When it was first announced, players were quick to call Atomfall "British Fallout," though now that the game has been released, the differences between the two titles have become more apparent. Though it may not be as much like the other atomic series as people thought, they did get one thing right: it's very, very British. Set in the north of England five years after the Windscale nuclear disaster, the game transports players to an inspired reimagining of the Lake District.

Atomfall is arguably the most authentically British title since Thank Goodness You're Here!, with the development time prioritizing crafting a world that truly feels like the UK in the '60s. As much as it draws from the real world, the team was just as much inspired by iconic British fiction like Doctor Who and John Wyndam novels - the latter of which even has a village named after him in the game. This leads to an environment that's incredibly unique, blending the ordinary and the surreal together to create a world that manages to feel both cozy and dangerous.

ScreenRant interviewed Rich May, a senior programmer for Atomfall, to discuss its Doctor Who inspirations, including quintessential Britishisms, and crafting an otherworldly atmosphere.

The Doctor Who Influences Behind Atomfall

“There’s A Lot Of Pushing The Boundaries Of Science & Delving Too Deeply”

Atomfall draws inspiration from many classic sci-fi, particularly classic Doctor Who. Developers didn’t necessarily have specific episodes in mind, but there are often “moral quandaries” dealt with that raise “questions about whether people should be doing what they're doing” or “whether this is a goodie or a baddie.” Ben Fisher, head of design at Rebellion, echoed similar sentiments when we spoke at the Atomfall preview, sharing how the game eschews typical moral alignment systems. The game features “a lot of people with a lot of agendas, and often the ending isn't necessarily a nice one.”

“Whether they were actually explicitly called out or just more unconscious references,” May says, “I think it was that vibe we were looking at - that kind of sense of normality, but disrupted by supernatural science.” There’s even a Doctor Who Easter egg included in the title: “You might spot in the distance something blue box-like, and suddenly, if you try to reach it, by the time you've got there it's disappeared,” but it will leave behind “a few things [that] just remind you of someone.” For fans who are hunting for it, the fun addition can be found in Atomfall’s Skethermoor.

Doctor Who is far from the only influence on the title, though. “A lot of that classic science fiction of the time ends on the question, ‘Was this the right thing to do?’ Posing that question to the viewers like, ‘Is scientific progress all it's cracked up to be?’” Atomfall will leave players with the same questions, because, when it comes to NPCs, “there's not really any goodies,” says May. “You're left to make a choice at the end of the day, which I don't think anyone's going to be completely comfortable with, and that's how it should be.”

Bringing British Authenticity To Atomfall

Asking The Big Questions, Like “What Will Tea Do In The Game?”

The team behind Atomfall is a blended group of UK citizens and non-citizens, which led to some interesting discussions. May loved how the latter were struck by some of the Britishisms they find commonplace, pointing to art director Ryan Greene being delighted by the term boffins, a sort of mad scientist archetype he describes as “standoffish strange folk who live in the lab.” Though it’s “not the sort of stuff people say on a regular basis, everyone here knows what a boffin is. The fact that that would sort of spark so much delight in other people was quite surprising.”

This surprise led to some second-guessing when it came to what players would be able to understand. “Whenever we talked about the slang side of things,” says May, “we'd always be like, ‘Will people understand?’" There was even “a long debate about whether we should subtitle some of the stuff.” For example, “you would have the speech line ‘bobbies,’ but you could put in ‘police’ in the subtitles.” However, this idea was eventually axed in favor of authenticity: “The more we discussed it, the more people were like, ‘No, this is great. We'll get it from context, we love it.’”

It's not quite in-your-face humorous, but that sense of humor naturally happened from things like, ‘Oh, we must have Cornish pasties that give you health. What will tea do in the game?’

The British authenticity doesn’t just lie in Atomfall’s slang, but its accents as well, using regional ones as a way of storytelling. “A lot of the soldiers have what I guess you would call Cockney or southern accents,” May explains, “with the implication that they're outsiders in that area, so the locals don't sound the same.” However, even with the most authentic intentions, the team had to make some changes for the betterment of the game, one of the largest being that “it's far too sunny in Atomfall” for a place set in the north.

Something that’s especially British about the game, though, is its sense of humor. “It's not quite in-your-face humorous,” May says, “but that sense of humor naturally happened from things like, ‘Oh, we must have Cornish pasties that give you health. What will tea do in the game?’” The team also “knew there had to be a cricket bat,” and even included an achievement for hitting a grenade with one. The team wanted to ensure they “had as many of those little things in there as possible, which would amuse people who know and hopefully entertain people who don't.”

Crafting The World Of Atomfall

Contrasting “High-Tech Science & The Twee, Chocolate Box British Countryside”

The actual size of the Lake District would be far too large to capture in-game, with the team instead creating what May calls a “Disneyland version” of Cumbria, “where the power plant is right in the middle of the Lake District.” However, this aids one of the biggest environmental elements the team was trying to cultivate: juxtaposition. Players experience an “area of outstanding natural beauty, and this fairly bleak coastal industrial area” side by side, and the village uses the same principles, adding in “layers of occupation and technology” to cultivate a sense of “otherworldliness.”

Much of this design also dealt with balancing preconceived player notions about the UK and the reality of the locale. “You could point at things like Paddington or Harry Potter,” says May, “that all feed back on this idyllic, usually fifties British world, with steam trains, and chocolate things in tins, and small shops run by little shopkeepers with aprons.” The team used these commonplace tropes as a way to further cultivate the aforementioned otherworldliness, juxtaposing the “high-tech science of the atom plant and the twee, chocolate box British countryside of Cumbria to create something they dubbed “cozy catastrophe.”

Atomfall draws a lot of its inspiration from real history as well, though the team always “erred on the side of alternate history” rather than outright references. May describes it as an “amalgamation of the real to produce this parallel world” - another way the team cultivated that theme of juxtaposition, contrasting players’ knowledge of history with otherworldly additions. It’s clear why critics have praised Atomfall for its distinct charm, which it cultivates through this in-depth, distinctly British worldbuilding.