The GUN Insider: Project Brazil aka New California

Hello and welcome back ladies & gentlemen, to another issue of The GUN Insider. Today we have so far one of the most unique entries of the interviews that has been done on GUN to date. This time around we reached outside of the community to bring you an interview with another mod creator. But this time it’s an interview with the creator of a major upcoming mod for Fallout New Vegas. Who it is and what is the major project you will read down below.

The GUN Insider: Project Brazil aka New California HXz641E

GUN: Thank you so much for taking some time to talk to us about Project Brazil. I know you’re super busy with real life and working hard on the mod. First, please give us a little breakdown of your history with gaming and modding. How did you become a gamer and what got you into modding?

Thaiauxn: Thanks man. Good to hear from you.
Video games are some of my earliest memories. There was a Tandi that I learned to manually input command lines to start games on an amber screen monitor back in the early 90s, so I think that’s where this all started. I realized that games were things that could be modified rather than just accepted as perfect and permanent on that dusty old machine.

I started playing with RPG Maker XP many years later, and made a platformer in that engine by working around the scripting system to create gravity over time, creating my own maps, sprites, and story. I don’t know where that went. It may still exist online or on an old hard drive, but that was where it all began. I also made a few maps for Starcraft, Total Annihilation, and the earliest Unreal level editor.
I still remember feeling like those tools were impossible and beyond my understanding. I still open the new Unreal Engine and feel that way, even though I mostly know what I’m doing. XD
It is very intimidating at first. It’s like opening the cockpit of a Boeing 747 and trying to figure out the controls by yourself. It’s frustrating, but mastery is rewarding.
I grew up playing and making card games and board games, pinball machines -- I love making games, almost more than playing them. Almost. :p
I lived in the middle of nowhere, so I had nothing else to do after playing a game got old, so it was a reasonable leap to go from, “I bought this game, now it’s over... what next? Crack it open and start making stuff.”

GUN: Have you been involved in any mods other than Project Brazil?

Thaiauxn: In 1998-2001 I was making maps for Total Annihilation, Starcraft, Civilization 2, and Mech Commander. I made mods and maps and stories for every game with an editor, basically.
The first mod I was a part of as a team was Battlezone II: Forgotten Enemies, which I didn't do much for. I wanted to be a voice actor but had no mic, wanted to write but my writing sucked, I was on dial up Juno -- but I could test and make adjustments to maps. So I did.
That being released way back in the day was the Total Conversion that showed me what we did for FPB was possible.
As far as I know BZII:FE was one of the first and only Total Conversions that continued the universe and was effectively a feature complete sequel to the original. You can still play it today and it is amazing. I was 13 when that came out. I’m 29 now. So it has been part of my life for over a decade and a half.

GUN: How has the reception been for the first Project Brazil?

Thaiauxn: It’s been great! I mean, it’s the internet and you expect harsh treatment these days, but it’s been overwhelmingly positive (95% on ModDB!)
Almost every time we get a critique it’s valuable advice I need to take into consideration, so I don’t feel chased away from the comments section at all.
We have a cool community that’s really supportive too, both around our mod and other mods like The Frontier and Tale of Two Wastelands, and the niftools guys. We all talk and stay in touch.

GUN: You work a lot with RickerHK who released some very cool and important mods for Fallout 3 and NV. Can you tell us about working with him and what he brings to the table?

