Fallout 3 (Van Buren) Concept Art

We’ve had very little to report about Black Isle Studios’ cancelled Fallout 3 since the tech demo surfaced back in 2007, but now NMA alerts us to a few pieces of new concept art posted by Interplay’s former art director Robert Nesler. I’ve mirrored all three pieces over in our image gallery, and will quote Robert’s description below:

I developed these concepts with Chris Avellone sometime in 2001 or 2002–very early in F3 development. So the ideas may not fit the later design and story. But if I remember correctly:

The Fallout Female was simply a concept for a generic female vault dweller with some science/tech skills that you may have encountered or played. I made her more shapely because I felt that the female body of the previous Fallout games was unattractive.

The Hoover Dam concept existed before Chris had written much about it, so I was allowed to come up with a town that had been built on top of and down the face of the dam. I don’t believe this idea found it’s way into the final documents. I think my scale was a little off, as well.

The Shuttle was idea that Chris had that was intended to support the notion of an orbital space station that survived and had recent inhabitants (I suspect this became the “Ballistic Orbital Missile Base”) I used design cues from a B29 blended with a more current space shuttle, as well as some excessive rocket engine placements to develop the notion of a 50’s era space shuttle. This is a very rough and unfinished concept.

It’s crazy how this cancellation still resonates so much with the community. And the irony is that barely over 8 years since a turn-based, isometric CRPG was deemed unviable at Interplay, we have numerous such offerings being funded many times over on Kickstarter.