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Classic Game Postmortem: Fallout

Classic Game Postmortem: Fallout on HackerTube: recommended by 3 Hacker News commenters across 3 separate months, 2018–2025.

GDC Festival of Gaming

talk · evergreen

Open on YouTube

Timothy Cain's 2012 GDC postmortem of the original Fallout, covering how he helped build the game and set the template for open-world RPGs. He talks through production, design and programming decisions.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Held up as an exemplary GDC postmortem and a first-hand account for fans of the original Fallout.

people recommended it
3
separate months
3
strong recommendations
1
discussed on HN
2018–2025
“GDC post mortems are amazing, especially the ones on Diablo[0] and Fallout[1].”
— somedude895, Mar 2022, in “Wolfenstein 3D secrets revealed by John Romero in lengthy post-mortem chat”

What HN commenters said

3 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

somedude895Mar 2022Strongly recommends

I can't wait for this to go up on Youtube. GDC post mortems are amazing, especially the ones on Diablo[0] and Fallout[1]. I've loved Fallout since I was 12 and it really got me into post-apocalypse fiction. I ended up watching and reading all the media that Tim cites in his presentation and discovered some wonderful things like On the Beach (the book by Nevil Shute AND the movie), A Canticle for Leibowitz, etc [0] [link] [1] ▶ this video

in “Wolfenstein 3D secrets revealed by John Romero in lengthy post-mortem chat” · View on HN

aresantDec 2025Recommends

Great find and also worth a watch is the Classic Game Postmortem: Fallout video from Fallout creator Tim Cain ▶ this video

in “Fallout 2's Chris Avellone describes his game design philosophy” · View on HN

CognitronAug 2018Recommends

I like these too. Here's Jordan Mechner on Prince of Persia: [link] Also for Fallout fans (the first game): (EDIT: unrelated to Prince of Persia, I just like Fallout) ▶ this video

in “The Making of Prince of Persia (2011) [pdf]” · View on HN

Topics & tags

Game designGame history & retro gamingfallouttimothy caingdcrpg designpostmortem