Development Info
-
Game: Fallout 4
-
Genre: Narrative, Role-Playing
-
Development Time: 5 months
-
Engine: Creation Kit
Responsibilities
-
Concept and documentation
-
Level Design
-
Mission Design (Dialogue and Global Variables)
-
Set Dressing
Download
Summary
Love Kills is a murder-mystery quest in Fallout 4 that requires the player to find out who killed Lance's sister, Stephanie. The player will need to search every inch of the tunnel to find evidence of Stephanie's death.
Design Process
Follow the breadcrumbs
During the quest, I wanted to provide hints to the player that suggest to them to look around the area. Within the dialogue, I provided NPC’s responses that provides backstory about their role within the tunnel and hints to the player.
Tunnel Overview
Clues Overview
At the beginning, the player can talk to any NPC in any order. The player can follow any hint, but they will need to gather the clues in the correct order to find the murderer.
Clue 1 (Frank Key in the bathroom)
Clue 2 (Frank's Safe in Frank room)
Clue 3 (Frank's holotape)
Once the player has found the hints and gathers the clues, the player will be able to accuse the murderer and complete the quest.
Post Mortem
What went right?
-
I was able to give the player clear and clever clues for finding the murderer by adding hints of what locations to search within the dialogue.
-
Matching the NPC personality with their personal area through set dressing gave the player suggestions to their role within the tunnel
Challenges
-
I struggle with providing feedback to the player when a clue is discovered.
-
Not creating an AI schedule early enough in development made it difficult to navigate the NPC to their correct personal area after giving the quest to the player.
What did I learn?
-
Create an AI schedule early at the beginning of development.
-
Adding dialogue that directs the player's attention to the areas of interest helps players find clues.