Fallout 3 Developer Diary

The official Fallout 3 website has seen one of its rare developer diary updates, with Jeff Gardiner filling us in on the ins and outs of DLC development.

Now back to the Downloadable Content. As Fallout 3 was nearing “true Beta,” most of the content developers, our Artists and Designers, were playing the game around the clock. That process comes to an end once we start locking down the content for Beta, so this is the time we transition the team onto our additional content, now and forevermore entitled “DLC.” To kick the DLC off we held a large team meeting in our theatre, where developers came with ideas, slides and stories. We heard from everyone; ideas included costumes, weapons, sweeping gameplay changes, new settings, alien worlds, even a crazy-clown carnival. What we ended up with were two great quests that were in some ways amalgams many of the ideas pitched in the meeting. Those being Operation: Anchorage, which was an attempt at a more traditional shooter experience and The Pitt, which is Fallout at its best with a new settlement, faction, and morally ambiguous quest line.

The creation of Fallout 3 DLC is about taking a critical look at the game we just made, and deciding where to experiment. What to add. What would we, as fans of the game, like to try? Like to experience? All of us at this point have played Fallout 3 for hundreds of hours. You begin to identify missed opportunities. Stories that need to be told, weapon lists that need filling out, creatures that need allies. Enter the DLC.