Fallout 4 was initially set in New York because it's 'something grand and American' and Nick Valentine capped-off the very first design document: 'I think the photo was of Humphrey Bogart'
PC Gamer's latest issue is a Fallout bonanza, going over the entire history of one of the greatest gaming series with many of the key figures behind it. Among the topics covered are why Todd Howard wouldn't let the usual "videogame directors" touch the series, the disquiet of New Vegas' lead writer about the lack of credit and residuals in the Amazon TV show, the shaky launch of Fallout 76, and the early concept for Fallout 4 and its most-beloved character.
Well, Nick Valentine's my favourite anyway. PCG's Ted Litchfield interviewed Bethesda's design director Emil Pagliarulo who, with Thief's Garrett as the launching point, went into detail on the early stages of Fallout 4, when the game was set in New York (it would end up being set in Boston).
"Stephen Russell was the first actor I ever wrote dialog for back in Thief," says Pagliarulo, referencing synth gumshoe Nick Valentine's voice actor. "He was a character that I created. He was in the very first design document that I ever wrote for Fallout 4, when it was set in New York. It was a four page design document, and the last page of that document is the character of Nick Valentine, before he was a synth.
"He was just a detective. I think the photo was of Humphrey Bogart. We made him a synth, came up with this backstory, and then one of our other designers, Liam Collins, took that and fleshed him out and did his quest and everything. Nick is very, very near and dear to my heart."
It's not exactly surprising that the reference material was a picture of Humphrey Bogart, because that source of inspiration shines through Valentine's character. I should also mention that the New York factoid has popped up in the past, notably in NoClip's History of Bethesda video, but I don't think it's super common knowledge. As for why New York was the initial choice:
"We wanted to do something grand and American," says Pagliarulo. "That's New York for you, right? And something that has identifiable monuments. But at that time, other games were being set in New York, one of the Crysis games just came out, and that was set in New York, then there was another game, it's like, you know what? Maybe New York's not the right call.
"Me being from Boston—I didn't want to push for Boston, even though I thought it would be a great location—it was actually Todd and Istvan Pely, our lead artist, who came around to Boston, and Todd looked at me like, 'I assume that's okay with you.' I'm like, 'No argument from me!'"
Pagliarulo says the New York concept never made it far enough past the planning stages for Fallout 4 to reflect those origins, though there is one very notable location that survived more-or-less intact.
"The one carry over from that design doc is the town of Goodneighbor, and the way it's structured in Fallout 4—it was basically the New York version of that town, but it was around Times Square."