What Lies Beneath
Fallout 4
Project Overview
"What Lies Beneath" is a single-player mod for Fallout 4 in which the player, must discover the secret behind Providence Belton and the mysterious cult known as The Beneath.
Engine: Fallout 4 - Creation kit
Platform: PC
Development Time: 13 Weeks (250+ hours)
Playtime: 15 - 20 minutes
Design Goals
Design Goal 1 - Horror Theme
The Visuals help enforce the horror theme by using detailed environments that look manmade.
Visuals were also used to create surprises within the story and catch player's off guard.
Optional story notes reward players for exploring and hint at future story reveals.
The audio triggers were added to further create tension. This custom script was used to create this effect.
Design Goal 2 - Unique Combat
To ease the player into combat, the first sequence introduces feral ghouls and traps that the player must avoid in order to progress (show gif of a ghoul running into a fire trap)
The Woods are designed around traps and feral ghouls, so the player has to avoid traps while keeping an eye out for ghouls hiding.
The graveyard is meant to resemble hoard style fighting, requiring the player to take on multiple enemies at once. To accommodate this, circular cover to assist melee player and higher terrain to provide more ranged options to players.
The Temple is centered around a giant boss fight, the arena was compactly designed so the player can't run away while also having tall cover to provide protection.
The church and final fight are designed around human encounters to contrast with the prior monster fights. Low and tall cover were primarily used to accommodate short and long range combat respectively.
To make the combat in the graveyard work as intended, this custom script was made to manage the spawning of different enemies at the correct time.
Design Goal 3 - Environmental Puzzles
To go with the horror theme, multiple areas were designed around observing the environment and dialogue.
The first is the graveyard, were the player has to find a note. The NPC at the door will say the idol points the way. Following the direction of the statues hand leads to the objective.
The hedge maze requires the player to navigate an elaborate maze with enemies and traps. If the player picks up notes on the path, they will get story hints on were to go next. (show images of the maze hints with notes saying what they represent to the story)
The temple requires the player to find 3 skulls using a note given by an NPC, analyzing the note with the environment provides context clues as to were the skulls are hidden.
The first and last puzzle requires players with finding a specific person/object by observing the environment for unique features.
Development Process
Designing the map
The level was designed to feel big and have players uncovering a greater mystery surrounding the island.
The initial design was more linear and had less exploration, the area didn't feel believable and had little breathing room so more space was added between each key area.
Aside from early story changes and enemy balancing to the graveyard and temple areas, the development went very well. This also allowed me to implement aesthetics early to get a better understanding of the final product.
Post Mortem
What Went Well
Early Design Change
The initial design was very linear and didn't feel like a believable island. This was changed to a hub like design early on so players had more time to explore the environment. This design change took one day as the individual areas only had to be moved around. The process went very smooth and the redesign created a better gameplay feel.
Early Story Changes
Originally the story would tie back into Fallout 4 lore by having more connections to the synths and Institute. This is still referenced in the final product, but these elements were trimmed down from the main story as they bloated the story. When getting playtester feedback, the story early on received positive feedback because I knew what to keep and what to add.
What Went Wrong
First Design Draft
The more open design was something I wasn't used to and it took me a few days to think about why the first design didn't work. The new design was implemented very quickly but if I had seen the issues when first drafting them out, I wouldn't have to make such a big change in the blockout phase.
What I Learned
Consider the Time Available
Part of the reason for the change early on was because I had more time to work on this project then prior ones. Because of this I knew I could make a larger environment as I had more time to work on it.
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