area." That obviously owed a debt to the Marvel Super Heroes game with its stat ratings like Remarkable and Amazing!
Then there was the whole discussion with Chris about whether each skill should just tie directly to one stat, or if some skills (or all of them) should use averages. There was the usual concern about some stats being more important than others, like, if you play a high Agility, is it just strictly superior to having a high Strength? Plus the idea of verisimilitude about the skills themselves-is this something that relies on being smart, or having deft hands, or some combination of the above? Chris I think eventually settled on the distributions of where various abilities influenced specific skills.
Then when you sent out the email about perks, everyone on the team was contributing ideas. The earliest perks were all combat focused, like "I do more damage with pistols" or "I can reload faster," and then we got the big sea change with perks like Presence ("I get bonuses to social reactions") and Empathy ("I get hints of what dialogs are good or bad"), some of which were a lot more implementation work than others! (Empathy was kind of a bad idea in retrospect...)
I always choose Empathy! In some dialogues, very similar lines for no apparent reason can lead to the opposite reaction, so Empathy allows you to avoid embarrassing situations without using a save reload.
On the other hand, I seem to understand why you think this is a bad idea.
@@kujivuniakituo6121 The specific problem with Empathy was not in what it did, but in the implementation headaches that it caused! Suddenly we had to go back through every line of dialog in the game and flag it as being this color or that color. That was a lot of data!
Damn.. thanks for taking the time to type all that
I still remember looking at the original Fallout 1 box and thinking, "SPECIAL - that's so clever!"
Amazing to learn how so many iconic elements of Fallout came together...
Thank you father Cain for creating a tremendous rpg, always have a good day
I know this is more of an art question rather than game design, but would you be interested in talking about the "talking heads" system in FO1/2? They're so charming, and have so much loving detail baked into the way they emote.
I'll add it to the list. I can talk about it a bit, but the artist Scott Rodenhizer would know more.
@@CainOnGames can you talk about how the cut scenes were made as well? loved seeing the oil rig blow up as a kid.
@@CainOnGames You should see about bringing Scott on for a joint conversation about it :) Teams is a pretty easy program to use especially since you can do it browser based and then just set up a screen recorder to record Teams. OBS is great for that and also free.
Fun fact: I am from Czech Republic and we rearranged the letters to SLEPICA which basically means a hen or a chicken.
Fallout was a big hit here back in the day, we have a Czech version of the Mad Brahmin web and it still works today. Watching your videos is such a pleasure, can you imagine seeing the developer of your favorite childhood game talking about it feels like meeting a god or something :)
SLEPICA je dobrý, slyšim poprvé 😁
SPECIAL was my introduction to real RPG rules and even though I'm adjusted to all the various systems now I will always hold those 7 traits in my head as the "default" RPG attribute system.
I always thought that first came the SPECIAL then the devs tried to make attributes based on the initials.
That SPECIAL used to be ACE LIPS is something I never expected. That was cracking me up!
It only shows how good GURPS is. It's amazing you've managed to do all this in such a short time though, props to you and Chris Taylor.
I grew up playing GURPS campaigns, some great years of my life. Was heartbroken to hear the news that they lost the GURPS license.
If there were more people like you in this new gaming industry, we would have nothing but quality titles.
...And I would probably be found skeleton remains in front of my computer.
GURPS and SPECIAL are so amazing, you could say they're "CLASSIC"
Tim, you're a massive inspiration to me and the team; Fallout has been such an important part of my life growing up and its influence extends to nearly everything I write about games.
I've always wanted to ask - it's no doubt that Fallout inspired some of the direction of Outer Worlds; how difficult was it to create a game that was so reminiscent (in a good way) of the modern Fallout games without borrowing too much from the Fallout universe? Did you need rules or guidelines in place for yourself or the team to prevent "rehashing" elements from Fallout?
Thanks for what you've created these last years - you've inspired a generation.
-Max
That's a very good question! We did need some guidelines in place. I will add this to the list of future video topics.
ACELIPS will now reside in the back of my brain forever, lol.
I love actually seeing people who know and have direct experience with what they're talking about... talk about it! Much better than second hand sources and third party commentary essays on design and history.
Father Cain, our lord in fallout
Another amazing video by Tim. I hope we get a video on the GURPS change history. Also Tim would be a really fun stream to play old games on Twitch and just doing commentary on.