Thaiauxn: I don’t know why Rick decided to toss his hat in the ring way back in January of 2012, but I’m glad he did. I’m sure he didn’t expect it to eat the next 5 years of his life! I didn’t either, I thought we’d be done in a couple years, max.
He began by saving the mod from the older Fallout 3 engine. He taught me how to adjust formIDs in xEdit to make assets used in Fallout 3 function in New Vegas. Between the two of us we probably manually changed ten thousand of those numbers until the port was complete, then I replaced as much of the assets that were broken as possible.
I should have just made a new map, but, live and learn. :p
After that he and I talked more about how to implement the story, and he stayed on as our lead scripter. I would write the dialogue for characters, make the worldspaces and navmeshes, and he would then take the dialogue and script the quest. He also merges the plugins together and helps solve major technical issues, sparing me from that abyss to focuses on being creative, which was an invaluable partnership that continues to this day.
Rick’s coding is monolithic in FPB. The complexity of our mod is staggering. And the fact only 1 man coded all of this is mind numbing. His code is super clean, clear, and deeply commented and documented. It has to be, FPB isn’t only huge it’s also very complex, and by extension fragile, but he’s handled that with a lot of ingenuity and brute force problem solving.
While he has struggled with that herculean effort, I’ve been tackling the other side of development: writing the story, making the maps, interiors, new 3d art, recording voice actors, editing voices, placing voices in the engine, making sound effects, videos, managing social media, managing the team, setting the production’s course and tone… so without Rick I’d be dead in the water. There’s no way I could handle all that and code & script too, it’d be impossible without him.

GUN: Most mods, regardless of size and scale, are still mods that involve the vanilla player character. However, Project Brazil is one of the very few mods that is a completely new gaming experience that exists independently of vanilla events--though still within the same universe of course. Tell us about your decision to have an alternative start and new game rather than a mod that would involve a new quest for the Courier.

Thaiauxn: I wanted FPB to be a Fallout 2 inspired narrative and worldspace. I was a huge Black Isle fan, and I loved Fallout 2 as a kid. It was one of the seminal games that started the making and modding obsession that inspired me want to make games and write for them. So it was just reasonable that Project Brazil be a whole new game in that continuity.
The name was also a throwback to that idea of continuity, Brasil being an island in Irish myth that disappears when you reach for it, much like my childhood dream of working at Black Isle, which no longer exists. :p It’s kinda there, with Obsidian, but not really. I’ll have to make my own!
To do that I wanted a clean slate. I wanted to set it between Fallout 2 and New Vegas. To tie in Fallout 3 a little bit, and pull in the spirit of Fallout that I felt Bethesda’s iteration had lost, while taking the best elements of the modern Fallout and bringing it back to its dystopic, post-apocalyptic roots, with grey morality and very mature adult themes.
But it was also an origin story (for me) and it’s a proxy I think for the different ways my life could have gone.
The Computer Scientist versus Athlete, the lone wanderer versus a tribe of friends, the air force versus civilian career as an artist -- all the politics between the NCR and Mob, the Enclave’s rise to power after their defeat years before, and this overarching narrative of figuring out who you are, what your origins are, while battling a gigantic cult conspiracy from before you were even born.
I mean, that’s basically my life, right there. In all its bizarre weirdness. With enough of an opportunity for you as a player to make your own decisions differently than I did within that universe, and have it be fictionalized. That’s, to me at least, a good RPG.
It might tie into the Courier’s story as well. (Spoilers.)

GUN: Project Brazil 2 is nearing completion. I'm sure you're feeling the excitement and anticipation of releasing it. What do you want to tell the players about PB2 to help them share your excitement and get stoked for release?

Thaiauxn: FPB is like the classic Fallout game you never played, and it’s worth going back to New Vegas for a second look. It’s not just pure nostalgia, it feels like a new Fallout title, and it feels like something radically new, all at the same time.
It’s also virtually unprecedented in the history of mods. Other than Enderal no one has really made an RPG like this as a mod to this level of quality or length. So FPB, just as a benchmark for other modders to look at and challenge, is a landmark event.

GUN: What did you learn from Project Brazil 1 that you are using to make Project Brazil 2 even better?

Thaiauxn: Everything, honestly. I became a much braver and more consistent developer and artist. I aged quite a bit too so my work ethics have changed, and because I watched so many Lets Plays, I got to taste how my decisions in design affect a player’s sense of direction and satisfaction within an immersive experience.
A lot has changed in Part 1 to reflect that. But behind the scenes I’ve matured a lot too in the way I organize data and make assets professionally. Also the way I anticipate labour costs and stress in my designs and has changed.
I’d remake the worldspace from scratch if given infinite time. I can do better. Been living with my mistakes from the original design a long time ago, but I’ve worked around them pretty well.

