the saga fallout It is one of the most important in the history of video games, as well as one of the greatest exponents of the Western role. Its first four games were created by Interplay and Black Isle, before they sold the IP to Bethesda.
With death threats involved, Bethesda Game Studios (with Todd Howard at the helm) revived the franchise with the excellent Fallout 3nominated for game of the year in 2008.
The creators of The Elder Scrolls hit the nail on the head, satisfying the vast majority of fans (except for the most nostalgic) with their first Fallout game. However, they felt unable to continue it, as they were preparing Skyrim.
So, Bethesda agreed to Obsidian Entertainment (creators of the imminent Avowed) the development of a new game in the saga.
Josh Sawyer, along with a group of veteran developers who had belonged to Black Isle Studios (creators of Fallout and Fallout 2), spearheaded the creation of the next Fallout… which was to be completed in just 18 months.
Developing a Fallout RPG in just a year and a half seemed like an impossible task, but Josh Sawyer came up with a great idea.
The feat of making New Vegas in record time
In an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, Josh Sawyer explained the creation process of Fallout: New Vegasa ”sequel” to Fallout 3 that was made in just 18 months.
It was a daunting task, because any Fallout game involves a lot of work. From scripting the main plot to structuring the secondary missions, as well as the characters, dialogues, locations and role-playing mechanics.
Fallout New Vegas It looks a lot like Fallout 3. It could even be said that it is a game technically identical to its predecessor, despite the fact that two years passed between them. In fact, It was about to be a DLC or expansion.
”We took a released game and made a spin-off without really changing the underlying technology, we focused almost entirely on the content.’‘, clarifies Sawyer.
That’s how it went. The team focused on the plot, the missions, the characters and the setting. Everything else, from the combat system, dialogues and audiovisual section, followed exactly in the footsteps of Fallout 3. But not for pleasure, but for necessity.
”The first successful projects of my career were almost all content sequels or derivatives of existing technological foundations. And this made me focus my mind on the production process. I quickly adapted to ‘How can we make something new in a very short period of time, using what we have?’ It was a very simple and cost-effective development approach”.
In addition, Josh Sawyer and his team rescued some ideas discarded for Fallout 3: Van Buren (the game canceled by Interplay), breathing a bit of the classic air of the saga into Fallout: New Vegas.
The result was one of the best Fallout games, brilliant at a playable and narrative level, although technically it was outdated for its time. Related to Fallout New Vegasyou can take a look at The card game that few fans master and The ”no go” zone that newbies should not visit.
