Andrew Clarke

Prototype #2

For prototype 2, I decided to delve into some asset creation in the form of some weapon modeling. This turned out to be a slightly more harrowing task than I figured it would be, but I quickly adapted. The trouble was in just the couple of first days working with the 3DS Max software. I’ve used this software before so I’ve had some experience, as well as with other similar programs like Maya. However, it’s been a while, so it took some time and some tutorials to get used to all of the controls. The tutorial I used for the purposes of this prototype was this from this awesome series that delved into model creation, UV unwrapping, and texturing.

I wanted to create a bladed weapon for this prototype that could eventually be brought into Fallout 4 as a wieldable single-handed melee weapon. Following the aforementioned tutorial, I followed his workflow while he created his blade and translated that to the creation of mine. I had a different design of blade than him, his a modern kukri and mine a WW2 pilot’s machete, so I couldn’t follow it 100%. Regardless, I think I made a pretty awesome model.

Then it was on to the texturing in the program Surface Painter. I never used this program before, but I followed the same workflow from the same tutorial and created something much different than the example he was making. I wanted an old machete from some soldier long dead from the time when the bombs dropped. Thus, this machete is textured to look very old, worn, and damaged, but still sharp enough to cut a fool.

So there it is. Everything I did for prototype 2. I ultimately had fun doing this and can’t wait until I manage to get it in game. I hope to be able to also model a gun or two for my final mod as well. I learned from this prototype that modeling, UVing, and texturing takes a bunch of time to do it right. But to me, is very worth it.

Prototype: One

In this first prototype, my goal was to make progress in the field of NPC and quest creation for a Fallout 4 mod. So what I did to accomplish this was, first of all, to find a good tutorial to follow along with. As it turns out with me, the best way for me to learn this kind of stuff is to follow along with an example. So I did just that with this tutorial from the Creation Kit website. I ended up learning a whole lot from this tutorial, including but not limited to, NPC creation, dialogue creation, quest structure, and object scripting. All in all, this wasn’t an overly difficult prototype. The hardest parts were when I messed up a line of code with a typo somewhere and had to frustratingly backtrack to find my error. All the steps I learned, while not too complicated in and of themselves, end up weaving together to create the complex structure that makes up a quest in game.

This experience has really helped me to understand just how expansive and or complex I should make this mod. While quest and character creation isn’t the hardest thing in the world, it is very time consuming, so I’ll really have to gauge the types and amount of quest that I’m going to do. Also, it taught me how dialogue is recorded, which as it turns out is pretty easy. The program already has a built-in recorder for the lines you need to record. Pretty handy considering I thought I’d need a separate program for that. At the end of the day, with everything I’ve learned so far, I’m still fully on track for the rest of my project.

Prototype Plan

For my first prototype, I plan on creating a rather crude but functional NPC as a proof of concept. It’s something that is essential in my mod idea so it will be handy to learn a few things about it now. I already watched a tutorial on NPC creation and it seems straightforward, but time-consuming in nature. It also opens an opportunity to insert some recorded test dialogue that the NPC can speak, including lipsync files. Time provided, I’d like to test quest parameters given by the NPC for the player to complete. Something simple, like, “Give me that can over there.”

For my second prototype, I’m going to do some item modeling. Of course, I’d like to just burst out the gate with a gun, but I may start out more simply. Maybe a melee weapon, or small throwable. I want to do this to get more comfortable with 3ds Max and to prove that the use of Surface Painter is a worthwhile program for texturing. I’ll be sure to view some tutorials with help for some things unique to 3ds and how exactly Surface Painter works. I’ve used a bit so far, but I’m sure it holds many secrets I’ve yet to find.

For my third prototype, of which we have more time to create, I will to some terrain building tests within the Creation Kit. I’m going to learn how said terrain modeling works, and do some aesthetics tests for how an underground scene will look. Also, since this will most likely be an interior location, I may have to fiddle around with the navmesh of the terrain. A navmesh is a mesh you draw/overlay on top of terrain that lets the ai pathfind through a level freely. I may place objects around the level to decorate the scene and maybe even add a shack that is enterable through a load zone door, something that transports you through to a separate cell, or worldspace.

Research Update #3

This past week, I’ve finally gotten into what will make this project and the ideas I have for it come to fruition. Plenty of programs needed to be downloaded and a lot of time will need to be spent getting used to a learning how they work. In order to figure out which programs I needed, I spent plenty of time reading forums, instructional Wikis, and watching youtube tutorials mainly from this guy. In order to get the models made, textured and imported into Fallout 4, there are a bunch of steps that need to be done. In addition, there is a large amount of time to be spent on the creation of world spaces and NPCs in the Creation Kit.

