Fallout Shelter

Fallout Shelter is a free-to-play installment in the Fallout series for iOS, Android, Xbox One, PS4 and Microsoft Windows which was announced at Bethesda's E3 2015 press conference on June 14, 2015. The game was released on the iOS App Store the same day, after the conference ended. The game allows the player to create their own vault and thereby become an overseer of its inhabitants. It is the seventh overall game to take place in the Fallout world, although it is not a major installment in the series and is not considered canon.

It was announced at QuakeCon 2015 that the Android version would be released on August 13, 2015. It featured new game updates, including the Mister Handy robot as an all new premium reward. Mister Handy can collect resources, be sent into the wasteland to collect loot, and serve as a defender of the vault against creatures and disasters, including all new deathclaw and mole rat infestations.

The game was made available for PC on July 14, 2016, and requires the Bethesda.net launcher to play. The game was also made available for Xbox One on February 7, 2017, with cross-platform compatibility between Windows 10 and Xbox One. The biggest new feature for the game was the introduction of achievements, which can be obtained through completing the requirements for the achievement.

The game was released on Steam on March 29, 2017, with the same achievements as the ones that can be found on the Xbox version. Fallout Shelter surpassed 100 million users across phones, tablets, PC and Xbox One on September 14, 2017.

Todd Howard announced at E3 on June 10, 2018, that the game had just been released for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, making it available on all major consoles at the time.

Early development
According to lead developer Todd Howard, several early designs had been pitched and rejected.

On November 5, 2009, John Carmack of Id Software said that, while it was nothing official yet, he had an internal proof of concept made for a Fallout iPhone game. Both Carmack and Bethesda's Todd Howard are fans of the platform and any iPhone game based on Bethesda's IP will likely be made as a joint project between id and Bethesda. Carmack said that he will likely be personally involved in making the game, although currently he is too overloaded with work on other games. "At the very least I'm going to be providing code," he said.

Development
During development, the game was codenamed "Underground." Bethesda directed the design, mechanics, and look and feel of the game whilst Behavour Interactive, a studio based in Montreal, were responsible for implementation.

The game was a surprise release on June 14, 2015, during Bethesda's first E3 conference.

Post-development and lawsuit
In 2018, Bethesda Softworks sued Behaviour Interactive and Warner Bros for copyright infringement and breach of contract, claiming that Warner Bros had released a similar Westworld themed game based on pre-release Fallout Shelter code. This copyright infringement included the released Westworld product expressing bugs that were removed prior to Fallout Shelter's release, and cites similarities in mechanics, animation and user design.

Gameplay
Fallout Shelter is a simulation game in which the player runs a Vault-Tec vault as the overseer. As the overseer, one controls all of the vault's functions including: power, food, water and the number of vault dwellers. To advance through the simulation one needs to increase the size of the vault by adding and upgrading new rooms; each with their own function and then adding dwellers to run each room.

Vault rooms
Fallout Shelter contains 23 buildable rooms that are unlocked by increasing the number of vault dwellers. All rooms can have a limited number of dwellers assigned to it and each production room requires at least one dweller to run it. Each room built begins at tier one and can be upgraded with caps as far as tier three. Each room requires a specific SPECIAL skill to run at its maximum efficiency. With production rooms, such as a power generator, it will produce and hold more power when upgraded, but will take longer to produce unless more efficient dwellers are assigned there. Rooms can also be merged by placing an identical room next to it. Merged rooms are larger and take longer to produce supplies and cost more to upgrade, but are also more efficient. Rooms must also be of the same tier level to merge and will merge automatically when built next to each other.

Dwellers
Vault dwellers are an essential part of the game and are required for: operating production rooms, reproducing, protecting the vault from raider and deathclaw attacks and scavenging the wasteland. To increase the vault dweller population, one can wait for them to show up at random, mate two dwellers, get them from lunchboxes, or produce a radio studio. Each dweller will spawn with only a vault jumpsuit and their fists for a weapon. Basic dwellers start at Level 1 and can be upgraded up to Level 50 through working, preventing hazards and scavenging. Whenever a dweller levels up a number of caps are gained equal to their new level. All dwellers have their own individual S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes and are most commonly set between 1 and 3. SPECIAL attributes can also be boosted with SPECIAL rooms such as classrooms or armories. Vault dwellers can also be acquired with additional levels, attributes, outfits and weapons if acquired through lunchboxes or exploring the wasteland. Many of the dwellers, weapons, outfits and pets are featured from other Fallout games, most noticeably Fallout 3 and Fallout 4.

Incest is not allowed as putting two dwellers with the same surname in the living quarters or any of its upgrades will trigger conversation between the characters citing "Nothing like hanging out at home with my family." Automated surnames of children are of their parent of opposite gender, e.g. female offspring will follow last name of father, male offspring will follow last name of mother. This may not always happen though. First and last names, however, can be reassigned by players, but it will not let dwellers have incest due to background code.

Wasteland
One can send up to 25 dwellers to explore the wasteland to obtain extra armor, weapons and caps. Dwellers will come across locations from Fallout 4 seen in the explorer's update logs. One can direct a dweller through the building to fight, explore and collect items to bring back to the vault. After returning, one can collect all the things discovered by the dweller in the wasteland. One can equip the dweller with stimpaks and radaway from one's stock at the start of exploration. Also, a dweller will automatically return to the vault if they have collected 100 items.

Lunchboxes
Lunchboxes are awarded upon completion of certain game objectives and are also available for purchase via micropayments. Each lunchbox allows the player to attain 5 cards, each card then allows players to attain either dwellers, weapons, outfits or resources. Though the in-game description states that "Each lunchbox is guaranteed to either have a dweller or a rare item and a guaranteed junk," +500 caps is also categorized as a rare item. Players could also obtain Common, Rare and/or Legendary dwellers through lunchboxes.

Item crafting
Junks and recipes can be collected from the wasteland or from lunchboxes, which can be used for crafting weapons via a weapon workshop and outfit workshop. By paying caps and junk, one can assemble items in the workshop. The duration of crafting varies. Some weapons and outfits can only be obtained via crafting. Each item will require different pieces of junk of varying rarity. Recipes may also need to be found to make certain items and better equipment requires rarer junk.

Mysterious Stranger
Occasionally the Fallout 4 version of the Mysterious Stranger jingle will play to signify that the Mysterious Stranger has appeared somewhere in the vault, clicking on him within the short amount of time he is visible for results in a random amount of caps being given, sometimes a very large amount (possibly up to 5286). The vanishing jingle plays when he leaves. If the sound is turned off but vibrations are left on, a double vibration will indicate his arrival and a single vibration will indicate his departure.

Quotes
"I think that the world of Fallout is unique enough that it could work on any platform. I think some of the things we do like V.A.T.S., I think that could translate to any platform, particularly the iPhone. We've looked into those things, we just haven't found the thing that supports the brand well. I wouldn't be surprised if it does happen one day. The iPhone versions that we've designed and said 'Ehh, we don't think we're going to do that right now,' there are ... there are a lot of them."

Official links

 * Official site
 * Fallout Shelter on the iTunes App Store
 * Fallout Shelter on the Google Play Store
 * Fallout Shelter on Steam
 * Fallout Shelter on the PlayStation Store