GUN: When I first began speaking with you years ago, you shared a plot outline with me that suggested PB was a trilogy. Is this still true? Will there be a PB3 or have you condensed your story into two parts? Or, perhaps, are you not going to be able to tell the story the way you first envisioned?

Thaiauxn: Fallout: Project Brazil was originally 3 world spaces - The Vault, The Wasteland, and Los Angeles. But I consolidated them all into one both to save time and compress the story. Turns out that didn’t help, it still took 5 years. :p Stacking options on top of one another and trying to eliminate variables by merging them together from different angles does not make things better or easier. I learned that the hard way! XD
Fallout: Project Brazil Part 2 will be a total re-release with a completed mod from intro to credits.
Part 1 was going to be released, then part 2, then 3, but now it’s all together in a super composition, which is what we should have been planning all along, but I had to learn how to do all of this. That includes learning how to anticipate risks, which only comes through making mistakes.
Which was good - you can consider Part 1 our super oversized Vertical Slice - basically our working proof of concept.

GUN: What, then, is the relationship of Project Brazil 1 to Project Brazil 2 exactly? Do you need to play 1 in order to access 2 or can they be played independently?

Thaiauxn: It’s probably misleading to think of part 2 as a part, and just think of it as done. BETA 200 will be the mod from start to finish, literally renovated from the beginning to end and released as a feature complete total conversion, which at the end it will tie into the beginning of New Vegas.

GUN: Can you provide an outline for how Project Brazil’s lore ties into Fallout canon?

Thaiauxn: Ties in super deep, and everywhere. Fallout 1 and 2 are ingrained in the plot, even with some characters directly or indirectly affecting FPB’s main quest. Lore from the original games factor into the lore you read about and hear about, ideas in the Fallout Bible shape, literally, the landscape and people you meet, with the Enclave-NCR War, the Master’s Army, The Raiders, and Shi being present thematic elements.
And finally the way our story ends ties directly into events in Fallout 3 and New Vegas, basically the prequel to both games, bridging the gap between the originals and today.

GUN: Do you ever fear what would happen if Bethesda did a game that covered the same time period from between Fallout 2 and 3/NV?

Thaiauxn: Not really. But I think if Project Brazil were an official canon game, it would be phenomenal. The Vault getting destroyed, and needing to make a home for your survivors would make that stupid settlement system actually really engaging - you’d have to build bases to keep your people alive after the Vault is wiped out, and use the politics between the NCR vs Raider Alliance to keep them supplied with trade and not under siege. You’d be able to take your people in a more Raider or NCR or Independent path, juggling your role as a First Person Shooter on a personal adventure, and a deep political Role Playing Game as either the governor of your refuge town or just the bold defender of this budding village.
A new map and better engine would mean California from the San Bernardino Mountains out to LA along the coast of Venice & Santa Monica could be rendered, and the full scope of the mod could be realized as a professional project. That, would be amazing.
But Bethesda wouldn’t do that. They don’t care much for the West Coast, being an East Coast company (it’s literally in their name,) and unless they hired a guy like me, like my clone, I doubt anyone would be dumb enough to try and do that within the lore. Fitting a story into the lore is already a pain in the ass, but doing it to wedge in between 4 games? Madness.

GUN: You have said the name “Project Brazil” came indirectly from a movie you were watching when the idea for the mod was born. Was the name just a meaningless placeholder that never got replaced, or was there any kind of meaning behind it?