I think you have mentioned somewhere that Troika also had more plans for different ToEE adventures, would love to hear you talk about those!
Added to the topic list!
Hey Tim, thanks for making these. I mostly watch info/gaming/dev/lore vids while I'm working and your stuff recently popped into my feed. I'm the "Lead Quest Designer" (fancy title!!) on the Sim Settlements 2 mod for Fallout 4. You mentioned in your last vid that you were currently in a FO4 playthrough. Hope you had a chance to play our mod. We're hard at work on our 3rd chapter. So good to hear your experiences. Keep the stories coming!
I love that he's always eager to give credit to people when they've done something cool.
I love how rigorous you are with giving credit. Very cool.
Hey Tim, when are you gonna make an Arcanum sequel? Id buy it in a heartbeat.
That’s awesome, thank you for sharing!
I just stumbled upon your channel and I feel like I have made an important discovery. Fallout 3 was one of the 1st games I ever really got fully immersed in. Since then, I have enjoyed all the games that came out after but then I felt like something was missing as in, I had no clue about Fallout and Fallout 2. I have since played through those games and been watching all of your content. I cannot thank you enough for your contribution to the gaming community. You basically turned me into a gamer. Thank you sir!
I just wanted to put out there that your work on the classic Fallout still brings in new fans to this day!
My first Fallout experience was New Vegas, and then I played 3 and 4 after that. Then while I was in college, I got kind of desperate for new Fallout content (2021ish). I decided to try Fallout 1 and 2. I was born in 2000, so you can imagine the learning curve for me trying to play games that were made before I was born. After I got over that small hump, I ended up LOVING Fallout 1 and 2! They are now some of my favorites in the series! Anyway, I’m an example of how your games still impact new players, even with all of the modern advances in game technology!
I love your work!!!
You guys made game that inspired so much people all over the world. I played Fallout recently because I was too young when I first get it. It's masterclass of games, so much fun
Given that the SPECIAL plus perks system has become such an integral part of the identity of fallout and its sequels, is there anything you would change about the system in hindsight?
Oh certainly! But that's true of all my games. I would go back and change things in all of them.
RPGs wouldn't be what they are today without the efforts of people like you, Mr. Cain. Thank you for making this channel and sharing your legend with us!
Hey Tim, you're a huge inspiration for me and many others! Thank you for these insights.
Thank you for making these videos. It’s so nice to get insight on my favorite games
Great video as always Tim! Love hearing your insights and perspective
In case anyone wants to know how an early Fallout 1 build looked like: th-cam.com/video/haKOhyUqk4c/w-d-xo.html.
In this early build, it was possible to shoot at the neck and at each different arm in VATS which got stripped in the main release. I wonder why it got cut.
The Character sheet was way different too.
Thank you for sharing Tim, very cool!
I love the way you tell these stories!! It reminds me of listening to my dad tell stories as a kid haha, thank you for sharing these interesting backgrounds to such memorable parts of the game :D
Daily dose of Tim! Thank you so much for dropping these regular nuggets of gaming experience.
This Reminds me of a Musican Talking About how they made an all time Best selling Album 30 years later, keep up the content this is great stuff
This was a great watch! Thank you!
Oh sweet I didn't know you had a channel!
He just started it. Hop onto the Cain Train!
I’m loving every second of every video it’s great to hear so much insight from 1 of the most talented people in the history of the game industry
loving your videos!! thank you!!
These are such insane stories keep up the uploads please!
Hopefully you're not tired of Fallout questions, but I'd absolutely love to hear what the inspirations for Fallout were and how they affected the writing of the game. I've thought of plenty of potential parallels like the Brotherhood of Steel and the Tech Marines of Warhammer40K, and the Enclave compared to the Space Marines as a whole. Love that you're on YT and makin vids. Subbed and got notifications on. Can't wait to see more from you
Hey Tim!
Big fan of your work - would love to hear more about the Lore of Fallout and what inspired you (i know you have already gone over the Vaults) - FEV, The Master, Super Mutants and such!
I love your content and insights!
This is so awesome!
Thank you so much!
Ace Lips Houlihan
I love the story telling mixed with programming and the inspirations that helped you create games.
I felt a wealth of memories in that last sentence.
