Trailer

Level Overview

Details

Description: In Curse of the Sea, the player is informed of a sickly curse ravaging the island of Worryrock. The quest giver tells them that the curse has poisoned the waters around the island and riled up the local Mirelurks creatures where they attack on sight. Players will discover how the curse came to be, meet mysterious NPCs, traverse through a custom-built exterior & interior space, and decide how to resolve the curse once and for all.

Team Size: 1 Developer

Software: Fallout 4: Creation Kit

Mode: Single Player

Development Time: 275 Hours / 4 Months

Platform: PC

Development Info

Design Goals

Robustness

This custom level was designed to be simple for a Level 1 player to start and finish as well as balanced up to a Level 20 player.

The robust design involves both a semi-open experience on the islands and a linear route once the player gets into the interior spaces. The exterior was designed to be a string of islands that all inter-connect, but only once the player reaches a certain point in the story. This opens up a back entrance that allows the player to backtrack back to the village and cut across parts of the world.

Island in Peril

Village on defense with large walls all around.
Dead Mirelurks from previous combat fights
Large open islands with dead trees, rocks, and paths littering around.
Villagers in combat with Mirelurks as you arrive.

Mysterious & Unnatural

The level's aesthetics were an integral factor since the theme of the level is a dreadful presence brought upon the “curse of the sea”.

The island is in defense mode with many sick people inside the clinic, dead Mirelurks on the side from the ongoing fight, and poisonous water keeping the island from stepping anywhere close to it.
As the player progresses through the story, they unveil the curtains of the entity behind this curse and what it takes to undo it. The choices at the end pull on the player’s depositions and make them decide on a hard choice.

Mysterious NPCs

One of my goals was to create complex characters with a darker side, which players slowly discover.

Shown here is the NPC, Eris the “Sea Witch”. At first, the central characters and townsfolk all call her the Sea Witch due to her occupation - she experiments with the local Mirelurk creature population to create “potions”. The first hint at her actual name is when the player meets the local town doctor who reveals more backstory of what is going on in the town.

Island under attack

Another goal was to evoke a feeling of sorrow - an island under constant attack from Mirelurks and minimal people left roaming around.

This shot is after the player helps out the villagers upon arriving on the island. There are dead Mirelurks to the side where they previously attacked. The villagers’ defenses are minimal at best, and it shows that they are running low on the supplies necessary to survive the continuous onslaught of Mirelurks.

Hidden Mechanisms

To find ways to engage the player and immerse them in the “mysterious” nature of the world, hidden mechanisms are used to highlight ways to proceed through the quest.

I used the desk lamp with a bright spotlight to illuminate where the hidden mechanism could be without putting an objective marker right on top. One of the main NPCs, Eris the Sea Witch, also tells the player that she uses these mechanisms to lock-down certain areas of her compound for safety measures.

Postmortem

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Postmortem -----

What Went Well?

Kept to the mysterious nature of the level with the themes of the exterior and interiors, NPC backgrounds, and the aloofness of the dialog.
Pivoted based on stakeholder feedback early on to improve upon LDD (Level Design Document).
Iterated quickly & utilized various player feedback and playtests.
Adapted my “unnatural” quest nature to fit more in line with Fallout 4’s setting.

What Needs Improvement?

The interior space could’ve had more polish in terms of size and flow.
Combat sequences took a back seat compared to other areas of the level.
One of the endings feels lackluster compared to the other ones available.
Lasting impressions of this quest are hardly noticeable when exploring around the island after finishing the quest.

What Did I Learn?

Learned how to adapt prior level design knowledge & tactics to a new engine (1st time using Creation Kit).
Time management was vastly different from previous projects/Creation Kit requires more effort up-front to get a quest rolling.
How to create full dialog scripts for a quest and various NPCs, and how to iterate on this often.
Fulfill stakeholder requirements and feedback to present a fully shippable product (custom Fallout 4 level).