Fallout has a complex world full of tiny details. The creator of the series now explains what beans are all about – and how important they were in the game’s design.
Who is the creator of Fallout? Tim Cain was the lead developer on Fallout 1 and thus involved in the conception of the world and its inhabitants. He now runs a YouTube channel, where he often shares stories and old anecdotes. He also addresses frequently asked questions, such as: How many vaults are there?
Recently, Tim Cain talked about the timeline of the first game. It takes place in 2161 in Southern California, exactly 84 years after the devastating nuclear war between China and the USA.
As a result of this conflict, the Earth was devastated and the post-apocalypse began. Those who could afford it retreated to the safe vaults during the war. All others either died or barely survived on the surface.
Tim Cain has now explained why he and his team decided on the time jump of 84 years – and what beans have to do with it.
Fallout 76 has now received its first raid – here you can see the trailer:
A realistic post-apocalypse with canned beans
Why exactly 84 years? Tim Cain explains that they wanted to let enough years pass after the war so that most people from that time would no longer be alive.
The 84 years also have another practical reason: The developers wanted certain things from the time of the war to still be usable. As an example, Tim Cain mentions canned beans:
I remember that we talked about finding canned goods, and although canned goods are only good for 10 or 20 years, they are really good if they don’t start to swell. So if you find a can of beans and the seal seems okay and the beans aren’t swollen, you can probably eat them. So we wanted canned goods, which limited our research options to less than a century.
Tim Cain on his YouTube channel
The same goes for weapons and ammunition that players can find. However, the team was divided on this issue. Some claimed that weapons would remain usable for a long time, while ammunition would not. That can become unusable faster because moisture can invade.
To solve this problem, the developers invented the weapon smugglers in the wasteland, who fill old cartridge cases with newly manufactured gunpowder and then sell them.
Other elements like batteries or atomic generators should still work. Overall, the goal was to create a scenario that is clearly recognizable as a post-apocalypse but not too far into the future.
Not everything should be dead and collapsed, but at the same time, humanity should not be doing too well. Fallout offers an exciting scenario that has produced several games and even a series. Tim Cain has his own opinion on the latter: Fallout creator defends the series against fan criticism: “I’m not responsible for it anymore and neither are you”