Thaiauxn: Oh man, that name. If I had a nickel...
It’s set in New California, about California, with California themes and involves New California’s politics. That should just be what it’s called. Fallout: New California.
http://www.moddb.com/mods/falloutprojectbrazil/videos/prequel-to-chapter-1-cinematic#imagebox
It does have an in-game meaning as a code name to throw people off the tracks of what Project Brazil is and where it is located. So if you’ve played the mod you’ll know, “OH, that’s why it’s called Project Brazil, okay.”

GUN: Tell me about how the idea for the mod was born. Where did this idea of yours begin?

Thaiauxn: Project Brazil began with a dream I had, literally, of a Fallout-like experience travelling across California and meeting a girl in a giant underground complex under a ruined house. The girl had clones, there were raiders... it was this weird dream, but very fun. I had watched the movie Brazil the night before so I guess playing Fallout 3 and that movie just came together and created this vision.
By that time in my life I had just left California to move back home after a job tanked, so I decided to start making a mod to make myself feel less terrible about that series of unfortunate events. I wanted to Los Angeles to blow up, ha! As a result, I started a worldspace with a blown up L.A. based on the dream I had. I went back to college and worked on it in my spare time.
I needed a name, so I called my plugin file Project Brazil. Just a code name.
Many more unfortunate events took place in 2010 so I ended up spending 2011 adrift with the mod in limbo. I ended up re-starting the mod with a new vision as a lore friendly Fallout addon that would take my original ideas and make a Fallout story from them.
As far as the name goes, it’s weird how that throw-away name has become such a huge, defining part of my life.

GUN: So it sounds like Project Brazil isn’t critical as far as names go. Would you ever seriously consider changing the name?

Thaiauxn: If I changed it to Fallout: New California, that will be a lot of rebranding and the number of players it would attract would probably be outnumbered by those it would cost us. However, I might be wrong. Perhaps the name Fallout: New California is what people would remember and talk about, whereas Fallout: Project Brazil is just too weird and no one wants to play something that sounds so bizarre.
I’m not attached to Fallout: Project Brazil as a name. I’d happily change it to Fallout: New California if I see good, rational evidence to suggest a name change this close to release won’t lose our audience. They’d have to change bookmarks and update URLs, etc etc. And I’d have to make a new logo!
Still...if our release trailer is impressive enough, and our release date announced ahead of time, it will probably counteract that effect. I’m sure the press would say it was “formerly known as Project Brazil,” or “did you play Project Brazil part 1 in 2013? Well, the complete mod is out under a new name! (it’s still not for Fallout 4 so who cares?)”

So we’ll see. There’s time left to argue either way. Convince me.

GUN: Is there anything you planned for Project Brazil 1 or Project Brazil 2 that you had to scrap? Whether it be engine limitations or assets or scripting restrictions… anything like that?

Thaiauxn: Part 2 is basically everything we’d planned, minus some more in-depth companion interaction and the city of Los Angeles. The city wasn’t helping the story, and the companions were already a major obstacle, so after you get them past the house in Pinehaven and to the NCR or Raiders, they kinda slope off in interactivity, which I regret.
I needed another writer and scripter where that was just his/her job, making the companions more dynamic with their own rich stories in the wasteland as side quests around the main quest, and I never found that person. The Main Quest was already crippling and took 5 years, so they took a back seat.
They’re still pretty robust, but they needed individual plots and quests related to them that got cut. Which is sad, but oh well. They got a lot of situational dialogue and they are part of the main quest events in dynamic ways.

GUN: For players who have never taken the dive and played Project Brazil, do you recommend that they play the first one now? Or, at this point, should they just wait for the release of PB2?

Thaiauxn: I’d suggest they wait. BETA 200 is the “finished” mod, and it will feel finished. 131 is like the earliest version proof of concept and is now so hideously out of date that it is almost unrecognizable as the same mod -- until you play it, and then notice that yeah, the story and voices are 90% the same, but the bugs are gone, the gameplay is sooo much better, and the level designs took a quantum leap into another dimension.
It’s cool if you’re a fan of watching the mod’s evolution, but otherwise nah.
It actually kinda irks me that more people will probably remember that broken down, low res, ancient 131 than will ever play BETA 200, just because so many people left New Vegas for Fallout 4 and have no desire to go back. But Hardcore players of New Vegas and curious folks looking for a new Fallout experience will probably come back to play Project Brazil and The Frontier, and that will set the stage for more attention getting paid to New Vegas.
I’d be unsurprised if steam registers a significant spike in sales of New Vegas around the release of both mods.

