Fallout 3 Character Art Interview

The guys at NotesOnGameDev.net had the chance to quiz Bethesda Softworks artist Dane Olds about the character art he did for Fallout 3.

Retro-Future is such a rarely used genre compared to the range of fantasy and space science fiction out there in games. With this uniqueness in mind, can you explain for us an even more unique feature of Fallout 3 the way customizing your character works?

Customizing your character in Fallout 3 works similarly to the way it did in Oblivion. When you are born in the game a (gene-projector) is used to see how you are going to look when you are an adult. This is where you tweak the myriad of choices about how you are going to look. Your complexion right down to your hairstyle is all determined here. An approximation of that data is then used to generate the way you look as a child as well as the look of your father.

Cool! What’s it like creating a range of customizable character content?

Creating the range of customizable character content in the game has been uniquely challenging but very rewarding. A lot of the weapons I made for the game are ones that you create yourself in the game. The art assets themselves had to consist of items that you’d find in the game world and then assemble to form a weapon. Our concept artist did a great job figuring out the look of these cobbled together weapons which made my life a lot easier when it came time to create them for the game.

Thanks, Blue’s News.