Summary
Vault 13, the fan-led project that sought to remakeFalloutinFallout 4’sengine, has been cancelled.
“Vault 13 was suspended due to a combination of factors, including burnout, difficulty in recruiting and retaining team members with niche skills, and personal life changes among core team members,” the official statement reads.
This was not an easy decision, but we believe it is the right step at this stage of the journey.
“There was no infighting or cease and desist from Bethesda. Ultimately, this was an ambitious project being made with limited resources by volunteers. The decision was made to prioritise the well-being of project members.”
All Of The Work Done So Far On The Fallout 1 Remake Will Be Published
Back in August,project Vault 13 released a playable demoafter months of radio silence, signalling that huge progress was being made behind the scenes.
This bite-sized peek at the opening went down incredibly well with the community, but unfortunately — as the statement explains — recruitment continued to be an issue even with the newfound spotlight. With a hobbyist project, getting volunteers is half the battle.
Project Arroyo,a fan-made remake of Fallout 2, works in collaboration with Vault 13, even sharing assets. We’ve reached out to ask how the cancellation has impacted their team.
However, the work so far isn’t for nothing. Vault 13 co-lead and founder culinwino revealed that the team will release a full build in the coming weeks to Nexus, which will include all of the unfinished content. This is so that anyone who wants to pick up the pieces and keep Vault 13 alive can do so, and to simply preserve all of the hard work these developers have done in their spare time.
The team also plans to release a retrospective looking back at the entirety of Vault 13’s development history, “celebrating the highs, the lessons learned, and the passion that drove this project”. This will no doubt be insightful to anyone considering picking up that torch.
The cancellation is more than understandable if burnout was already a problem, considering similar projects such asBlack Mesa, a fan-made remake of the firstHalf-Life, took over ten years to reach the finish line. That’s a linear FPS, nevermind a sprawling RPG with several endings. Other fan-made Bethesda remakes such as the still unfinished Skywind and Skyblivion have also been in development for a similar amount of time. To say the least, Vault 13 was unbelievably ambitious.
