Fallout: Nuevo Mexico is the highly anticipated fan expansion for Fallout: New Vegas. Despite a decline in the main franchise’s production, upcoming mods such as Fallout: Miami and Fallout: London are sparking new interest among the player base. Fallout: Nuevo Mexico is one of several additions to the growing list of expansions, offering a unique and immersive RPG experience that draws inspiration from the original Fallout and its 1998 sequel, Fallout 2. With a vast open world filled with new locations, factions, weapons, and quest lines, Nuevo Mexico is set to be a must-play for fans of the series.
Game Rant spoke with Bishop, the lead developer in Fallout: Nuevo Mexico, about his crucial role in bringing the expansion to life, including the highs and lows of game development and plans for future Nuevo Mexico teaser trailers and game release. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: Can you tell me a bit about your role with modding in the Fallout franchise?
A: I just got into this maybe a year and a half ago so. They didn't have somebody to manage voices, and so that's where I came in. I voice the Italian ghoul in the beginning of the trailer, which was actually a one-take improv. There was no script, no direction. Very spur of the moment unrehearsed.
I’m also the assistant developer. Most, if not all, of the rough concepts and ideas start with me and get developed over time with everybody else. I do the writing, quest direction, most of the dialogue, and a lot of the character development. Not everything is solely my idea, but a lot of it I will have my hand in the pot at some point. Every single character that will be implemented in the Shark’s Gang was created by me. I’m someone with no prior experience with the modding community, and here I am on one of the biggest mod projects the Nexus has seen. It's quite the experience, I’ve got to say.
Q: Can you explain the concept and development of the mod and what inspired it?
A: The game already had a direction way before I was even on it. When I first came onto the project, this was going to be a sequel mod. After that took place after New Vegas. However, we realized that that would be a very difficult thing to do. We ended up avoiding that altogether, and instead we're doing a prequel of sorts. Now, Nuevo Mexico takes place in between Fallout 2 and Fallout 3.
There were a lot of changes to the whole overall project. Things were scrapped, rewritten, and done over again. We’ve got different people that we're collaborating with their mods because there's a lot of brilliant stuff on the Nexus. We’ve really established a solid world, a solid direction with some solid characters in it, and things just couldn't look brighter for this mod right now.
Q: How does Nuevo Mexico differ from other fan expansions like Fallout: London and Fallout: Miami?
A: We’re following the New Vegas formula, of course, with our own unique twist and our own vision. I think that's important where the game isn't turning you completely upside down. It will have lots of side quests and unique weapons that are really going to flesh out our world and make it re-playable and addicting. For example, instead of a laser pistol you get a unique plasma pistol. There’s also a quest that’s a retelling of an old treasure hunting legend in New Mexico called the Red Hill Treasure. So we will have probably two or three different treasure hunt quests that’s all about piecing together maps, following rumors, following a dead man's trail, etc.
This isn't going to be your traditional Fallout map where everything's open world, and you can just walk anywhere at any time. It's a bunch of different hub worlds and different biomes. There is an urban environment, a snowy area in the north, and a white sands area in the south. One of the highlights of this entire project is that, no matter where you end up settling down, we'll have a player home for the character to settle. If the north is your favorite, you can have a player home there. If you want a house in the urban environment, boom! We got a lot of different possibilities.
Q: Can you talk a little bit more about the central storyline and themes of Fallout: Nuevo Mexico?
A: So, the year is 2255, about 10 years after the events of Fallout 2 where the oil rig the enclave oil rig was destroyed. Nuevo Mexico is being fought over, not over a particular resource per se, but over how things should be governed. Like how Fallout 3 had the Brotherhood of Steel to kind of keep order, and Mr. House kept the Mojave relatively untouched by nuclear attacks. To put it simply, Nuevo Mexico is one giant land grab now. There are three major factions, two factions have aligned, and they're fighting another major faction. That's the direction we're going in right now in terms of story.
Q: There are tons of new factions for players to explore and join in this mod. Can you speak to the unique factions featured in Fallout: Nuevo Mexico and their role in the game?
A: There are three factions. The first is called La Fuerza, “The Force” in Spanish. Yeah, we're ready for some Star Wars memes. La Fuerza is a neutral faction that is really trying to purify everything. The second one is Shark’s Gang, a neutral evil faction. They’re not concerned about doing things the right way; they’re concerned about doing things the necessary way. La Fuerza and Shark’s Gang have an alliance to combat the third faction, a mafia-esque gangster faction called the Vivian family. Now, the Vivian family is as evil as it gets. They are all about control, drugs, weapons, human trafficking, etc. This is where the player’s character, the Convict, comes in. The Convict can side with anybody.
