“Once Upon a Wasteland: A Fallout Story” announced that it had recently crossed the 5,000 download threshold just five months after the show’s official launch in October, 2021, making it one of the fastest-growing audio dramas in the video game space. A unique entry in video game storytelling, “Once Upon a Wasteland” uses its central romance – an earnestly told queer love story – to drive the plot forward, and uses characters, their interactions, and their relationships in ways not often explored in video game-based stories.
Launched by creator Brad Williams, “Once Upon a Wasteland” follows the story of Vault-Tec-trained spy Elizabeth Kirby and Brotherhood of Steel Scribe Odessa Valdez as they race against the clock to solve a mystery that threatens the civilization that has only just begun to take hold in what used to be West Virginia, and fall in love in the process. Along the way we meet characters important to both women, including Elizabeth’s best friend Amanda and Odessa’s boss and closest confidant, Paladin Leila Rahmani.
“We’re floored by the response to the show so far. And humbled,” said Brad Williams. “The Fallout universe gives us such a rich canvas to work with, and the community is incredibly supportive. We were pretty confident going in that there was room for a non-traditional story, even for a queer love story, but we couldn’t have hoped for a response this strong and this positive.”
The show’s most recent episode, “The Mystic Chords of Memory,” was released on March 21 with the largest release-day listenership in the show’s history. The ten-episode season is scheduled to conclude on May 23.
For the latest information on the show, follow them on Twitter or visit the show’s IMDb page.
About “Once Upon a Wasteland”
“Once Upon a Wasteland” is an audio drama with more than 5,000 total downloads, featuring an earnestly told queer love story as its core. It’s set in Bethesda Game Systems’ “Fallout” universe and follows two characters as they try to save Appalachia from a looming crisis that threatens its very existence. Along the way, they find themselves falling in love, perhaps the most universal and most human story of all. It is not affiliated in any way with Bethesda Game Systems, Zenimax, or Microsoft.