Share by:
-
Facebook
-
X
Share this article
Amidst the radioactive hazards of the Capital Wasteland in Fallout 3, beyond the super mutants and rusted weaponry, lies a blunt, glowing message: “FUCK YOU.” Since its 2008 debut, this profane scrawl has become a legendary Easter egg. However, former Bethesda lead Nate Purkeypile reveals that its lasting legacy was entirely unplanned.
Recently on Bluesky, Purkeypile noted how surreal it feels to see his own handwriting repurposed for dialogue he didn’t write, following his creation of a custom font for Fallout 76. By contrast, the original “FUCK YOU” wasn’t a font at all—it was a bespoke asset. “Just a single mesh that can only say ‘Fuck you,'” he remarked, jokingly calling it one of his “greatest artistic achievements.”
He further explained the evolution of these environmental details: “I manually created many signs for Fallout 4, but each was a unique drawing. For Fallout 76, I anticipated needing a vast amount of random environmental text, so I simply digitized my handwriting into a functional font.”
Of course then there’s also this classic, but that’s just a single mesh that can only say “Fuck you”
One of my greatest artistic achievements.— @npurkeypile.bsky.social (@npurkeypile.bsky.social)
December 19, 2024
“It was a spontaneous decision,” he says of the Fallout 76 font. As the lead artist, he had the autonomy to experiment. “I drafted the entire alphabet on a large Photoshop texture using a tablet, brought that into Blender, and sliced it into individual 3D letter models.”
The story behind the Fallout 3 scrawl is even more serendipitous. “In 2008, I just wrote the phrase and turned it into a standalone model. I fully expected management to demand its removal. I was never assigned to create ‘Fuck You’ graffiti; it was just for a Vault that had been overrun and fallen into chaos. I thought it would be a funny touch.”
Thankfully, Bethesda kept it in the final cut. Today, encountering that emerald-green scrawl feels akin to finding 2,000-year-old irreverent sketches on the walls of the Roman Colosseum. “I think that specific message left a lasting impression on a lot of players,” Purkeypile mused.
Source: gamesradar.com
