Meet the Fallout 3 devs - Megan Sawyer What ' s your job at Bethesda ? Hi , I ' m Megan . I ' m an associate artist , working on Environment stuff . What prior projects have you worked on ? I started out in QA working on Call of Cthulhu and Morrowind : GOTY . I then moved up to environment art , working on Oblivion & Shivering Isles . Before that I was a freelance artist in NYC . What have you drawn on for inspiration in developing Fallout 3 ? Books , movies , music , etc would be fine , if you don ' t want to name any games . For me personally ? The abandoned Steel mills of pittsburgh , the ruined buildings I ' ve found while hiking over Maryland , the Silent Hill games , my time in NYC in late 2001 , David Halbersham ' s research on the 1950 ' s , Six String Samurai , Jericho , The Hills Have Eyes ( both versions ) & other horror films , steampunk , opacity . us , Tank Girl , various industrial bands , and probably a bajillion other things . How is the work - environment ? Is it competitive or co - op ? Do the different teams talk together ? Work is awesome . Definitely co - op , and everyone is really cool . What is your favorite type of game to play ( RTS , FPS , RPG etc ) RPGs followed by random quirky games that don ' t quite fit into genres . Elebits , Guitar Hero , etc . How long have you been playing Fallout , and how would you describe your feelings towards the franchise ? I ' m amused that regardless of who develops Fallout , a Sawyer is still working on it . Not that I ' m related to J . E . Sawyer ( that I know of ) . Still , it amuses me . Considering that much of the game will probably be in a wild wasteland , do any of you spend much time hiking , camping , etc , and if so where ? Yep , I love exploring . We go all over the parks in Maryland & Virginia , and I ' ve spent a fair amount of time crawling around spooky places in pittsburgh and NYC . What ' s the last game you bought ? Did you like it ? I ' m sorry I didn ' t catch that , I was leveling up my Pikachu . I ' m trying to make more time for Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Guitar Hero , but Pokemon Diamond brought that endeavor to a standstill . What games are you looking forward to on the horizon ? Animal Crossing for the Wii . Any Soul Calibur or Silent Hill game . Other than videogames , what are your interests ? What are these " interests " you speak of ? I suspect they ' re for people with free time . When I do get a second , I ' m really into goth & industrial music . I spend a lot of my time going to shows and stuff ( just saw Lisa Gerrard ) . My favorite bands are old stuff like Sisters of Mercy , Switchblade Symphony , Depeche Mode and the like . I read X - Men comics , and need to pick up the new Buffy comic ( I love Joss Whedon ) . I also watch an extraordinary amount of television , and am currently quite addicted to Heroes . In summary : I am boring , and asia is a land of many contrasts . Have you listened to / liked Einsturzende Neubauten ? Their early stuff is truly industrial ? Yep , they ' re pretty cool . I ' ve never been really hardcore into their stuff , but I have a few tracks of theirs on mix CD ' s that I really like . I ' m not so much into the Throbbing Gristle era of music ; I ' m definitely more familiar with stuff like Ministry and KMFDM . Have you played the VanBuren Alpha ? If so , what were your feelings on it ? Nope , not yet . I ' m currently enjoying the wealth of Fallout videos on YouTube . I thought I recognized your nickname , you posted once in a while on the Call of Cthulhu boards , am I right ? Shame the game didnt do well . . . Hey , good memory ! I liked the way it turned out , though my kingdom for a brightness slider on some parts of it . What do you have on your desk ? Do you have any figurines or maskots ? Books ? Let ' s see , I have a small iron edged mirror , a spiderweb lamp , with a Hidamari No Tami sitting underneath it , and a black & purple spiderweb curtain at the entrance of my cube . My desk is mostly populated with Bleeding Edge Goth figurines ( I ' ve got series 1 - 3 basically ) , odd stuffed animals , and various sketchbooks , notebooks and papers . I also have an obscene amount of calendars , and pictures from Nightmare Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride . Oh , I also have a Mario tissue box cover that my mom made me , and a postcard advertisement for the Nine Inch Nails / Bauhaus show I went to last year . Also , copious amounts of Advil . Tell me what wallpaper do you have ? My wallpaper is a screenshot from Space Quest ] | [ where Roger Wilco is collecting trash . What kind of education do you devs have and has it in anyway helped you as a game developer ? I went to Carnegie Mellon up in pittsburgh . I got my degree in Electronic Time Based Art ( fancy way of saying video performance art & 3D animation ) with two minor equivalents - playwriting and art history . Equivalents , since with my program they weren ' t technically offered as minors . Strange system , academics . Pretty