Fallout 3 Interview

The folks at the Notes on Gamedev blog have posted a quick five-question interview with Fallout 3 world artist Nathan Purkeypile.
Q: Fallout 3 is expected to release cross-platform on Xbox 360 and PS3. How has this influenced your pipeline process or the tools you use? What has been different about working with Next Gen consoles?

A: The fact that Fallout 3 is a cross-platform release has basically no impact at all with how I do my art. Whatever I make on the PC will end up looking pretty much the same on the other platforms. I never even have to worry about it. I rarely even touch the 360 version myself.

Working on the Next Gen consoles though is great. At my last job at Retro Studios, I was working on the Wii. Dealing with that hardware was a constant source of frustration for me as an artist. Ultimately, sure, gameplay matters the most. However, if your job is to make art on a console all day, it is an entirely different story. With the amount of power we have on the newer generation of consoles, I am able to create what I want far easier. Instead of constantly checking to see how many polys things are, or how many textures are being used, I just have to worry about making it look great.