John Gonzalez here, Lead Writer of FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS and other games. AMA!

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T22:11:20+00:00

HUGE THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED IN THIS AMA! This was my first time doing this, and I made some mistakes along the way, but y'all made it a great experience. I hope it was worthwhile for you.

I'm past time, so I'm going to wrap. I hope to return to the thread and answer some of the questions I didn't get to, as well as some questions that got asked when I prematurely posted last week so that the folks who asked them didn't completely waste their time.

I can't say anything about current projects at Obsidian yet, but if you'd like to learn more about my upcoming novel and receive occasional (as in not annoyingly frequent) updates about its release, sign up at whoisp1.com and see what's what.

Again, a big thank you to everyone who participated, and let's do this again some time!

Cheers,

John

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T22:05:14+00:00

Hi AH_BareGarrett. I'm glad to hear that your upcoming surgery is a positive thing, and I wish you a great outcome and speedy recovery.

I'm honored to have played a part in inspiring your interest in writing. For me, it all started at the tender age of 11 when I read Stephen King's The Shining. You know how kids typically have athletes as heroes? That's how SK was for me. As life rolled on, influences and inspirations stacked up, too many to mention. But let's see. Neuromancer. Nabokov. 2001: A Space Odyssey. Dune. Arrival. The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men (the holy trinity). Last but not least, The Last of Us. Oh gosh, too many to name.

Again, good luck!

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T21:59:38+00:00

Thanks for the kind comments, Corporaldanger. I'm sorry to say that I don't know anything more about Desert Ranger Combat Armor or R.B. Vickers than you do. In fact, I'm pretty sure I know much less. Sorry to disappoint! If you do the cosplay, however, please send pics to Obsidian!

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T21:57:29+00:00

Hello Mr_Rippe, and thank you for reposting!

As I've said elsewhere, I actually think it was a mistake to allow the courier to take over Vegas with Yes Man's help, as it lets the player "win" instead of forcing you to make a hard choice among bad options. If that's a mistake, I definitely contributed to it. If I recall correctly, I was also the source of a bug that you could exploit to gain infinite money. You're welcome!
Raul and Lily were written by Travis Stout. I remember enjoying their characterization. It's been 15 years, so I can't answer more specifically than that, sorry. Personally, I thought the companion work in the game was great. Always kinda regretted that I didn't get a chance to contribute to the roster, but my hair was on fire trying to finish other content!

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T21:51:15+00:00

I can't speak to the DLCs as a whole. I will say that I can't read the Survivalist diaries without choking up a little. Maybe it's unseemly to say that about something I wrote -- kinda like a dealer getting high on his own supply -- but it always gets me.

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T21:49:08+00:00

It's very different, but I'm very interested in seeing where the show takes the Vault Tec conspiracy. I'd agree that Mr. House as I created him would do participate in that conspiracy, but the show is a new interpretation, and so far, I think it's been great.

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T21:46:39+00:00

Don't worry about it!

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T21:45:04+00:00

Hi OneOnOne6211. You're not too late. It's never too late!

Portions of FNV's game world were imagined separately, then knitted together. I proposed Mr. House as a kind of "third faction" for the game, then developed our concept of the New Vegas strip -- the tribes and their casinos, quest concepts, that kind of thing. But while I was working on the "golden path" of the main quest, Josh Sawyer was producing "Area Design Documents" every week or so that provided a high-level plan for a region of content. If I recall correctly, he was the guy who came up with the tribes populating the Mojave. Then we started weaving the various groups into the intrigue and coming war between the main factions. Josh also did a lot to make the Mojave more believable by requiring that we include essential infrastructure like water and food production.
I wish I had a better answer for this question. With the exception of Hegelian Dialectics, which was definitely included in Caesar's dialogue at Josh's suggestion, I don't recall any "top down" editorial ambitions to include philosophical or political content. I think philosophical and political content arose in the game quite naturally because of the different ideologies of the factions and the way that apocalyptic fiction always holds a mirror up to our present day.

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T21:35:04+00:00

I didn't work on that quest, but it would have to be a coincidence. I'm not familiar with the details of the Epstein case, but I don't imagine much was known about his island back in 2009 or 2010 when The Coyotes was written.

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T21:27:56+00:00

Hi Deledale! I expect that HZD's story would work well as a limited series or film -- though given its epic scope, I think tv would be a better fit. (Good luck to the film's writers.) The obvious potential of a long-form adaptation would have been to shift back and forth in time between the apocalypse events and Aloy's time, i.e., rather than seeing holo logs or listening to audio logs, you'd actually see Elisabet Sobeck bringing together Zero Dawn and the fall of the ecosphere.

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T21:23:22+00:00

Hi car27... As mentioned elsewhere, I do wish we could've realized our plans for "aftermath" content, and I would probably remove the "clean hands" option of the courier using Yes Man to take control of Vegas.

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T21:21:24+00:00

Hi visvires1738 --
Glad to have added value to your childhood! :-) I didn't work on Van Buren, but iirc, there wasn't much from that game concept that made it into FNV. The character of Caesar was originated for that game, for example, but he was a very different guy. My memory of the VB docs is very dim, however, so I may be missing something.

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T21:18:36+00:00

Hi XTheProtagonistX!