much every single class I took in college has come in handy in game development , with the possible exception of large metal sculpture . Welding doesn ' t really come in to play much around here . ; D I was lucky enough to have a really awesome virtual reality program at CMU ( actually , Fizzbang was in those classes with me ! heh ) that taught me a lot about human - computer interaction and gameplay . Plus , I was constantly surrounded by awesome people who would play Soul Calibur , Crazy Taxi and Jet Grind Radio with me . All in all , CMU was a spectacular school , and gave me an amazing foundation for what I do now . Fizzbang : " The education from college was a good eye - opener , but all it really served to do was to show me how much more there was to learn on my own . That took dedication and hard work - which didn ' t come from going to college , but it did help me get through it . Ultimately , the biggest benefit I got from my time at college was the people I met - friends who provided me with experiences , inspirations , and perspectives that have helped me in every step of my life . " Agreed . The friends I made during college were as important as the education I received . I spent a fair time after college ( 2 years or so ) teaching myself new stuff like other 3D software programs and new techniques , which I wouldn ' t have been able to do without my friends and the foundation I got from my college classes . I would like to know where you each grew up . Are any of you from a rural area and if so how you like city life that you now are part of . Have any of you been to my great state of Alaska and if not would you like to visit . Any veterans ? If you could live anywhere in the world , where would it be ? I grew up in a pretty rural area in Maryland . The people down the street had buffalo ! Since then I ' ve lived in pittsburgh and NYC and realized I love being able to walk everywhere and wander around as I please with public transportation . I wouldn ' t say living near Rockville is city life per se , more like suburb life . I ' ve never been to Alaska , but I ' d love to go one day . And last but not least , do you drink coffee and what kind ? Also , I don ' t drink coffee . I do love Starbucks chai tea , though . I ' m quite addicted to chai tea . What do you think is the most important thing for a man of your profession , game developers - education , natural talent , desire ? Or something else ? Man ? Pssh , I see how it is . Well , if I were a guy , I ' d go with all of the above . It takes a combination of the three to be successful . I noticed that you spent some time in Pittsburgh . . . so I ' m guessing it ' s safe to assume that you went to AiP ? Nope , Carnegie Mellon . We have an unusually high number of folk who came from the various Pittsburgh schools . We ' ve got numerous people from Carnegie Mellon , AIP , Duquesne , and I think Pitt and / or Point Park . Should we call you ghostgirl or Megan ? Either name suits me . Just so long as no one calls me anything else . Are there any more of you gals in the FO3 team ? Bethsoft has a lot of women devs , producers and administrators - more than a lot of other game companies , it seems . What is your favorite flower , flower ? Gotta go with Snapdragons . Snapdragons are awesome . Since it is through this thread that I discovered the Gem of a show : Jericho , how do you guys feel about its cancellation ? Argh , so mad . I loved that show and really wanted to see how it turned out , especially the plot line with Hawkins . I agree with Scypior , it ' s not fallouty , but it was a cool post - apocalyptic type show , and tv definitely needs more good sci fi dramas . The reasoning was silly as well - they said it ' s mature sci - fi themes didn ' t go over well . Which is odd considering they then announced a show about a vampire who runs a detective agency . O _ o I ' m cautiously ( very , very cautiously ) anticipating the Terminator show on Fox in January , The Sarah Connor Chronicles . I rolled my eyes instantly at hearing it , but looking at the folks behind it and in it ( Summer Glau , awww yeah ) it might be good . I watch too much TV . What song best sums up your attitude toward life ? Everyday is Halloween by Ministry . ahhahaa . The first runner up for this spot was the Fallout Boy song , Champagne for my Real Friends , Real Pain for my Sham Friends . What was your favorite moment of any game ? The first time I fought a zombie thing in Silent Hill 2 and it dropped to the ground and started slithering around . I think I actually started screaming . heh . I really loved the use of the radio static in that game , too . So creepy and awesome . What is the most exotic firearm that you ' ve held / fired ? Star Trek : TNG era phaser . If Herve Caen and his army of rats suddenly snatched back the Fallout license and you " only " had these three alternatives for a back - up plan : 1 . Deus Ex 3 2 . Jagged Alliance 3 3 . Lionheart 2 Which one would you choose ( chasing down Herve with an army of