The Fallout Team

The Core Team Roster

Cain's definition of "core" is strict: people who worked on Fallout every day. This excluded people like audio director Charles DeNan, who contributed Mark Morgan and sound effects but worked across multiple projects.

Some team members have an "asterisk" — they were contributing significantly before their official assignment, staying late or coming in on weekends while still assigned to other Interplay projects.

Leadership and Original Designers

• Tim Cain — Producer, Lead Programmer, Original Designer. Started March 1994, shipped October 1997. Became producer after Tom Decker was pulled off due to managing ~22 other product SKUs.
• Tom Decker — Original Producer. Assigned early 1994, removed by fall 1994 (too many other projects).
• Jason Anderson — Lead Artist, Original Designer. Assigned fall 1994, through ship. Often called the "technical artist" — a strong bridge between programmers and artists.
• Jason Taylor — Programmer, Original Designer. Assigned fall 1994, left late 1995. (Tim has a separate interview with him on his channel.)
• Scott Campbell — Designer, Original Designer. The person who "actually sat around and came up with the original core idea of story, setting, and mechanics." Fall 1994 to September 1995. (Also interviewed on Tim's channel.)
• Leonard Boyarsky — Art Director, Original Designer. Officially started early 1995 but was contributing significantly before that (asterisk). Through ship. Created the original Vault Boy design.

Production and Design

• Marco Green — Original Division Director (Dragonplay division). Became a designer, specializing in rewriting dialogues for voice acting. 1995 through ship.
• Fred Hatch — Assistant Producer. June 1995 through ship. Co-directed nearly all voice acting sessions (Tim only attended one — David Warner's).
• Chris Taylor — Lead Designer, Original Designer. Officially November 1995 (after Stonekeep shipped) but has a big asterisk — was at original meetings and contributed ideas from the very beginning. Through ship.
• Brian Fouth — Designer. ~September 1995 to ~March 1996. "Had a lot of great ideas, contributed a lot to the early part of the game."
• Dave Hendee — Designer. Early 1997 through ship. "Had spiky hair, reminded me of Bart Simpson." Tim's pick for Lead Designer on Fallout 2.
• Scott Bennie — Designer, narrative design. No clear start/end dates. Wrote dark content including the doctor who chops people up (put on a stick as gecko meat). "Wicked sense of humor. Rest in peace, Mr. Bennie."

Programming

• Chris Jones — Lead Programmer. August 1995 through ship. "Very no-nonsense. It was very hard to get him in the quotes file because he would almost say nothing that could be taken out of context."
• Jesse Reynolds — Programmer. Shows up in notes August 1995 but started before that. Through ship. "Really good programmer, just plowed through a lot of code."
• Nick Kesting — Programmer, scripting, additional design. 1996 through ship.
• Robert Hertenstein — Programmer, scripting. 1996 through ship.
• Kevin Weatherman — Programmer. 1996 through ship. Built the world map.
• Jess Heinig — Programmer, scripting. Early 1997 to mid-1997. Along with Jason Anderson, figured out how to implement NPC companions (originally Scott Campbell's idea) and did the initial scripting. "You wouldn't have companions if it wasn't for that guy."
• Mark Harrison — Additional programming. April 1997 through ship. Tim's pair-debugging partner — they found many bugs together using Harrison's "bear traps" and Cain's knowledge of where to place them.
• Crista Salvo — Additional programming. May–August 1996. Converted GANAEL (Tim's OS abstraction library) to Mac. "The whole reason the game can even exist on the Mac."
• Tim Hume — Mac Programmer. September 1996 through ship. Tim's grad school classmate. Converted all game code for Mac, including tricky problems like color cycling without palette access.

Art

• Michael Dean — Artist. June 1995 to September 1996.
• Scott Rodenhiser — Artist, clay modeler. August 1995 to June 1997. Did most of the clay heads (Leonard did the Overseer).
• Arlene Summers — Additional art. Before September 1995, left before ship. Did a lot of the UI work.
• Helena Wieber — Additional art, 3D animations and 2D art. October 1995 to September 1996.
• Gary Platner — Lead Artist. Shows up in notes January 1996, probably started late 1995. Through ship. First person to suggest using the Ink Spots for the game's music.
• Scott Everts — Technical Designer. January 1996 through ship. Laid down tiles and wall segments (would be called a level designer today). "Brilliant at it. Very, very amazing attention to detail."
• George Almond — Additional art. Left by September 1996. Took Leonard's original Vault Boy and refined it to have "correct ink weight."
• Tramell Isaac — Artist. Before September 1996 through ship. Did almost all the Vault Boy illustrations for skill/perk images. Also did sprites — "when you kill the Overseer and he explodes and fragments, that's Tramell."
• Rob Keir — Artist. 1996 through ship. Later worked with the team at Troika.
• Jason Suinn — Production Assistant. Before September 1996 through ship. Did nearly all the lip-syncing of clay heads by hand (couldn't be automated). Also the person who noticed that "ASPS" could be rearranged into "SPECIAL."

Music

• Mark Morgan — Music. As early as March 1996 through ship.

Organizational Context

Fallout changed divisions late in development — from Dragonplay (under Marco Green) to Black Isle (under Fergus Urquhart). Fergus is listed as contributing from May 1996 through ship. For the last six months he "rolled up his sleeves" and worked directly on the game: writing dialogues, working on levels, creature encounters, item loot drops. He's a big part of why the Adytum/Boneyard area exists.

The Free Smoothie Contest

On May 13, 1997, Cain sent the team an email: he was going to Jamba Juice and would buy a free smoothie for whoever gave the best reason they deserved one. The responses reveal the team's personality:

• Gary Platner: "I deserve a free smoothie because I want one."
• Chris Taylor: "...because they don't give me gas." (They did.)
• Chris Jones: "...because I didn't waste valuable time trying to come up with a creative answer to this when I should really be getting my work done instead."
• Leonard Boyarsky: "...because I'll jiu-jitsu your ass if you don't give me one."
• Robert Hertenstein: "...because I don't know what a smoothie is." (Tim thinks he really didn't know.)
• Scott Bennie: "...because I'm diabetic and my doctor would kill me if I ate one."
• Tramell Isaac: "...because I'll shank the man who says I don't deserve one, plus Jesus bought one for Santa Claus." (South Park reference.)
• Jess Heinig: "...because Jesus bought one for Kringle, so why don't I get one?" (Tim suspects these two cheated off each other.)
• Dave Hendee: "...because it would give me superhuman energy to be Spiky-Haired Boy, the midnight vigilante. Hair around the world, be freed from bondage and persecution forever."
• Jason Suinn: "...because the bomb on your car goes off at 5:01 PM."
• Nick Kesting: "...because I dressed up really snazzy today." (He did — Tim thinks he had jury duty.)

Tim doesn't remember who won.

Why This Matters

Cain is explicit about his motivation: "When people talk about the creation of Fallout, I want them to know these people and know what they did." He's working on a full "Making of Fallout" book (87 pages at time of recording) and this video is a direct result of "getting the warm fuzzies" while re-reading it. The video pushes back against single-creator narratives — "Yeah, these people were [the creators], but people like to have a face and a name."

References

• Tim Cain. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBKd2z43K7E