Tim Kane told how the legendary Fallout series got its name and listed other options

Fallout is one of the best RPG franchise of all time, but have you ever thought about how the developers stopped at its name? If so, then you will be happy to find out that we now have an answer: the creator of the Tim Kane series told how InterPlay Entertainment chose the name in 1996 – a year before Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game.

"It is very difficult to come up with a name for the game. Especially for a new game, with new mechanics, new setting and new characters. You might think that there is a whole team of creative people who worked on it, and they can simply say: "Boom! I came up with the name". This does not happen", – Kane said, talking about the difficulties that InterPlay faced when choosing the name in the video on its YouTube channel. "It is difficult to come up with a few words that reflect the essence of your game". Kane also noted that the developers wanted to avoid the name with the subtext, which could be reduced to unsuccessful acronum or included in it too often used terms.

When Kane just began to develop Fallout, it was just called Test Bed – according to the names that he gave to various engines that he experienced. Then, when InterPlay received a license to use the universal role system Geneeric Universal Roleplaying System (Gurps), its name was changed to gurps. Only when the team began to create a setting of the game, the project received its first serious name Vault 13, that is, an underground bunker in which you start the game. But soon Kane realized that Vault 13 was not suitable.

I said: "If we someday make a continuation, we cannot call this game Vault 13, because what will be the continuation? Vault 13. 2? Vault 14? Another Vault 13? It was a bad name", – Kane said. "And then I said that we need to come up with something better".

Kane explained that the developers made a brainstorming, during which the team members were invited to offer everything that would come to mind. "I asked people to come to the conference room and just express ideas", – Kane said. "And I will say that I said: "No idea will be criticized", Although now I can criticize them", – He added.

Reading your notes "What to call the game", made in 1996, Kane listed all the proposals from this session with a huge grin on his face. Among them were "The vault", "Ground-Zero", "Survivors", "Warriors of the Apocalypse", "Radstorm" ("I think that was mine", – Kane said with a grimace), "Nuclear Winter", "Doomsday Winter", "After the Bomb" and many, many others. But among these names were Fallout. And although at first Kane did not like it, as a result, he fell in love with her after the founder of Interplay Brian Fargo (now the general director of Inxile Entertainment, who created Wasteland 3) gave her his approval.

"From time to time I had meetings with Brian Fargo, and I offered him that, in my opinion, it was the best in this list. I don’t think I mentioned Fallout. My programmatic brain then said: "Fallout? There is no Fallout, 80 years have passed, the ionizing radiation broke up", – Kane said, ridicuating his original opinion. "Brian returned the next day and said: "Why don’t you just call it Fallout? Great name, this word may not even reduce it". . And I didn’t like it, and I said: "Let me think".

"Of course, the next morning I woke up and said: "Fallout is really a good name". I offered his team. boom. Everyone liked it. . Fallout is a good short name. It reflects the essence of the game", – He continued. "You speak "Fallout", And you immediately think: "Well, this is probably a post -apocalyptic game. And, most likely, this is not a happy post -apocalyptic game". So Fallout is perfect. And it is from here that the whole series got its name".

All Fallout games, including Fallout 1, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, Fallout 76 and Fallout Tactics: Brotherhouse of Steel, are available on consoles and PCs. With the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, you will get access to most of these games on both platforms (Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics are available only for PCs).