The first program that I will talk about here is Autodesk 3ds Max. This is a modeling program, similar to Maya, that will assist me in the creation of weapon models. Now, going about getting a custom mesh into a game isn’t as simple as pressing the Export button. For Fallout 4, once you have a mesh and a texture for the mesh, you need to export it as a .nif file. In order to do this in 3ds Max, you need to have a separate plugin that allows you to import and export as .nif files. With that custom .nif mesh file, it’s time to open it in a program called NifSkope. This program is mainly used for Bethesda titles and basically acts as a bridge for the modeling program to the game engine. It assigns animations, sounds, size, and more. It’s basically where you glue your gun together after you made all the pieces. Then you can bring it into the Creation Kit to finally put it in your game. In action, it’s much easier said than done. Within those few steps I’ve mentioned, there are a ton of little tiny steps that take time to hurdle over.

All other tasks are pretty much located right within the Creation Kit. In it, I can write quest paths and their subsequent dialogue trees. I can also create custom NPCs that can speak those custom lines. World creation, object placement, and Nav Meshing can also be done right within the Creation Kit. It looks like it’s gonna be a lot of work, but not impossible.

Research Update #2

So, what to talk about this week? There’s a whole bunch I could cover in this second part, so let’s just talk about modding as a whole, from the activity’s past to its present community. I’ve already covered one of the first popular mods to be passed around the community titled, “Castle Smurfenstien”. Image result for castle smurfenstein This mod took the original Castle Wolfenstein and replaced the Nazi sprites with that of Smurfs.

This comedic and lighthearted tone will carry on in modding throughout the ages. The process of swapping sprites and models will live on as well. For example, in Skyrim, there is a mod that swaps the Dragon models with Thomas the Tank Engine. Yes, you heard me. Watch at your own risk. Once the immensely popular Doom came out, modding soon followed, replacing sprites with anything the user could dream up. The developers of Doom even gave a package of easily accessed game files to the community in order for them to be able to make their own levels. Mod-friendly developers have been a godsend to the community because you’ll never really stop the modders, so might as well help them. You may ask why a developer would go out of their way to allow their fans to easily replace their dragons with trains. Well, having a healthy modding community extends the lifetime of your game by spades. Heck, Fallout: New Vegas has been out for eight whole years and still has a large player base thanks to its constant release of awesome mods. Actually, a team just released a huge mod for New Vegas called Fallout: New California.

In 2007, a website called Nexusmods went live right before the release of Fallout 3. This site has since become the place that most modders go to upload and share their mods for a variety of games. This site hosts 263,928 files for 619 games from 85,195 authors and it’s open for anyone to join and download from. This place has gathered mods together for easiest access and reaches the largest player base as it can. The site has also released its own tool to make the downloading of mods much easier for the casual fans who may not know too much about files and folders. The Nexus Mod Manager allows for you to connect to your game and the site. A simple button press on the site will send the mod’s files right to your NMM and apply the files to your game. Some mod installations are as simple as two clicks. I anticipate that the mod I will be working on will be just as simple as that. I honestly can’t wait until I can share my finished mod to the world on this site and finally enter the modding community as an author.

Research Update #1

My research into modding could be considered to have started about seven years ago on youtube. I’ve been watching this channel AlChestBreach for many years and his main content is Fallout mods. His channel is still going strong and every time I’ve watched a video I both laugh and learn a lot about modding. Recently, while watching his Fallout 4 mod playthroughs, I’ve been paying a lot of attention to just how the mod author has put together the world they created. Some of these mods are literally game-changing and are very technically impressive, such as The Train. This series’ relationship with modding has certainly come a long way since the first mods in Fallout 3, which I’ve also modded and played. There’s actually a funny story about Fallout and the Gamebryo engine it runs on. In Fallout 3’s DLC Broken Steel, there’s a part where you enter and ride on the Presidential subway. When you activate the controls, the game locks the player in place and the train proceeds forward following the tracks. The funny thing is, due to the limitations of the engine, the team had to work around an issue of the train moving and came up with an interesting solution. The train car was actually a hidden NPC wearing the train as a hat, and then the NPC would be the thing that’s scripted to run along the tracks carrying both the train and the Player on its head. Weird stuff, but it shows the kind of ingenuity it takes to get an old game like Fallout 3 to work as you want it sometime. Hopefully, I won’t face an issue with such an odd solution as this.

