The various works of Joel Fleming, from college in 2019-2021 & university 2021-2024
In our emerging technologies class, our tutor has tasked us with making a digital 2d concept for our imagined worlds project. We first began with drawing it out on paper before we took it to digital work on PC during the 20th November.
on The 13th, I began to work on my first draft which looks like this. I love drawing in pen however I do admit I went into too much detail and went a little overboard.
What is a Deliverable?
A deliverable is a criteria set between developers and publishers for game content delivery under a time scale. For example: the first functioning level of a shooter game, playable multilayer map or other would be under one of the first minor deliverables.
Deliverables also determine whether a studio gets paid or not, meaning if a deliverable is not met it can cost a lot. That money is going to pay developers, therefore they may end up quitting as the deliverables are not being met.
What would some of our deliverables be for the microgame?
Surgery Shorts is a microgame Glen, Kieron and I developed last month. Here are a list of deliverables for that:
Schedules:
Milestones:
Milestones come down to the developers and what they think milestones can be for their game. Examples of this can be getting the first level, collectable, or location built and operational.
Our Developer milestones for the Imagined Worlds project:
As of September 2020, I have began my year 2 of NextGen. My website has changed slightly to favour my newest projects in the home menu, but my older pages from year 1 are still available.
If you do some digging into the site you will be able to see my older pages. I have been taught not to delete these as my future work interests may require this work for a portfolio.
I am splitting my pages for my college work into separate ones to avoid clutter and mix-up. If you are looking for a certain piece of my work, scroll to the bottom of the page you are on and click one of the numbers, the furthest being my more recent work.
Game franchise I will be analysing: Fallout (1997-2018)
part one: franchise analysation
Fallout (1997)
The first Fallout entry was an isometric, turn-based combat RPG set in a large map which took place in the ruins of California in the 2160’s. The storyline was also tied in with a rather stressful timer to save the people of your vault (a bomb shelter outfitted for centuries of survival) as the water chip had gone bust. The Overseer of the vault sends you out into the game world with a timer set to around 150 days before the eventual fate of your dwellers.
On your travels, by using the fast travel option on your ‘Pip Boy 2000’, you stumble across randomised encounters with mutated creatures, bandits and even the odd easter egg like a Doctor Who TARDIS. Using this fast travel system with these random encounters meant you had to select a location, whether that be a militaristic, technology hoarding faction in a hidden bunker or a settlement of people.
Upon arrival, the player can click on a hex resembling a platform to walk on to explore the area and can click on NPC’s to hear their thoughts, talk to them, trade, and recieve quests. Depending on the dialogue choices, the player can enter into a combat system and even take on companions.
The most iconic companion to come out of the Fallout series would be the Vault Dweller’s trusty dog named Dogmeat, who has became a staple of the series to this day.
The combat system was turn-based, meaning you or the enemy would get the first shot and the details of the combat (damage, lethality etc.) After either parties had their turn it was another enemy’s, depending on how many combatants are in each party, or a companions. This combat system was played off in the actual lore of the game named the ‘Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System’ or V.A.T.S for short. This system was evolved in later titles to freeze time and select an enemy’s body part to target when Bethesda switched up the Fallout series with 2008’s Fallout 3.
The inventory and armour system meant that you could find better weapons and armour to outfit you and your companions with through the game; the later-game you get, the better armour you would acquire, the best set being a suit of T-51b Power Armour. This armour would reduce the lethality, damage and overall effect of weapons on a player or companion, but this depends on the damage and specialist skillset of the weapon and opponent. Plasma and Laser weapons do the most damage but are most uncommon to find until the late game.
Due to the limitations of Interplay’s budget, and the limitations of PC hardware at the time, some of the gameplay functions and sights seen by the player model, nearly invisible to the actual player due to Fallout being a top-down isometric game, the text-based Pip-Boy system told most of what was going on to the user. For example: during the end-game, when confronting the creator of the Super Mutant army The Master, the player is notified by the Pip Boy of the strange, telepathic powers of the Master attempting to stop the Vault Dweller from progressing. This text based system would remain in a more watered-down version as status effects: when a player consumes drugs, alcohol, the games staple Nuka Cola, takes too much of a substance or radiation, a notification will pop up at the top of the screen or in the players face notifying them of their illness or addiction.
Fallout 2 was pretty much the same systems and mechanics but with a new and enhanced faction reputation system, so if you got under the New California Republic’s skin? You’d get worse barter dealings.
Fallout 3 (2008)
Fallout 3, after the original developers went completely bankrupt and lost the IP, Todd Howard and Bethesda took the Fallout series under their wing, with a new style of gameplay, new V.A.T.S system, returning factions and all new stories.
Fallout 3 was a fully 3D shooter survival with arguably less RPG elements, built in the same game engine as Morrowind and Oblivion.
The V.A.T.S system was activated by a button input, not automatically like previous titles. The system allowed the player to freeze the game time, and select a body part to aim and target using a ranged weapon, and like the older titles would display the probability of a hit using a percentage meter. With melee weapons, the entire body would be selected with a percentage meter once again, which would be rendered useless if the player was too far away.
The skill system and perk systems tied in with the original titles would be stripped down. Some skills were tied in with others and some were watered down to fit in with the SPECIAL system. The speech system was admittedly confusing and randomised, the gunplay rather clunky and the overall gameplay was deemed unfair as the best items in the game were locked behind a paid DLC.