Q: This mod looks like going to be leaning into the dark side, the underbelly, of the Wasteland in the American West. How does Fallout: Nuevo Mexico explore the darker side of the Wasteland?
A: We're going for a very bleak and dark storyline, much like Fallout 1 and 2. Think of it like this. On the surface, it's a big facade. It's colorful, it looks inviting, but underground and in the interiors, that's where the dark stuff is. The really bad stuff happens when the lights are off.
Q: In the trailer, you can see an atypical Vault-Tec entrance. What’s the role of Vault-Tec in Fallout: Nuevo Mexico?
A: Well, the only thing I can say about that is that this vault is the best kept secret in the entire wasteland of Nuevo Mexico.
Q: How has the modding community helped keep the Fallout franchise alive, in your opinion?
A: That's very easy. Making really awesome content like Fallout: New Vegas, but better. I mean, there's a massive catalog of stuff that can enhance your already vanilla experience or completely change it up. Someone who doesn't like the core mechanics of New Vegas or Fallout 3 can download different mods that completely changes the base formula. And that, in my opinion, keeps the game very fresh. We’re all still here and we're all still enthusiastic.
Q: Can you discuss the impact of modding on the longevity of the Fallout franchise and its player base?
A: The YouTube communities that are based around Fallout is the main carrier. You know, mods, sure, but that's mostly people who have PCs, and there is a large portion of the community that don't have moddable content on their Xbox or their PlayStation. So, the only other outlet they have is videos and content creators online. I love scrolling down in the comments and seeing people interacting, discussing what their favorite DLC was, what their favorite weapon was, who their favorite character was. It's just so heartwarming to see the effect that this game has had on people. It's permanent. It has scarred us in the best way possible, and it's never going to go away.
Q: How has modding allowed you to explore and expand upon the Fallout universe in ways that official development may not have?
A: Oh man. I get to write my own characters that I love and appreciate into something that I can share with other people. While I’m no Academy-Award-winning writer or voice actor, I can capture the spirit as best I can and try to preserve it. My one rule that I follow is, ‘if I cannot move myself, how will I be able to move others’? Creating believable, likable characters in a believable, enjoyable atmosphere? I mean, bread butter. Close the book on that one.
Q: What challenges or obstacles have encountered while working on mods for the Fallout franchise?
A: I’d say creating in a universe that has already pre-established rules. Sometimes you can push the boundary too far to where nobody else would enjoy it or believe it, so finding that balance at the start was extremely difficult. The NCR Frontier is a perfect example of that. I didn't believe it. I was not immersed. You can learn a lot from stuff that has failed, acknowledging what they did wrong or what they could have done better. I had to dial it back, kind of reel myself in and understand that concept. I look at it as an important lesson for anyone who wants to mod. This universe has rules that, if not followed, not very many people enjoy it.
Q: How does it feel to have your mod played and enjoyed by so many people?
A: This game is a deeply important part of myself. Sharing it with other people is very nerve-wracking because it's very personal. You want people to like it, but that's not the whole reason why you're doing it. You want to inspire and make someone's face light up, or make them zone out completely to where they're picturing in their mind the story that you're telling.
The trailer was also a humbling experience. We thought it was going to get like 60,000 views, but it’s almost to a million now. The amount of attention the trailer got was astronomical, far beyond anything I've ever seen or been a part of.
Q: What is the plan for Nuevo Mexico in 2023? Are there any updates or new content planned for release?
A: We’re working on something big right now. A trilogy of teasers. The first will have a very dark introduction in beginning and a little showcase. Certain things might make you feel squeamish, like certain Fallout content does. In the second release, the player will be able to witness justice being dealt to this evil that kind of creeps in the shadows at night. As for the third and/ or fourth part, I'm not sure yet.
Q: Is there specific date for the next teaser that's coming out?
A: No, not yet. We're not quite there yet. We don't want to give ourselves a deadline. Maybe spring or right before the summer.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to share that we haven’t talked about?
A: There is one particular companion that I really want to come to fruition, a legacy character named Eden. In the world space of Nuevo Mexico, she is kind of like a living ghost story. She’s like a female boogeyman. They call her Coco Rica. She has a bionic metal arm, and it makes her like a one woman army. She has a particular vendetta against the Vivian Family. Basically, she has violently butchered them and burned their body bodies and then strung them up onto old power lines as a warning.
She's very difficult to write, but every day we're making progress on her. She is important in the main story, and it will be a lot of fun to hear her dialogue and commentary. She's a neutral, evil kind of character, and the player will have an option to either double down on who she is, her violent nature, or can show her a more gentle hand. She's definitely one of the bigger things that I will have to tackle with this mod, but we're going to do it. I'm determined to see it through.
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