The Fallout co writer reveals how the first Fallout got its
Games

The Fallout co-writer reveals how the first Fallout got its name and what other options there were

Today, the Fallout name is synonymous with Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic RPG series, but the summer of 1996 was anything but clear to the original game’s development team.

    Image Credit: Bethesda Softworks

Image Credit: Bethesda Softworks

Tim Cain, game designer and co-writer of Fallout, spoke about the difficulties of finding a name for the very first Fallout in a new video on YouTube. In his opinion, choosing a title for a game in development is not an easy task.

This “a word or two” should ideally convey the essence of the game, not be strangers or “hackneyed” (like “Dark” or “Blood” in the 90s) must not have unwanted connotations or combine into an awkward acronym.

    For example, the advertising department's options included Biohazard - the Japanese name for Resident Evil (Image source: Bethesda Softworks)

For example, the advertising department’s options included Biohazard – the Japanese name for Resident Evil (Image source: Bethesda Softworks)

Initially, the future fallout executable bore functional names such as testbed and gurps (after the team received license of the same name), however, it was renamed to vault13 (the key bunker in the game) when work on the Entourage started.

For the game’s final title, Vault 13 was a poor fit (a numbered sequel would be a problem), so Kane decided to brainstorm with the team for an hour and a half. This gave rise to a dozen variations on the title, including:

  • The Vault, Vault 13, Out of the Vault, Vault 666 and Outside the Vault;
  • Ground/Zero and Ground Zero;
  • survivors and the chosen ones;
  • Radstorm (Kane’s idea);
  • warriors of the apocalypse and doomsday warriors;
  • Nuclear Winter and Nuclear Summer;
  • After the bomb and after the collapse;
  • Hiroshima: Revisited;
  • remains of the day;
  • Devastated earth, dying earth and earth AD;
  • Stand out;
  • The Rust Age and the Static Age;
  • future past;
  • dead glow;
  • After Effects/FX;
  • Transmission;
  • The surface and the surface;
  • Moribund World, World Gone Mad, The New World, The World Outside and Return to the World;
  • Outside;
  • wasteland 2

Kane didn’t like the name Fallout at first, since that period of time in the game world had already passed, but after reading the list of “candidates,” the game’s co-writer, Brian Fargo, advised him to use it.

Kane wanted to think, but decided the next morning that Fallout sounds extremely good, and suggested that option to the team. The decision was unanimous, but renaming the executable file took a few weeks.

    By the way, the subtitle of Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura was thought up by Kane (Image source: GOG)

By the way, the subtitle of Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura was thought up by Kane (Image source: GOG)