With Fallout 4, I’ve only ever owned it on the Xbox One. In most cases, consoles never see large scale modding the same way PC does. The platform just isn’t friendly towards the sharing and downloading of mods. However, with Fallout 4, Bethesda created a software platform that allowed for mods created on the PC to be shared and downloaded on the Xbox One edition of Fallout 4. This is the first time that mods of this kind were allowed officially onto a console and it brought a larger audience to the magic of modding. I’ve played that game and the mods that were available for many many hours. But now I’ve just purchased the game on my PC in order to create my own mod for this thesis. While playing the game, I’ve been taking note of objects and terrain that will be useful to use in an underground setting. I’ve explored a few of the caves in the game to get a sense of how the developer treated these subterranean areas. I understand now that most of the areas that I will have to create are considered Interior Cells, in contrast to the exterior cells of the main game world. We’ll see how that fact translates to the larger interior areas that I have in mind. I’ve also managed to download a bunch of awesome mods in order to do some first-hand research into them. I will soon be delving into the Creation Kit to learn how to do some of the things that I see in the mods that I’ll be playing.

IMM Research Plan

History of the Field

Modding as we know it has been around since some of the first big PC games hit the market in the 80’s. The introduction of the internet only accelerated this process of taking a game and making it your own. One of the first popular mods was in Castle Wolfenstein in which the usual sprites were replaced with Smurf sprites. Modding doesn’t really pick up speed until the release of Doom in ‘93. This is the first case of Developer assisted modding in where the developers released a data package that allowed players to create their own maps. This continues to this day where the owners of Doom, now Bethesda, still release modding tools to their fans. The introduction of the internet into the modding scene allowed for a whole community to be created around the creation and sharing of these mods. Some huge games nowadays, such as Garry’s Mod and Team Fortress 2 all started off as mods to other games. While it may seem that modding is dependent on the games that they are modding, it turns out those games have already learned so much from the mods themselves. Many features in Fallout 4, such as settlement building, have arisen from mods in previous games such as Fallout New Vegas’ Wasteland Defense.

Current State of the Field

When it comes to the state of the art in my field, the first thing that comes to mind is Fallout Miami. And modders aren’t really known for being, well, known. Usually, they are young are just starting to get into the industry. Most are modding because they don’t have access to the creation of the next big Halo game or what have you. However, on the Miami team, there are some very talented and vaguely successful young people. Some of them are still in school, like me, and some have seen their writings published.

I love what these guys are doing, and to do something that is even ten percent of what their team is accomplishing would be great. Reading about the tools they use and their methods about going about building this in their videos is very informative and inspiring. While they are leaning into what makes Fallout 4 already great, I hope to bring some new themes and feelings that something, like they are making, may not bring to the table, namely stealth and survival.

IMM Finalized Concept

My final idea for my thesis is to take the base game of Bethesda’s Fallout 4 and create within it a full-length original quest mod that will bring the player to a new location with a fresh narrative and a unique form of gameplay that’s new to Fallout 4. Inspired by my other favourite post-apocalyptic series, Metro 2033, this quest will bring the player to a vast underground cavern with strange NPCs, exotic radioactive flora, and deadly new creatures. I’d like to recreate the sense of wonder that Skyrim’s Blackreach had combined with Metro’s sense of constant dread. This theme will be completely new for the base Fallout 4 game and a fresh idea in the modding community. Plus, I’d like to get into some scipting that involves stealth. Base Fallout 4 isn’t much of a stealth game, but the mechanics are there. With some base scripting, I may be able to enhance the stealth that heightens the level design.

I was inspired to take up this idea by the years and years of watching this goofy dude, AlChestBreach, play mods for Bethesda games. I’ve even downloaded and played some of them myself. For a while, I’ve wanted to give mod creation a shot myself. Since game design and model creation is the direction I’m taking for my future, modding seems like great practice to me. With my idea for a project, I’ll be able to follow many paths that game development offers and truly see what is a good fit for me. Plus, with NPC creation, I’ll be able to practice my talent in voice acting. Including in this mod a narrative experience will also allow me to flex my talents in creative dialogue writing.

I think that anyone even a little interested in first person shooters/stealth games will have an interest in this mod. Plus, the great thing about mods is that you can upload them on a site like https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/ and anyone who owns a copy of Fallout 4 can download and play your creation for free. Hopefully, once on the site this mod will really stick out for how differently it treats the base game. Not only are there typical weapon and NPC additions, but it will completely change how you play. You see, base Fallout 4 is basically a sandbox with a whole lot of shooting and looting and that’s about it. My hopes with this mod are to change the game to be more centered around thinking before shooting.