cats is not an option ) ? Of course an army of cats wouldn ' t be an option . You would need dogs with bees in their mouths , so when they bark , they shoot bees at you . What is your favorite giant robot ? Hrm , don ' t have a favorite * giant * robot . My favorite robot is probably Mr . Lynn Butlertron . Wesssley . What is your favorite horrible monster ? I ' ll go with Oogie Boogie , because he ' s made of bugs , and because I can ' t think of a good answer . How would you describe , using ten ( most likely abstract ( yes , abstract words , like xylophone ( you ' re not allowed to include xylophone ( or another similar musical instrument ) ) ) ) words , the perfect gaming experience that Fallout 3 will bring ? That ' s difficult to tell right now since we ' re not finished . Did you ever eat ( part of ) a reptile ? If you answered yes to that , was the reptile still alive ? If you answered no to that , would you have prefered it if the reptile had been alive ? No , no , no , and another no for good measure : D Have you tried the New Bouncy Bubble Beverage ? If yes , is it an improvement over the original ? If no , why would such an exemplary citizen like you not drink the New beverage of exemplary citizens ? In a blind taste test , New Bouncy Bubble was preferred over Classic Bouncy Bubble two to one ! If you were a Super Hero , what would be your SuperPower ? If ? Plasma Rifle , Minigun , Combat Shotgun , Flamethrower or Gauss Rifle ? I prefer the classic " board with a nail in it " approach , but I ' ll go with flamethrower . What did you read most when growing up ? X - Men comics , random magazines like Juxtapoz ( I am a fan of the low , low brow ) and a small mag called Axcess that introduced me to a lot of the stuff I ' m into now - bands like Medicine & KMFDM , artists like Roman Dirge ( who was a writer for that magazine ) and other not so well known artists . Best setting : Age of Apocalypse , or Dark Knight Returns ? Aw man , that ' s not fair , they ' re both so amazingly awesome . I ' m gonna flip a coin and say . . . Age of Apocalypse . No wait . Dark Knight . . Ok , the Poison Ivy figure on my desk dictates I have to go with Dark Knight Returns . How would you try to beat Batman ? Anti - depressants and therapy . Though , I would never want to beat batman ; he ' s the quintessential romantic hero . I ' d rather have an " almost got ' im " story . Techno : What kind ? The closest I get to techno is Lords of Acid , Praga Khan , and stuff like VNV Nation , ( older ) Apoptygma Beserk , & Covenant . Do you visit raves ( that is the term in the US , is it not ? ) or do you just like to listen to it and dance maniacaly in private ? DDR FTW . I do dance at clubs though , whenever I go . What is the situation with electronic of that type music in the States ? I live in a cave , so I ' m gonna say it ' s going wonderfully ! Is anyone else in the Dev team electronic maniac ? Possibly . refer to cave mentioned in # 3 . Which DJ ` s do you like and have you listened to anyone from Europe or just US ? The only DJ I ' ve ever seen was DJ Hellraver , and that ' s because he just seems to show up wherever I am . It ' s strange . Is there anything in the development process that you guys have been disappointed with so far ? Needs more cowbell . There have been a lot of advancements in game technologies and production values since Fallout 2 , given these changes , where would you like to spend your next vacation ? Outside of the vault ! A large source of Oblivion ' s huge success and the increasing popularity of the IP was it ' s release on consoles ; consequently , which type of pizza crust do you prefer ? Thin NYC deli style pizza crust . One of the common criticisms of Fallout 1 & 2 was that NPCs were not often as helpful as players might like and they did not grow and change to the degree that NPCs did in Baldur ' s Gate or Arcanum ; so , if you were able to add in a real - life celebrity ( a clone or a head in a jar , etc . ) to Fallout 3 , who would you choose and would they be more or less effective than Fallout 2 NPCs ? Anyone eh ? Kiefer Sutherland . I suspect he would be equally effective , what with screaming THERE ' S NO TIME ! ! ! ! every two seconds while pointing guns at everyone . If the combat system in Fallout 3 was a hamburger , what toppings would it have ? Ooh , pickles . And lots , and lots , and lots of ketchup . So much ketchup . O _ o Nny or Squee ? Anne Gwish . biggrin . gif Devs , will you play Fallout 3 after it is shipped ? Indeed . I ' m also betting we ' ll have played a fair bit of it before it ' s shipped as well . wink . gif Pie or cake ? Cake . Though I ' m shocked no one has asked the age old question of waffles vs . pancakes . none of the devs seem to have answered whether they ' re polyglots . . . I took high school french . The only useful phrase I remember is how to say " I speak french like a spanish cow " in case anyone presumes that I remember any of it . Source . Meet the Fallout 3 devs - Megan Saywer @ No Mutants Allowed