GUN: Pretend Project Brazil is a novel and you're reading the synopsis on the back cover. What would it say?

Thaiauxn: “In a world long ago devastated by thermonuclear warfare, two orphaned kids from The Wasteland discover their new home, Vault 18, is at the heart of a sinister government plot from before the Great War. While trying to uncover their own mysterious origins, their home is divided by political turmoil, casting them out into the irradiated wastes from which they came. Johnny and Jenn quickly find themselves on opposite sides of a war that threatens to tear post-war New California apart. One on a quest for glory and revenge - the other trying to save the world their sibling has grown to despise.”
I previously had a serious offer to do a graphic novel for the mod’s story so I had the above synopsis written already.

GUN: Oh really? A graphic novel you say? Tell me more about that.

Thaiauxn: I don’t think Bethesda would ever adapt Fallout: Project Brazil as a DLC or as an official title no matter how well our release goes--but perhaps if we could slide them a graphic novel under the door, maybe we could go legit that way.
I’d keep roughly the same story and characters, but Johnny Matheson and Jenn Matheson would take the place of the player characters at the beginning, showing the two major paths between the Enclave, Wasteland Scouts, NCR, and Raider Alliance as a character dichotomy between them. The bother and sister would evolve into bitter rivals over time across that divide.
It starts off a little bit Vault-Tec Harry Potter as they investigate or join Bragg’s Patriots, then gets super dark with the Enclave coup, then goes straight to hell in the wasteland and wipes out any preconceptions that this was a happy story, turning out more Walking Dead than anything else. It’s a tragic tale in game, too, only with the player alone without their family.
I’d be a full colour 32 Page run of about 25 issues.

http://galoogamelady.tumblr.com/post/163920981823/got-the-proof-today-and-daaaaaamn-its-huge-and

I’d hire Cameron and Gabby for the art & storyline collaboration. With Bethesda levels of money I could probably convince them to do it, but they also have their own long running series they enjoy, so it’d be a hard to part with that to work on this crazy thing under a monthly deadline.
They’d be my first pick for any graphic project, (holy shit, have you seen these guys? They are amazing!) But if not them, then I’d keep looking for a professional / fan artist in an american comic book style and hire them out of the community. It’d be a harrowing two years for 25 issues of 32 pages, but it’s already largely written.
I’d like to do at least 1 issue for Shadow Star too, for a future kickstarter on that project. But that’s way down the road after I get more experience and financial legitimacy under my belt.

GUN: What is the best way for players to keep up with Project Brazil news?

Thaiauxn: Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FalloutProjectBrazil/
On Moddb: http://www.moddb.com/mods/falloutprojectbrazil/
And on Discord: [Not Public Yet - we’ll open it up during ALPHA1.9.0]

GUN: Last, what's in the future for you? Any new mods on the horizon after Project Brazil 2? Or will you perhaps take a much deserved break?

Thaiauxn: I’m taking a permanent break from modding to start making games. That was my goal all along, to make stand alone games with their own unique IP.
I will start small, probably on a really simple and short narrative driven sandbox game in 2D, then I’ll begin building my army to take on the far larger and more expensive game design documents I’ve worked out -- like Shadow Star.

Well there you have it folks, hopefully you are awaiting the release date of New California as much as I do and hopefully you enjoyed learning more about the man behind the mod project. would like to give my special thanks to @dragbody for doing the interview and helping it set up (He is the one who made it possible folks), to @keatit71 for his help with the spell checking and a big thanks to Thaiauxn for making time to do the interview with us. Thank you all for taking the time to read this interview and stay tuned for another issue of The GUN Insider!