With the disputed successor to Fallout 3, a spin-off title made by most of the original developers named Fallout: New Vegas was the game that revamped a lot of the missed RPG details Fallout 3 did, whilst also keeping the same game engine and mechanics as Fallout 3.
Fallout: New Vegas (2010)
In Fallout New Vegas, the speech system was fixed with a speech skill number instead of a percentage, making it easier to pass speech checks if your speech was higher than the number and also easier to read compared to Fallout 3’s percentage. The faction reputation system from previous games made a glorious return, as well as fan favourite factions.
the faction system, much like the older one, was affected by your actions towards certain towns and tribes; this would changed on how many quests you complete/fail with them, and if you mercilessly kill wandering members of this faction. This reputation can be amended when reaching a certain part of the game– where you choose which faction to assist during the second battle of Hoover Dam (the end game). This choice can amend faction reputation with the NCR/Legion if you trespassed against them, and will determine your end game and boss battle: a Legion Legate or NCR General.
Fallout: New Vegas was criticised heavily for it’s rushed nature, as Bethesda gave them only 18 months to create a rather large game. These bugs were eventually fixed with a large patch a month or so down the line, and New Vegas is now crtitically claimed as being one of the best Fallout games to date.
Fallout 4 (2015)
Fallout 4 is claimed to be the second revamp of the series, with a new V.A.T.S system and power armour system, and new settlement creation options.
Fallout 4 is less RPG and more combat focused. The VATS system now slows down time instead of stopping it altogether, with the same targeting style and probability measurement. Gunplay was severely improved in Fallout 4, guns felt more life-like and less sticky than Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Armour was now found in pieces instead of full suits, so you could have a leather right arm and metal chestplate; the same could be said for the controversial Power Armour system.
Power Armour now relied on ‘Fusion Cores’, a battery system which completely retconned the previous armour power system of a fusion battery which could last CENTURIES. Instead of lasting for hundreds of years, in-game time, the Power Armour battery would last only a measly few hours of gameplay before running out, making the player encumbered and moving at snail-pace unless a new Fusion Core was placed within.
The storyline was pretty much the same as Fallout 3 and writing was lack luster, and the repetative use of radiant quests sending the player to a handful of the same settlements for similar problems every time made the actual gameplay and dialogue boring and lack luster. The combat and graphics are arguably the best quality about Fallout 4.
Part Two: Comparison to other games:
first comparison: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)
It may come as a surprise that most of the Fallout games developed after 2008 ran on the Gamebryo engine, an engine which is decades old and used on games like earlier entries in the Elder Scrolls series (Morrowind and Oblivion) which includes even the most recent installment: Fallout 76.
In Fallout 76, the development copy-pasted the code for the dragon NPC, not even changing the name of the entity, and used it for the boss-like enemy named the Scorchbeast; old attack strategies were used and nothing was changed apart from the look of the enemy and some sound effects. This meant any issues that could have been redefined in the future for the dragons of skyrim were ported into Fallout 76 and lazily masked as a new enemy.
Fallout games like Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 have recieved heavy backlash as being just a ‘post apocalyptic Skyrim with guns and Power Armour’. If you ignore the guns and post apocalyptic feel and look, this is sort of true as it uses most of the same things from the engines and games previously.
The melee weapons of Fallout use the same gimmicks and mechanics as the Elder Scrolls. In Fallout 3, the attack style and block style is the same as other games; this is carried over to Fallout New Vegas and eventually changed in Fallout 4 and in my opinion made worse.
In Fallout 4 and Fallout 76, the melee system has no qwerks or interesting changes apart from bizarrely being able to block using a switchblade against a sledgehammer or baseball bat. Blocking was made more time based, so you had to block at the right moment or you’d take damage, unlike being able to realistically hold your block and stance in previous titles. this ruined the combat for Fallout 4 and made firearms the more favourable choice, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
second comparison: The Outer Worlds (2019)
The Outer Worlds is a brilliant RPG science-fiction game developed by the same developers as Fallout: New Vegas, so it’s not surprising there’s similarities to one of their prized possessions.
Gameplay reminds me of Destiny, Mass Effect and of course Fallout. The dialogue choices and overall character building system really builds upon what Fallout New Vegas created, having new additions like leadership skills, intimidation, lying, defensive maneuvers like dodging and blocking.
Weapons, alike Fallout, have certain perks and characteristics tied into them. Some weapons might have a poisoning effect, some an electrifying effect, a fire effect and some sort of void effect. These effects with weapons will do different types of critical damage to enemies depending on the type and the NPC. Say if the enemy was a Corporate Commander, most effects would be effective. With robots, the electrifying effect will do the best damage and with Mantiswarms on Monarch, fire.
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With Fallout 4,the game introduced a legendary weapon system. This meant that the weapon, depending on rarity and name, would do more damage to certain types of enemies and have some sort of effect. Some effects would cause enemies to frenzy, some catch fire, some even explode! With the Outer Worlds, the system present with that game feels like a more watered down version of the system from Fallout 4– for better or worse.
My name is Joel Fleming, I am a student at Sunderland College currently doing my NextGen level 3 gaming development, animation and VFX course.
My main focuses throughout my life have been science fiction, videogames and art. I always have loved doing drawings with pen or pencil ever since the age of 3, eventually grabbing myself a level 6 in art (GCSE), and with my focuses I knew that NextGen was for me.
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