The majority of this project will involve what is known as the G.E.C.K. This is the game editor released to the public by Bethesda that is used by them to create these games. Without this, creating complex narrative mods would be impossible. Also needed is modeling software like Maya and texturing software like photoshop, both of which have experience in. Some possible prototypes may involve the testing of my stealth ideas, simple NPC test creation, and the insertion of weapon models and animations.

Project Ideas – Revised

A Revisit to Project 2:

The project that I think I’d really like to dig into is my idea of modding a video game, preferably Fallout 4, into my own unique vision. Using the Bethesda created GECK editing software, I’d bring in custom weapons, armour, dialogue, story, and terrain into the world. I found an awesome channel, of which I’ve known of in the modding scene for a while, gerokeymaster. He has some great modding tutorials that cover a lot of the fields I am unsure of.

This project is going to have me spending a lot of time in Maya, Photoshop, and the Geck. I also see myself spending time in the audio department as I record voice work. I own audio editing software such as Adobe Audition. Plus, I know that the school has a pretty good recording booth. And with that comes a script that I will have to write for the story, direction, and dialogue. All of these things, I have some semblance of experience in so I’m not going in 100 percent blind here.

I think that the biggest hurdle I’ll have here is getting used to new software such as the Geck. But, otherwise, I’m looking to make this game’s original theme and feel and flip it’s on its head. I want a normal player of Fallout 4 to not know what they just git themselves into and to make it feel like a brand new game. Story-wise, I’m thinking some rift opens up and you fall into an odd new world that you can explore. My mind feels locked on the similar aspects to Thor Ragnarok. That movie took what we normally thought of Thor and made us fall in love with something new and wacky. So basically Fallout 4: The Taika Waititi Version.

I just really want to spread my self all over my favorite parts of videogame development, modelling, story, and dialogue in order to find my foothold in the industry, or maybe keep myself open to all of them.

Initial Concepts

Project Idea #1

My first project idea includes the help of friend and fellow classmate, Phil. We are both also in a Topics of IMM class about the life and lessons of Fred Rogers. In that class, we’ve started a project together that I would like to see go farther than what it will probably end up as. The idea is a children’s app/game that’s purpose will be to help kids get over some of their irrational fears. With a mix of 2D illustrations, animation, and 3D environments we’d create a game where the objective would be to shine a flashlight on these creepy creatures that would appear in the dark corners and closets of the space. The room would be a palette of dark purples, and spooky silhouettes with red glowing eyes would pop out of openings and from behind objects. The child would then aim the light at these creatures to reveal the cute, adorable, and friendly being that is actually there. Hopefully, this would help kids see that maybe the closet, vegetables, spiders, and other irrational fears aren’t anything to be afraid of. It’d be cool to have a codex of sorts for the creatures you find to give more information on the beings and why they aren’t that spooky after all.

Project Idea #2

This other idea involves an entire set of skills that I haven’t dived into yet but would love the chance to. My idea is to create a quest, from scratch, for one of my favourite games, i.e. Fallout or Elder Scrolls; in other words, a mod alla Fallout: New Vegas’ Autumn Leaves by BaronVonChateau. This would involve a few hour long quest involving a unique narrative, voiced NPCs, new guns, animations, armor, textures, and environments. This project intrigues me so much because the skeleton of these games, the Creation Kit, gives me many opportunities to work on things that I want to follow in my career instead of all the technical mumbo-jumbo of coding and such. And the thought of dipping my toes back into narrative writing, a place I used to excel in, excites me greatly. Even more so, voicing those characters would be even more fun. I never stop hearing that I should pursue a path in voice acting, and it is a passion of mine. I know it isn’t the most original and never before done thing in the world, but the modification of games is immensely interesting to me. And the skills that I would develop during the course of this project would be invaluable to me.

Project Idea #3

My third idea, I guess, is to learn to work with my hands. I’ve always been inspired by the likes of Adam Savage and the props he creates. So my idea would be to create props, be it weapons, armor, objects, from my favorite pieces of media. For example, creating a suit of foam core ODST armor from Halo. Or maybe Deckard’s pistol from Blade Runner. Possibly the sword Sting from the LotR and Hobbit series. All of these things can be made to look like the real deal, but at the same time be made of foam. Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, may look like solid Uru metal but is really just foam. It would be such a pleasure to bring these objects to life in full form outside of the tv screen. Maybe by the time I’m done, I’ll have a full cosplay ready for the next convention.