Small note: This interview was done a while before the initial name change from Project Brazil to New California

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The GUN Insider: Project Brazil aka New California Ddjvs54-637772a6-c3d5-4588-b44a-de50e6197404.gif?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2MxMmM1ZTIxLTc5YmQtNDk5OS04MmE3LThmNWFkY2ZiYTRmY1wvZGRqdnM1NC02Mzc3NzJhNi1jM2Q1LTQ1ODgtYjQ0YS1kZTUwZTYxOTc0MDQuZ2lmIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0

Awesome. I have been watching Fallout Project Brazil since it's first episode. I played the original mod and it was really enjoyable. So pumped for the full complete mod to be finished! I really dig the name change although I must admit I really grew fond of the Brazil name being a fan of the film Brazil and a fan of Terry Gilliam. But the new name fits the Fallout game better. Was pleasantly surprised when this interview article dropped! Enjoyed reading it from start to finish. Thank you all that was involved in making this interview happen. Super excited for both New California and The Frontier to come out!

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The GUN Insider: Project Brazil aka New California Robbie10

Thanks @William Lionheart for posting and tonall who give this a read. It's one of the most exciting NV mod projects ever!

FYI: They are targeting release in three months so get pumped!

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Guest

Project Brazil is such a great mod, i felt i was missing out after completeing it so stuck in a doorway through the creation kit so i could always visit it during a vanilla play through, but always crashed for me trying to enter 50% of the time Sad

i liked it that much i would always keep trying to go back for more, such a amazing mod, the one mod that got me into quest mods in general and so much more, if im honest this is prob my number one mod for the fallout franchise, and i enjoy a tonne of mods but this... this was always one of my favs 0.0 if only beth made fo4 as good as this mod T_T

Ah, one of my favourite mods, and one I've been patiently watching for years. Awesome read! Nice work all.

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Muwahahahahahahaha!!!
What do you mean evil laugh!? This is how I always laugh!

Bow Down:

I played the first part of the mod god knows when (maybe like 2 years ago), it was really good, I just wish the vault suits that the other characters wear can be wearable too. I can't wait for it to come out. Will we be able to explore the whole map on the mod page? Like the Boneyard, and Vault City? Or is that not happening and is it gonna be limited to the San Bernardino Mountains as it has been? If so, why call it Fallout New California if you can't explore most of NC?

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The GUN Insider: Project Brazil aka New California Tenor

The GUN Insider: Project Brazil aka New California Tenor

This was a really interesting read, good to see a Dev still smashing out incredible mods, I played the first sample of FPB and it was incredible I loved the world and the theme, totally hyped for a part 2 now holy!

A great lengthy and detailed interview that makes for a really interesting read. I haven't played PB 1st part, but heard mostly good critics about it, so I'm eagerly waiting to try out the complete version of the mod/story. And it's always nice to have some behind the scenes on big mods such as this one. Between PB aka Fallout New California and the Frontier, diehard New Vegas fans are in for a treat in the near future.
Thanks a lot to Thaiauxn , @dragbody , @William Lionheart & @keatit71 for this interview Thumbs Up

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The GUN Insider: Project Brazil aka New California SjXlIwi

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This was an awesome interview! Especially after watching all their preview gameplay videos. I'm certainly heavily considering going back to New Vegas when the mod comes out! Thank you @dragbody @William Lionheart and Keatit71 for making this possible. It's awesome learning about the people that make these huge mods!

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The GUN Insider: Project Brazil aka New California Pbadmb10

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Posts : 8 Join date : 2015-08-11 Location : Arizona

I mean, technically I'm in the community, I just don't post a lot. :p

Until I do, then I post A LOT. XD

@Thaiauxn Oshit my apologies, I should've done my research and tagged you appropriately

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The GUN Insider: Project Brazil aka New California

The GUN Insider: Project Brazil aka New California

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