On his YouTube channel, game design veteran Tim Cain, the creative mind behind Fallout 1, recently revisited a pivotal moment in the game's early development. According to Cain, Interplay's marketing department once urged him to ditch turn-based combat in favor of a real-time system resembling that of Diablo.

Responding to a fan's question about making Fallout more realistic and action-focused, Cain offered a clear stance: "I wouldn’t make Fallout real-time. Not in ’97, not today in 2025."

He described how the suggestion almost changed the course of the game and imagined what the real-time version might have looked like. Cain also shared the kind of compromises he might consider today if he were forced into that design direction.

“In 1996, a year before our game launched, marketing at Interplay came to me. They wanted Fallout to have real-time combat like Diablo.”

To protect his vision, Cain highlighted the financial and scheduling implications of such a shift. His arguments succeeded — and Fallout retained its tactical roots, ultimately becoming an RPG icon.

Main image: youtube.com

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