How Atomfall’s Setting Was Influenced by Folktales and Classic British Sci-Fi
Restart spoke with Atomfall’s creative director Ben Fisher and art director Ryan Green about retro and regional inspirations, as well as how to build an accurate dry stone wall.
Posted 2 months ago
We thought we knew what to expect from Rebellion. The Sniper Elite studio has been steadily refining third-person stealth and shooting for almost two decades now. And with Sniper Elite: Resistance training its sights on a 2025 release, that trend looks set to continue. But then came Atomfall: a brand-new, first-person survival-action RPG, and what could be Rebellion’s boldest project yet.
After a 30-minute hands-on session at Gamescom – which you can read about in our preview here – we had the chance to sit down with Atomfall’s creative director Ben Fisher and art director Ryan Green to discuss nuclear disasters, Lake District folklore, and all the inspirations behind Atomfall.
An appealing apocalypse
Set in a fantastical aftermath to the very real 1957 Windscale nuclear disaster in the UK, Atomfall stands apart from most other post-atomic video games. Namely because it isn’t brown. Our short play session saw us set out into an unexpectedly verdant landscape – one of green grass, gentle rivers, and rocky hills. Far from your usual nuclear disaster fair. And all the more intriguing for it.
“A lot of times post-apocalyptic [games] can be very grim,” says Green. “You’ve got The Last of Us and a few other exceptions, but we wanted green and lush and very British. A little ironic I guess that they hired me as an American to come over and make this very British game, but I really appreciate the differences, and I notice them. It’s been fun.”
A dry stone wall, possibly older than the United States.
©Rebellion / Restart
“Ryan’s been great at pointing out things that we don’t even notice are British,” continues Fisher. “Like dry stone walls, for example. They are just part of the furniture to us, so we wouldn’t even notice them, but Ryan flags them. When I drive home to Scotland, I might see dry stone walls that are older than America. So having those layers of history that we don’t even see has been really helpful.”
That outsider’s curiosity saw Green on numerous research trips to the Lake District. Not just for artistic inspiration and photogrammetry, but also to pick up a pamphlet on how to build dry stone walls properly.
Scientific or supernatural?
Topography and antique architecture aren’t the only elements Atomfall siphons from its real-world locale. In establishing the shady, governmental coverup and explorative mystery at the core of Atomfall’s story, the team turned to classic media – books and TV series that defined the exact atmosphere they were seeking.
“[We looked] at the contemporary storytelling style of 1950s, 1960s Britain,” Fisher says. “To a larger extent that means classic BBC, early speculative fiction and sci-fi. So The Quatermass Experiment, the first in a series of stories that feature a gentleman scientist trying to uncover some otherworldly elements that give the impression of being occult or mystical, but the story unveils scientific explanations for things.
“There’s a longstanding tradition of that kind of storytelling in British sci-fi. And you see that influence in things like Doctor Who obviously, the Prisoner that came a little bit later, and then things like The X-Files were inspired by that kind of storytelling. That sort of approach really informed the way that we built the world.”
The result of a nefarious government scheme, or just a local who's had one too many?
©Rebellion / Restart
“I read a lot of John Wyndham [author of The Day of the Triffids, The Chrysalids, and The Midwich Cuckoos] when we started,” adds Green. “Early British sci-fi that I was ignorant of as an American coming over and they were like: ‘You should read this.’ And I was like: ‘This is so great, this is so cool!’ There are all these little twists to reality and people trying to adapt to it.”
Atomfall’s automatons and secret bunkers certainly meet the sci-fi quota. But there’s another brief to fulfill – one tied intrinsically to the local landscape and its people. Cumbria is a region rife with folk stories and local legends. Elements that Rebellion is eager to incorporate.
“I talked to lots of old Lake District residents and got some interesting stories,” says Green. “I came back with all these wild ideas and was pitching them at [Fisher], and he was going: ‘Oh yeah, we’re going for that!’ [We’re] definitely leaning into some of that.
Any game set in Blighty is obligated to feature a double decker bus.
©Rebellion / Restart
“And then that whole balance between the government side of things that are hushing things up and the local, rural things that go on in the woods out there. That’s been a fun area to dance in a little bit and make people wonder what’s going on. It feels relatable in some ways. We’ve all heard the old stories, we’ve all read the dark fairy tales of what goes on outside of town in the night. We’re playing with a lot of that.”
That goal, imbuing Atomfall with a believable and representative sense of place, took Rebellion down numerous unexpected turns. Among them, the team even discovered a less conventional musical path.
“We have gramophones and radios in the game that are playing folk music,” Fisher explains. “And folk music often has that dark fairy-tale element to it. And we’ve been writing it specifically for the game. So it’s folk music that evokes the style of the region but at the same time builds on our lore. A lot of us grew up with pagan, cultish storytelling as part of our culture, and we’ve been taking advantage of that and turning it into one of the elements of the game.”
Overall, Atomfall is shaping up to sate those of an inquisitive nature. Not just in regards to its central mystery, but in how Rebellion wants players to approach its world as a whole.
“I really love exploration in general,” says Green. “When I moved over here I started just wandering to discover, where does that little footpath go? So I’m really proud of the art team for the environments we’ve built and the little nooks and crannies that you can come across that may be something with a little twist to ‘em but might be just a natural beauty spot. We’ve got so many of those that I think players are gonna just enjoy roaming, seeing, exploring, and taking photos.”
Our thanks to Ben Fisher and Ryan Green for taking the time to speak with us about their work on Atomfall.