I loved hearing about how this came about! Gurps is by FAR my favorite system and Fallout is one of my favorite RPG settings. Ive actually adapted it back into Gurps 3rd ed and have been running Gurps Fallout for over 10 years now. I would love to hear more stories about games you ran and the creative process and world building choices even homebrew rules and changes you made. I've been trying to actually put together a full free PDF world book so to speak so others can run Gurps Fallout and only NEED the The basic set and compendium 1 to run it. Ive also found that teaching people gurps can be overwelming for some and using Fallout as a starting point has been easier for people to understand the advantages/disadvantages dynamic and it unique character building process
It would be cool to have a fallout directors commentary in the style of Grim Fandango Remastered, you enter an area and click a button to play a short clip of commentary
Thanks for the story, Tim. Lovely shirt by the way!
My game, Gangs Of CyberTokyo hits STEAM soon, you were a big inspiration. Thanks!
Thank you, Mr. Cain.
Fallout was the one thing I had during college and early adulthood that kept me sane, kept me dreaming, and made me excited to get out of bed.
FO3 was my first back in 2005-ish, then my friend sent me a flash drive with Fallouts 1 and 2 on it, getting me through summers at my abusive mom's house between semesters.
I discovered New Vegas when I got my first Xbox 360, then when I got an XB1 I got the legacy FO3 and NV. NV really took me for a ride and a half.
... I then played FO Tactics: BoS
_AND I FRIGGIN LOVED IT!_
No matter who you make games for, or how you may dislike them, know that someone loves every one of them. Thank you again, so much, for giving me friends and brothers in Atom 😎👍
Man i simply love your stories. First time that i realise SPECIAL is the whole system of atributes my mind blow up
Love your work Tim !!
I’m replaying Fallout 2 watching your videos.
It’s like Listening to god while playing in his Graceland creations .
I still play fallout 1 and 2 to this day. It was the first rpg I played when I was 14
Fallout is very SPECIAL. Have played the rpgs Fallout serie since i first tried Fallout 2 in 1999. Dozens upon dozens of runs in 1,2,3,NV and 4. Will continue to play. I have made my own mod for all of them (and Arcanum). Great entertainment. Awesome team that worked on Fallout to keep the bellow 4 Intelligence choices down, like AESLIPC : ).
Fallout 1/2 are my fav games. Thanks for sharing this content with us 🙂
Hey Tim, your such a pleasent fun and knowledgable guy! Thank you for these videos.
My first Fallout was Fallout 3, I loved that game and fell in love with New Vegas shortly after. New Vegas had many ways to tackle a problem which made it more fun for me. I then saw your GDC presentation and instantly wanted to play Fallout and Fallout 2. I was intimated at first but gave it a shot and started playing Fallout 1. The area design, gameplay, dialogue and music make Fallout 1 one of my favourite games of all time. I felt that it was balanced and really fun.
My question is, about the Time limit in Fallout 1, you have touched on this in the past but I would love to know more about that debate of Urgency vs Freedom within the team and your thoughts looking back on it. Thanks again
Hey Tim. Do you have any information or interesting bits on fallouts soundtrack and ambient sounds? Thanks
I plan on doing a video on Fallout's music. I found my original list of tracks that I mailed our Audio Director with a note that said "Music like this please".
Your face has been an icon on every single computer I've ever owned.
The reason why you decided to drop the GURPS rulesystem seems like a really interesting topic for a video, at least to me.
I'm just compelled to tell you that the game you made sir is one of the greatest works of art I ever had the pleasure of consuming. It had a colossal impact on me. Nothing since has come near the genius that is Fallout. Every aspect of that game blended into perfection. I pretend the bethesda titles never happened. I also saw you say Mark Morgan did a great job, which is a huge understatement for which you should apologize. APOLOGIZE!
Another thing - I usually just shitpost on youtube, but since I find Fallout such a monumental work of storytelling, gameplay and just entertainment in general, I simply cannot resist but let you know how much admiration I have for it. It is a standard to which I measure all other media and, like I said, nothing ever comes close.
Im a bigger GURPS fan than a fallout fan, but I think ultimately the SPECIAL felt very intuitive for the gameplay in fallout to me. Both are great!
Would you ever consider doing a tour of the shelves behind you?
