Lost Love
Creation Kit // Fallout 4
Narrative, Exploration, Stealth, Technical Design
Level Summary
“Lost Love” is a single-player mod developed for the Fallout 4 base game. In this quest, the Sole Survivor is asked to help a stranger find their missing lover. Upon gaining entry to the secretive Underworld Bar and discovering the missing partner is actually a malfunctioning Synth caught in the middle of a technological conflict, the player must explore the speakeasy to gain the trust of each faction before being deciding the fate of the bar – and the lovers.
This level was completed following rapid iterative development practices. Level parameters include:
15+ minutes of gameplay
1 exterior space
1 interior space
1 main quest
1 side quest
1 morally-grey choice with branching endings
Design Goals
Meaningful Choices
Players faced with impossible decisions with no clear “good” answer
Exploration & Stealth
Engage with the narrative in multiple ways with unique interactions with the world
Dynamic Environs
Players have a direct influence on the world around them
Player Expression
Players encouraged to play the way they want to with wide representation for gender & sexuality
Implementation Details
Meaningful Choices
I am particularly drawn to the idea of games as storytelling mediums, so one of my main focuses when creating this level was crafting a compelling narrative. Throughout the course of the level, the player gradually uncovers the interconnected story of Katie & Jenny’s relationship with the boons and consequences of the technology Jenny introduced to Ars Venu.
Tensions come to a head at the end of the level, where the player must side with other the Pro-Technology or Anti-Technology factions of guards, dictating whether Ars Venu will keep producing vital medicine with the cost of turning more and more residents aggressive.
The player is faced with a secondary choice to close out the level: finally recognizing the Sole Survivor as the one who saved them from the Courser in the main quest “Hunter/Hunted”, Jenny - formerly known as K1-98 - and Katie ask the player for help deciding the fate of Jenny: should she give herself up to The Institute where she can be repaired, but likely never see Katie again, or should the lovers “ride off into the sunset” to enjoy whatever limited time they have left together?
Ultimately, the player can experience 4 unique endings to the level, all with their own pros and cons. No matter what decisions the player makes, the world is irrevocably changed by them.
Dynamic Environs
I set out with the goal of creating a level that felt as much like Fallout 4 as possible, and a large part of my focus centered on contrasting the bleak & dreary settlement of Ars Venu with the lush & lavish nightlife of The Underworld Bar.
Through rigorous implementation of AI packages, paired with custom-scripted features such as a looping “radio” system that responds to key moments of the quests, I was able to breathe life into the speakeasy.
The various denizens of The Underworld also respond dynamically to player choices & performance throughout the quest, such as various Patrons unlocking different reaction lines based on how well the player does in the side quest.
Exploration & Stealth
I wanted to push myself to design for more exploration/stealth-minded players rather than a more straightforward, combat-centric design, which allows players to engage with the quest’s narrative in a unique light. Beyond some intricacies with implementation, conveying the narrative through exploration required much iteration and discussion with my stakeholder before finally landing on a nice balance of subtlety and more overt guidance.
Additionally, I strove to have multiple ways to accomplish each “exploration fragment”. Perhaps the best display of this is in the Lounge, where the player must get passed a locked door; they can either stealthily lockpick the door to gain entry, or through some exploration of the space, discover an old hallway in a gap in the wall that allows them to drop into the office without detection. No matter what skills the player prefers, I aimed to empower everyone through exploration.
Player Expression
Additionally, I strive to provide opportunities for player expression. As a nod to the original design of a disguise-based level, the player can choose between an enchanted tux or dress before heading into The Underworld – a choice not bound by player gender. Furthermore, various NPCs will respond to what outfit the player is wearing, all with the goal of supporting player expression.
Design Process & Iteration
In order to make a Fallout 4 level, I had to first understand Fallout 4! In the weeks leading up to beginning the project, I deconstructed every element of FO4, as well as did a couple of a short “practice quests” and action blocks in order to get a feel for Creation Kit.
Once I got a feel for both Fallout 4 and Creation Kit, I was ready to design a level!
Coming from a career in theatre, I love narrative and knew I wanted to have a strong, compelling story as the cornerstone for the level. I ultimately found inspiration in Karlach’s tragic-yet-beautiful story in Baldur’s Gate III. Karlach did everything “right”, yet was betrayed by someone she loved, and will die no matter what: no amount of magic, engineering, even divine intervention can give her a happy ending. Still - she finds some degree of peace .
"What was the point? I'm still dying. I'm dying. I'm going to die. My heart. It was mine, and they took it. All of it, so I could rot. Because the person I trusted the most gave me away to the devil.
I don’t want to die. I want to live. I want to stay.”
