The original Fallout games under Interplay are some of the best isometric RPGs ever made, but they didn't have to be. Isometric, I mean. For a time, Fallout leads Tim Cain and designer Leonard Boyarsky considered using new 3D animation tech to make the 1997 game. Considering the fact that 1996's Tomb Raider – aside from important distinctions like one of the most recognizable female protagonists, and innovative action gameplay – is best known for Lara's unhealthily cubic bosom, I'd say Boyarsky made a reasonable decision. Fallout "was a sequel" to Wasteland, says Interplay co-founder, and "we did everything we could not to be sued by Electronic Arts" after the devs "had to pivot out" of the follow-up Fallout co-creator Tim Cain acknowledges Bethesda made the franchise bigger, but he would have done things differently: "Did they expand it the way I would have? No, not at all, that's OK" Todd Howard was trying to pitch Indiana Jones and the Great Circle for years, but even the devs don't know if he ever wanted to direct it himself at Bethesda: "I don't know if he had actually thought about it" "As the art director, I'm like, 'No, because I want a certain amount of detail and fidelity from the art. So, we can't do 3D at this point,'" Boyarsky recalls. "But man, we would have loved to – you know, we had to write in the little box in the corner about you, for the first time as a Vault Dweller, ever seeing the sun." The Fallout franchise didn't quite capture the visual magic of that moment, Boyarsky suggests, until Bethesda's Fallout 3 in 2008. "They were able to show that moment," he says. Still, "We were really lucky on Fallout." "I mean, I love the fact that in the early games, players had to buy into it, and kind of like, meet you halfway," Boyarsky continues, remembering how the game leaned more heavily on dialogue than animation. "I think that was a cool experience." Fallout co-creator warns studios amid rising layoffs and focus on AI that devs are not replaceable: "You're left with a company where nobody knows anything."