ĩ0% of Project Brazil 's assets for BETA 1.0.0 were created between January 2012 and May 2013, when the story was refined after a year-long break away from the project.
Lee named the mod 'Project Brazil' partly due to inspiration by the Terry Gilliam film Brazil, and as a nod to Black Isle Entertainment through the Irish myth of the mythological island of Brasil. Lee states that he headed a team of three people, with occasional community donations, who would spend four years creating the modification eventually ending up with 5,000 lines of dialogue from twenty different actors and three hours of gameplay for the first installment alone. According to Lee, the mod was first conceptualized in 2010, but development didn't begin until 2012, with a prototype being released for Fallout 3, and the first full installment being released for New Vegas. With the help of friends in the film, TV, radio, and live theater industries, Lee set out to create a modification of Fallout 3 for people who appreciated the style of the original Black Isle games.
Project lead Brandan Lee of Radian-Helix Media, LLC was inspired by the games Fallout and Fallout 2 from Black Isle Studios.