Fallout Developer Profile – Tim Cain

No Mutants Allowed has dished up another Fallout Developer Profile, this time featuring Tim Cain, producer and lead programmer for the original Fallout. Check it out:

Q: Tell us a little about your role in the making of Fallout 1/2/3 (Van Buren) ?

A: Fallout 1 was an epic project. For the first several months, it was just me, alone in a room, working on an isometric engine based on hex coordinates and sprites with six rotations. Jason Anderson came on board to do art, and Jason Taylor to do scripting, and soon Fallout was off and running. I went from lead programmer to producer when Tom Decker, Fallout’s original producer, had too many other projects to supervise. Fallout really took off after the other leads were established, with Leonard Boyarsky as lead artist and Scott Campbell, followed by Chris Taylor, as lead designer. By the end of its three-and-a-half year run, Fallout had over thirty people dedicated to making it great, and while I contributed to the design and to the production, I really consider myself first and foremost a programmer of the game.

Things were a little different on Fallout 2. I left before it was even a quarter of the way done, but I had written the basic story line and implemented a few of the programming changes before I left. The team members that remained and those that joined for Fallout 2 were all extremely talented, and Fallout 2 turned out great.