Fallout 3 Interviews

A couple of new Fallout 3-related interviews have popped up on the web, just in time for tomorrow's release of The Pitt DLC.

The first Q&A is at Talking About Games with lead producer Jeff Gardiner:
Will this piece of DLC be as combat-oriented as Anchorage? Or will players be afforded more opportunities for exploration and discovery?

JG: No, this content is much similar to a core Fallout 3 quest. There are many more opportunities for explorations as well as options to minimize combat. There is an entire settlement to explore, complete with sidequests, unique personalities and different objectives depending upon the player's moral bent.

While the other is at CGSociety with world artist Rashad Redic:
How much input did you have on the design and style of your work on Fallout3?

Lots! This freedom is one of my favorite parts of the job. We are usually given high level aesthetic goals, but how we interpret those is usually up to us. Throughout the wasteland of Fallout, you'll come across a lot of these corrugated metal and wooden shacks (Republic of Dave and Evergreen Mills are two examples where these are used). When I got the task, it was to more or less come up with a few multipurpose shacks that fit into the current style and looked different enough from the shacks that make up the Megaton settlement. How they turned out was pretty much my design decisions, with some technical considerations for how NPC's may use them. With few exceptions, most all the architecture and props I built are my design choices, and of course any revisions and the final OK are given by the art lead.

Lighting is another example where I'm pretty much left to make the decisions. There are some design principles of course like making sure the main paths are appropriately lit, and maybe using light to call attention to things, but I'm pretty much deciding the mood of most dungeons, while honoring the intent of the original level design. Some of those dungeons I lit were Dunwich, Our Lady of Hope, Statesman Hotel, Evergreen Mills, and the Mechanist lair, among many others.