THE VIDEO SHELF · game development postmortem
Classic Game Postmortem: Fallout
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 HN readers recommended it
Held up as an exemplary GDC postmortem and a first-hand account for fans of the original Fallout.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- GDC Festival of Gaming
- Topic
- game development postmortem
- Format
- talk
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 3
- HN mentions in dataset
- 3
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2018–2025
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
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 …
somedude895 on Hacker News · 2022-03
In Wolfenstein 3D secrets revealed by John Romero in lengthy post-mortem chatI 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) [VIDEO]
Cognitron on Hacker News · 2018-08
In The Making of Prince of Persia (2011) [pdf]Great find and also worth a watch is the Classic Game Postmortem: Fallout video from Fallout creator Tim Cain [VIDEO]
aresant on Hacker News · 2025-12
In Fallout 2's Chris Avellone describes his game design philosophy
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.
