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Position: Level Designer

Engine: Bethesda Creation Kit: Fallout 4

Team Size: Solo Project

Development Time: 9 weeks

Concept: "Sewer Sweetheart" is a standalone mod made for Fallout 4. The majority of the quest takes place inside the Fens Street Sewer and its depths. The story centers around an old man, Sweet Joe, and saving his girlfriend, Cinnamon, who has been kidnapped.

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Roles and Responsibilities

  • Designed and implemented 3 unique interiors from paper maps to final polish quality.

  • Created and maintained a unique quest line that focuses on freedom of choice on how to handle the situations within the quest.

  • Created and updated design documentation throughout the entire development process.

Screenshots

Trailer

Gameplay

Design Goals

  • Integrate a custom mod that fits into the existing Fallout 4 game world seamlessly.

  • Create 3 different interiors that have distinct features and can be easily identified.

  • Design for freedom of player choice in how they approach the quest and how they choose to play.

Seamless Integration

  • With the goal being to seamlessly integrate my mod, I needed to find an existing spot for my NPC.

  • In Fens Street Sewer, there was already a lone mattress and shopping cart down that existed alone. This was the perfect spot for Sweet Joe.

  • The grating behind him provided foreshadowing for players who spotted him while moving through the first area in Fens Street Sewer.

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  • To seamlessly integrate, I needed to emulate the existing Fens Street Sewer aesthetic in my own work.

  • I decided to make my spaces slightly more lit considering the depths had more enemies and combat than Fens Street does. 

  • If the spaces were too dark, the player had a hard time identifying threats and recognizing landmarks.

  • To the left are my screenshots, underneath are existing Fens Street for comparison.

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Distinct Interiors

  • The Infested Sewer Depths was intended to house only radroaches, mole rats, and bloatflies.

  • Since it is closer to the regular sewers than the other interiors, it is slightly less foggy and more well-lit.

  • It isn't as radioactive as other interiors so the green glow isn't as prominent until closer to the exit.

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  • The Radioactive Sewer Depths was intended to be darker and more foggy to show the radiation as well as to allow the room to have a more prominent green glow.

  • The green lighting and fog set it apart from the other interiors and make the space feel more dangerous and spooky with ghoul ambushes abundant.

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  • Turf Toe's Lair houses the only Super Mutants in the quest line and has an interior that aligns with the Super Mutant aesthetic.

  • This space is also the only interior that was intended to convey a sense of every day living since Turf Toe and his friends frequent the space.

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Freedom of Choice

  • The quest objectives are set up to provide goals for the player like "Make your way deeper into the depths" with an objective at the end of a section, but open ended enough to be reached in their own way.

  • The interaction with Turf Toe allows players the most freedom to tackle it as they like.

    • They can speak to him and strike a deal (Rescue his Ex for Cinnamon)​

    • They can provoke him (Kill him and his friends, Take Cinnamon)

    • They can stealthily approach from behind through a broken sewer grate and steal Cinnamon and the key leading out.

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Postmortem

  • What went well?​

  • Executing a Plan

    • ​I spent more time on this project planning out the design and goals and was able to implement them without many big changes to the original design.

  • Incremental Improvement

    • I received a lot of feedback from playtesters and was able to analyze the reasons behind the feedback to make small incremental improvements that improved the overall flow, design, or feel of the quest.

  • Document Updates and Clarity

    • I was able to successfully maintain and detail the design documentation throughout the project.

  • What went wrong?

  • Feedback Amounts

    • I received less feedback on this project compared to others due to a compressed schedule and the limitations of working remotely.

    • The lack of feedback didn't seem to hurt the design, since feedback was mostly positive, but it could've been even better with more constructive feedback.

  • Lack of Complexity

    • In previous CK projects, we were able to add new mechanics through scripting if we wanted to. Since we were trying to keep in line with existing mechanics within Fallout 4, the quest feels like it lacks complexity compared to other projects of mine.​

  • What I Learned?

  • Feedback is Important

    • Even though the feedback I got was less than other projects, the feedback I did receive was extremely helpful in iterating on the pacing, flow, and overall feeling my quest was designed to convey.

  • How to Stay Within the Lines

    • Since we were working within existing Fallout 4, I learned to not only be realistic about what I wanted to add to balance cognitive load, but also how to conform with an existing aesthetic recipe to keep consistency with the base game.​

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