Hey, Tim. Would be very interesting to hear your opinion on the people's efforts to restore original code of Fallout from machine code. I wonder how close what we have now with the recent project is to the original. Considering you were the main "brain" behind the code, maybe it will be of some interest to you to see what people came up with? :)
Hello Tim, thank you a lot for your content. I would like to ask two questions, that have been on my mind for some time now (I bet it can be told about in the videos, but anyway). What were the inspiration sources for the fractions in Fallout (like BOS, Raiders, Supermutants and etc.)? And the second one about the power armor: how did you come to create it the way it was realised in game? Thank you for your insights once again!
Speaking of programming, I imagine that the code for the Fallout 1/2 engine is owned by Bethesda now. I assume this means that you can't create anything to help the very few modders in the Fallout 1/2 community with understanding the code or with mod tools?
As I understand it, due to limited fan knowledge of the engine, it is remarkably difficult/niche to code for those games.
That's correct. It's Bethesda's code now.
@@CainOnGames Thanks, Tim. Hopefully they put in the effort to reverse engineer the code one day for something like an 'enhanced' edition and develop some mod tools, too. Unlikely, but still. :)
the action point movement system makes Fallout 1/2 the most genuine tabletop style experience of any game
I just want to hear more about all the tabletop campaigns you've played and ran over the years. 2D prototyping isn't talked about enough and how important to video games tabletop has been, always love hearing these stories.
"I still call it ACE LIPS occasionally" and now I will too
Love this series.
as much as i would've loved to see it with GURPS, as i imagine it would be more fleshed out for general roleplaying, but SPECIAL is so iconic now, and so uniquely Fallout that I can't imagine it with anything else.
Question: where are the clay heads these days? :)
I don't know! I always wanted to keep one too. Having a bust of the Overseer or the Lieutenant on my bookcase would be amazing.
You made 3 engines in that short span of time? What? It took me 6 months to write my own rasterizer and that was with resources online. You guys are insanely crazy. I couldn't have written 3 engines in that short span of time even if my life depended on it
Would you mind commenting on the soundtrack choices?
Love the vids Tim, quick question though. There is alot of whacky dialogue especially in Fallout 2, like power armor recycling urine and anime being canon in the fallout universe. Is all of the more zany stuff supposed to be tongue and cheek pop culture references, or actual canon lore (or both)?
I cannot speak to that, since those dialogs were added after I left Interplay. I worked on Fallout 2 for about three months and then left in February 1998. The game shipped eight months later with a lot of new content.
@@CainOnGames I think you can at least point to the Fallout Bible released by Chris Avellone in the early 2000s as evidence that the writers who continued after you left seem to have regrets over how 'wacky' Fallout 2 ended up being. It's the one big criticism I always see directed at that game even from its fans, especially as jokes that revolve around things like Mike Tyson's love of ears or the Monica Lewinsky scandal become increasingly dated.
I haven't read the Fallout Bible stuff in awhile, but the impression I got from them is that the more ridiculous stuff is non-canon.
Very interesting talk. I feel like a GURPS-based videogame or even Engine has lots of potential.
That's interesting, because just a couple month ago I come to an idea of extracting all the actor-actor interaction code from the actor's class into a singleton. And instead of doing something like `target.take_damage(actor.weapon.damage)` do `CombatServer.attack(actor, target)`.
Not only this decouples actor from the particular combat calculations, but also CombatServer might operate over the network.
Gurps space is a great sourcebook. Wouldn't mind you talking more about rpg systems along with all this other great stuff :)
Can you imagine the SPECIAL system as a tabletop system in its own right, or something similar? The way Luck worked in Fallout might wind up a bit weird if there were a bunch of players, though... You find a crashed UFO but it turns out it's just a bunch of people in costumes (several luck rolls as you discover things change the reality of it)
hi tim thank you for fallout and getting me into rpgs. have you watched any of ghostcharm's villainpedia videos on some of your characters? would be interested in how a lot of them came to be.
