Fallout 4 is being built by people who want to fill the wasteland with fun, and that makes all the difference.

What makes Fallout so special? Well, when it comes to Bethesda’s efforts, lead producer Jeff Gardiner has said it’s because the project is a labour of love.

“We’re still a scrappy team. We’re just over 100 people – not nearly as big as some of the other studios,” he said in a recently-released E3 panel about the development team.

“We’re able to have great, individual rapport with all our developers. We empower people to do what they love when they come to our work.

“It’s ‘what can you contribute today?’ It’s not like we hand them a task sheet. We find surprises all the time in the game and those are for us some of the best things.”

Hence 400 hours of playtime and still finding new content. Pretty cool. You can watch part one of the panel below.

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Fallout 4 launches on PC, PS4 and Xbox One on November 10.