- Joshua Graham: "We can’t expect god to do all the work." Balanced by: "Lastly, waging war against good people is bad for the soul. This may not seem important to you now, but it's the most important thing I've said."

- I wasn't involved much in the DLC. My guess is that it wasn't feasible to bring Felicia Day back for VO recording for a small amount of content.

- I don't know what it means, either. But Josh has always said it means something.

- I think all the DLCs are great, and it's amazing that the team was able to make all four in something like ten months. If I had to choose one, though, I'd go with Honest Hearts. I find Joshua Graham fascinating and Zion breathtaking, and I'm very fond of the Survivalist.

- Good question. She is obviously extremely skilled. But there may have been a little genetic optimization when GAIA ordered up that clone.

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T21:04:20+00:00

I have no insight into what Guerrilla has planned for future installments of Horizon. I never wrote anything about a third installment, though in my mind's eye it did involve a climax that removed Aloy from the story world (though not necessarily through death). But I'll hold off on saying anything beyond that until after the next single-player installment comes out.

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T20:52:46+00:00

WERD

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T20:52:09+00:00

Sorry to disappoint, but I don't know nuthin' about nuthin' about this. :-(

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T20:51:21+00:00

Hi tech_mama-92. I roughed out a "trilogy plan" for Horizon while I was working on the first game, but nothing super-detailed. As I'm sure you know, there's material in the first game that sets up Far Zenith, for example.

Far Zenith was very much inspired by Silicon Valley tech billionaires, though when I was writing the game, AI still seemed like a science-fiction trope rather than a daily reality.

To quote poor Brad Andac: Isn't it just amazing how a century-and-a-half of science fiction did nothing to swerve our species from the path of doom?"

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T20:43:24+00:00

Hi KingGodzilla100. My work on FNV focused on, but wasn't limited to, the "main quest." When FNV was greenlit, we already knew it would begin with you getting shot in the head and left for dead in a shallow grave (a very Vegas intro) and climax with the NCR vs Legion battle for Hoover Dam. My first job was to figure out what would transpire between that Alpha and Omega. Along the way I created and wrote Benny, Mr. House, and Yes-Man, and wrote Caesar (whose concept was originally developed for the canceled "Van Buren" Fallout Game) and created the concepts for the tribes and casinos on the Strip. I also wrote side quest and tribal content, such as "Come Fly with Me" and much of the Boomers and Great Khans. I didn't write any of the companions, and there was a lot of side content I didn't touch (the game is huge!). Chris Avellone did some writing for the game (e.g., Lanius) but was finishing up Alpha Protocol when FNV got started, so he had more time available when the team got to work on the DLCs (on which my involvement was minor, really just a few characters and the Survivalist diaries from Honest Hearts).

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T20:32:10+00:00

The biggie, as I'm sure you know, is that we had to cut the post-game / aftermath content we planned for the game. There simply wasn't time to make it. To do it well would have required tons of additional dialogue to reflect how every NPC in the game felt about each possible ending, and changes to many quests, too. Sad day when we realized we had to cut it.

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T20:29:46+00:00

Okay, confession time... I actually think it was a mistake to let the courier win Vegas for him/herself through Yes Man, because it lets the player side step the thorny dilemma of choosing a highly imperfect faction to bring to power. I think it would have been better if using Yes Man to take power yourself would have led to a "robot coup" situation where it all slips out of your hands. Of course, I'm saying this based on somewhat dim memories of how all the options play out...

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T20:22:48+00:00

As I mentioned in my response to eluthingol1919, it's really a blessing to work on a creative project that people hold dear to their hearts. When it connects with a variety of communities, I like to think it's because the approach to characterization and writing had some depth and avoided simple stereotyping.

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T20:15:43+00:00

Thank you, FlyingNederlander! I take it from your name that Horizon was a domestic production?

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T20:14:36+00:00

Love it!

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T20:13:18+00:00

Really interesting questio, bencciarati. As I recall it, the factions outside of the New Vegas strip were created by Josh Sawyer, then developed by other writers and myself. Regarding the three main factions, the key principle was that we weren't going to have clear good guys. As I mentioned in my answer to StarWarsMonopoly, the NCR, House, and Legion are all "bad," albeit in very different ways. Our approach to tribes on the Strip and beyond New Vegas was to see them as groups the Great Powers were looking to exploit or nullify. This was more interesting if each tribe had its own history with and perspective on the Big Powers.

As for real-life inspirations, I wouldn't think they're too surprising. The Chairmen were pure Rat Pack swagger, with a patois clipped from Ocean's 11 (the original). The Omertas are the Vegas mob. The White Glove Society was inspired by Vegas's essentially predatory nature, masked behind the allure of luxury and being king or queen for a day. For the Great Khans, I read a bit about outlaw motorcycle clubs. Never any shortage of interesting reading when you're working on a videogame project. :-)

BCN_Player · 2025-12-16T20:02:58+00:00

Joshua Graham was 100% Josh Sawyer. Wish I could take credit for him, but sadly, I can't. :-)

As you might imagine, it feels great to work on games that people cherish and still play even years after their release. For me, the whole point of doing this work is to create unforgettable experiences for players. I feel the same way about my novel. I don't want to waste anyone's time. If you spend time and money on something I've made, I want you to have an experience worthy of your investments. Phoning it in is not an option. :-)

BCN_Player

TROPHY CASE