-Karlach, Baldur’s Gate III
With this story as a reference, I began crafting my own love story. In Lost Love, Katie recruits the Sole Survivor at Red Rocket to help her find her missing lover, Jenny. Unbeknownst to them, Jenny had chosen to disappear, taking over a bar in a settlement called Ars Venu. Learning that Jenny is a Synth - originally known as K1-98 in the FO4 main quest “Hunter/Hunted” - the pair uncovers that she has been malfunctioning and chose to quietly leave Katie in an effort to spare her in watching her lover slowly die. After finally reaching Jenny, she asks the player to help her make her choice:
Return to The Institute to be repaired, but likely never see Katie again
-or-
Leave with Katie to enjoy whatever time she has left
Next up - completing the LDD:
With the LDD complete, I was able to discuss my design with my stakeholder. In the LDD, I proposed a new “disguise” system for my level where the player would have to earn various disguises in order to gain access to new areas and explore to uncover Jenny & Katie’s story while avoiding suspicion. Though the idea had a great deal of promise, we ultimately concluded that it would be out of scope for this project, and instead I shifted towards using the already-existing stealth & perk systems to encourage player exploration, while also giving players the option to “run and gun” their way through if they so choose. Finding that balance was very tricky, but a very worthwhile challenge!
I also got a chance to hone my scripting skills throughout this process: I created a lot of small, universal scripts that really improved the quality of life for the player, as well helped the level be robust for various playstyles.
The narrative also changed throughout development. I found it extremely difficult to “zoom out” Jenny & Katie’s love story so that there was meaningful impact on Ars Venu as a whole. Mentioned in my Post-Mortem later on, I concluded that love stories simply need time and care in order to feel meaningful: they should be able to unfold over the course of many hours, not a 1 hour, single-level experience. So, I pivoted to shift the bulk of the narrative on Jenny providing Institute technology to the settlement, allowing for vital medical production, but also making their guards dangerously aggressive. This way, Jenny and Katie aregrounded in their love story, but the settlement around the player are changed directly by the player’s actions.
The physical playspace also required some iteration. Particularly for the interior, I found that some of my core geometry needed to shift around and get a few tiles larger in order to capture both my intended feeling of ‘grandness,’ as well as facilitating more reuse of space through the central bar.
‘The Underworld Bar’ - Initial Design: Focus on “triangular sightlines” so player always can see their ultimate goal & immediate subgoals
‘The Underworld Bar’ - Launch: Much of the original intent remained the same, but reoriented the Lounge, Kitchen, and Basement to create a better flow around the central hub
The exterior’s design also changed slightly throughout development, but the core sightlines were able to stay the same from whitebox. Instead, I worked to be more intentional with verticality and aesthetics to help create a sense of a larger settlement that the player was impacting.
‘Ars Venu’ Entrance - Whitebox: Worked to create solid sightlines of both the ultimate goal and the immediate subgoal
‘Ars Venu’ Entrance - Launch: Core sightlines remain, but sections are more defined & integrated
Post-Mortem
What Went Well
Learning the Engine
Somewhat ironically, Creation Kit was the first game engine I ever used, so I was excited to really dive into it for this project. Learning the engine quickly allowed for faster implementation and iteration, and allowed me to make the level more robust & holistic.
Time Management
Through diligent spring planning & prioritization, I was able to deliver all milestones on time despite how ambitious the level was.
Rapid Iteration
Arguably the most successful aspect of development was rapid iteration based across milestones: I was able to process stakeholder feedback very quickly which helped me to stay afloat given how much risk I was taking on.
What Went Wrong
Scope
In all things that I do – not just game development – I want to do the most that I can. I am proud of this aspect of myself, but I definitely have some learning to do about the balance between ambition and achievability. I was able to make a solid level that handled a lot of complex things well, but I need to recognize how my ambitions as a designer fit into a production pipeline.
Visual Polish
Particularly later in development, I prioritized functional polish and getting all the cool interactions – like music, sound, transactions, vendors, dynamic responses – instead of visual polish; I’m not sure I ever truly hit aesthetics, despite being an extremely functional and robust level. As important as it is for the level to play well – it also needs to look good.
Combat Design
Admittedly, I was less interested in combat design for this level in favour of the exploration & narrative systems. As a result, the fights can feel flat and one-dimensional. Lack of combat polish may make the overall level feel slightly inconsistent.
What I Learned
Scope Comes at a Cost
This development process hammered home the cost associated with being overscoped. It’s a strange balance: I work well under pressure and wanted to use this level to push myself, but being consistently overscoped is a real danger. In the future if I choose to push scope, I should carefully choose one aspect to focus on.
The Difference Between “Functional” and “Fun”
Especially with an engine as robust as CK, it takes many, many hours of work to get to “functional”; yet, after this point is where the real work can be done: making the level fun! For perhaps the first time, I felt a very clear turning point when I hit a true “alpha” which allowed me to iterate for the rest of development to “find the fun”.
Personal vs. World Narratives
I set off trying to create this level based on a love story between Jenny and Katie, particularly inspired by the various companions in Baldur’s Gate III, yet had to pivot after whitebox to “zoom out” the narrative to the struggles of Ars Venu as a whole. The conclusion I have reached is that full focus on the love story fundamentally wouldn’t have worked for a project of this scope (~1 hour of gameplay) because love stories require a great deal of time. So much of falling in love is in the small moments. This was an invaluable lesson about how much sheer gametime it takes in order to build relationships between players and characters, and subsequently, what choices have the potential to be meaningul.