In Poland they translated SPECIAL into SPECJAŁ (which is more of a delicacy/rarity describing a dish):
S - siła (strength)
P - percepcja (perception)
E - energia (energy)
C - charyzma (charisma)
J - jasność umysłu (clarity of mind)
A - akrobatyka (acrobatics)
Ł - łut szczęścia (stroke of luck)
To be honest I didn't even know this for a long time since I was playing English version as a kid. As I didn't understand English that good (I would even say I understood only some words) I remember when I talked to Set in Necropolis and asked him what has happened to his face and called him spaghetti face - he wasn't very happy about it and he attacked me :D
gurps star system generator made me think of starsector, iirc the dev mentioned his influences in a blog post years ago and old scifi ttrpgs were among them
(this is a bait comment to get more people to play starsector)
I would be really interested to see a video on why GURPS got replaced with SPECIAL. I read that Steve Jackson was opposed to the violence in the opening cinematic to Fallout. The scene where the guy in powered armor shots the bound person in the head. Which seems strange, considering how detailed GURPs can be with damage to your characters. I'm sure there is more to this story. For others reading this that might not be familiar with GURPS, Steve Jackson runs the company Steve Jackson Games. Which owns GURPS.
Hello Tim, in one of the early preview videos for Fallout 1, there is a build that uses GURPS stats like IQ, do you have this particular build anywhere?
Thank you for giving kids an escape from this crazy world fallout has always been S.P.E.C.I.A.L. to me and will continue to be my favorite franchise but it was the first game that got me hooked i remember finding my uncles copy of fallout 1 when i was a boy and it killed so many hours such an amazing experience dads out drinkin well im gonna go travel with dogmeat and defeat the master 😂 seriously you may have just been a nerdy dude wanting to make a fun game but you did so much more you created a masterpiece that will forever be loved thank you Mr Cain
And how iconic and central it became to fallout as a whole. I do hope bethesda doesnt do away with the attributes next. Fallout needs to keep the SPECIAL. its got such a cool origin story to boot
This is one of your older videos so I don't blame you if you don't see this. Have you tried the shadowrun ttrpg? If so whats your favorite edition. Very great videos by the way.
Hello Tim! Don't you think the progression system in games today, and especially in rpg games, is overly simplistic and primitive? (some as dragon age -2-3(inq)) Or conversely heavily overloaded, taking too much from DnD without adapting the mechanics (some as pathfiender)
SPECIAL 😂 a defining feature of FALLOUT
Afternoon Tim,
I was just curious as to whether you had any consultation with the use of SPECIAL in Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader?
I realise it was only Published by Black Isle/Interplay but Chris Avellone was involved, as was Jason Suinn.
Hey Tim!
Big Fan. Could you please talk about cut content of fallout 2 and what led to it being cut and how the whole release process for fallout 2 was. Thanks.
I do not have that information. I left before Fallout 2 shipped.
My second program that i wrote was a calculator for Fallout skills based on stats in HTML/JS. Needless to say it was not modular and was barely working. But i just liked the idea so much, it made sense for a novice programmer. Computing numbers based on other numbers.
Very late to the party but a question I always wondered about you may have answered already is , how was decided who gets a talking head and who doenst? Personally the head on the thieves leader is wasted and could have been used elsewhere but mabye there were restraints not allowing that?
Another one is , how aware are you and the other people like Mr. Boyarsky and Mr. Campbell about the literally millions of people who you directly or indirectly influenced or just gave them hundreds or thousands of hours of beloved childhood memories?
In the Outer Worlds interview togheter with Mr. Boyarsky he was supriesed by the dude in the video about the game absolutly loving it and that made me wonder if you really took in that A LOT of people loved your works and hold the memories they made possible very dear to this day :)
Hope this message reaches you as Im really interested in your answer to both of them.
Have a great day and thank you for your works!
What kind of version control systems was common at the time, if any?
How did artists and programmers collobrated work? What was the art pipeline like?
We used SourceSafe for the code. It was exclusive check out back then, which meant if one programmer had a file, no one else could work on it until they were done. For art, sound, documents, and even game builds, we relied on constant backups, to other drives, to the local network, and even to digital tape storage,.
For the art pipeline details, I'd have to bring Leon or Jason on the channel to talk about that.
@@CainOnGames I would love a video like that. It feels like an overlooked detail in game development history. Even in the modern day it can be a nightmare to collaborate art and code in a project.
Learning fron the techiniques, both successful and not, from the past would be amazing
Wow keep it up Tim
Well now you gotta tell us about the license switch! I remember reading (think it was in a physical magazine) that Steve Jackson pulled the license because he thought the game was too violent. Especially the opening cinematic with the guy's head exploding. Or maybe it was violence to kids? In either case, please don't leave us hanging! :)
9-10 luck to get that dead alien cutscene early for that energy gun. Start the game OP :D