A single map inspired Fallout 3’s lead designer to create the RPG’s entire story: “It’s got to go back to those original themes”

Fallout 3 calls back to the original CRPG Fallout in more ways than one. The box art is obviously an ode to the first game in the series, and was actually the very first piece of art created for the threequel. But even Fallout 3’s central story was thought of as a return to “those original themes” explored in Interplay’s classic, according to the game’s lead designer Emil Pagliarulo, who said he was inspired by a single map.

Speaking to Edge Magazine, Pagliarulo remembered seeing “an overhead map of the Jefferson Memorial and the Tidal Basin,” which play crucial parts in the game’s main story. “And the Tidal Basin is a self-contained reservoir. And that was it, right there.”