Fallout Nuevo Mexico An anonymous New Mexico team spent years building a fan-made Fallout game inspired by the state’s folklore before the project stalled.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – An anonymous New Mexico team spent years building a fan-made Fallout game inspired by the state’s folklore before the project stalled.
KOB 4 looked at the unfinished project, called “Fallout: Nuevo Mexico,” and the stories that shaped it.
“It’s a very dark and dingey and depressing atmosphere,” Bishop said. “It’s not a game for the light of heart.”
Bishop said he found the project four years ago and saw it grow into a much bigger idea built around the American Southwest.
“It’s turned into this big project this wide scope of an idea,” Bishop said. “There’s a lot of lore that hasn’t been explored or touched upon.”
A world built on myths
Bishop said the team drew from New Mexico stories, including cursed mines, hidden treasure and the legend of Red Hill.
“That was an old story where a man was attacked,” Bishop said. “He managed to stumble back into town and tell people, there’s this treasure, he found a tresure. No treasure has been found since.”
The game would have sent its main character, a ghoul nicknamed “The Dreamer,” through places tied to New Mexico mystery, including Roswell, Los Alamos and White Sands.
“Have a sense of mystery and give the player the ability to solve it,” Bishop said.
After years of work, the project went on hiatus. Rumors spread online that lead developer Zapshock had been detained by ICE and the game was canceled.
“People start talking, and that’s usually how these things snowball out of control,” Bishop said. “Yeah, no, he did not get deported.”
Bishop said the bigger reality came down to time and change as the team got older.
“We’re getting older and people change,” Bishop said.
Even without a finished game, Bishop said the team still values the creative work and collaboration behind the project.
“We’re excercising our imagination, we’re excercising a piece of our brain that keeps that child at heart,” Bishop said. “Bouncing off ideas from one another, it’s very very–that’s the best part! That’s the best part of the whole experience.”
