BethSoft hiring designers, FO3 Lead Level Designer revealed

Ratty Sr.

Ratty Sr.

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Yet another member of the Fallout 3 core design team has been revealed. This time, it's Joel Burgess, the Lead Level Designer on FO3. Here is a brief factsheet for those unfamiliar with him:

· In addition to working as a level designer on Oblivion, Joel's impressive resume also includes Bloodrayne 2, Aeon Flux and... ehrm, not much else.

· He was in a band named Roller Chair Derby. They had a song named "Wasteland".

· He appears to be a proponent of randomized content: Post #1, Post #2

· He's a fan of targeted shots in FO1: Post #3
<blockquote>Look at Fallout 1 as an example. In that game, a headshot could blind your enemy, or you could go with my favorite and blow out kneecaps, slowing movement speed. So for that game it was about a lot more than damage returns; it also affected enemy behavior. Also - that was totally based on character skill. No amount of reflex with the mouse could help a spear-chucking troglodyte steady a sniper rifle.</blockquote>Furthermore, Joel has announced that BethSoft is hiring additional level designers to work on Fallout 3. For some reason, the announcement was made on The Elder Scrolls Forums, a popular hangout of Fallout modders and developers:
<blockquote>Some of you folks may know of me from previous posts, as a level designer on Oblivion. I'm honored to be lead level designer for Fallout 3, and I'm looking for a few good lackeys. Those of you who have seen me around probably are also aware of my love for the mod community, so I'm very excited at the prospect of hiring modders.

So here's the deal - we're looking for people who can make great dungeons. Did you play Mehrunes Razor and say "I can do that"? Maybe you've played a quest mod that had some spectacular gameplay areas built into it? Those are the kinds of people I'm interested in. Post your name or the name of somebody who you'd reccomend, and any links to their work. Bonus points for resumes.

Please keep this thread on-topic, btw. Feel free to open additional threads for discussion, and even link to them within this thread, but this thread should be reserved for potential candidates, their info, and why they're the right person for the job.

Here are the qualifications.

LEVEL DESIGNER -- Rockville, Maryland

Design, build, and script levels for future Elder Scrolls and Fallout products. Includes working in our proprietary toolset to design, build, light, and script game areas.

Candidate should have:
· Excellent sense of 3D game space and gameflow.
· Experience with designing, building, and populating game levels.
· Experience scripting or programming complex interactivity.
· Excellent communication, documentation, and interpersonal skills.
· Experience with The Elder Scrolls Construction Set a plus.
· Game industry experience a plus.
· Experience using modular kits a plus
· Excellent, proven creative writing skills a plus

Candidate must supply an example of their work in document form complete with images and descriptions of the gameplay space, events, and implementation.</blockquote>Essential links:

Bethesda hiring level designers
Joel Burgess' website.
Joel Burgess' Mobygames entry

Thanks, Briosafreak and Sander.

Addendum: posting later in the thread, Joel Burgess had a few additionata:<blockquote>+ If you have done work in other games, or have a great WIP you haven't released, still feel free to apply, but folks with released stuff for Oblivion and Morrowind are obviously in the best position to share work.

+ I swung by NMA last night and saw the post. Thanks!</blockquote>Maybe some of our top modders would fit the bill too?
 
Wait...what? I wasn't that positive.
In any case, he may have been fan of targeted shots in Fallout, he is an opponent of targeted shots in TES.

He also likes the fact that the combat system is action-oriented, is a level designer who likes to have quests take place in random places, meaning he doesn't actually care much what happens to the places, he just designs empty shells. Whoopdidoo.

Furthermore, he has a rant on his blog about products veering away from their core. He dislikes Dillinger Escape Plan for changing their formula, admired Star Wars Galaxies for changing the formula until they went too far, but still said it was a logical to thing to do for them.
In other words: he's a corporate bitch who would sell out the core (hey, TES comes to mind, and Fallout 3) business because it would 'make sense'.

Yeah, baby, of course it makes sense. Just look at Tactics, POS, the Ultima series or countless other examples.

Also, how the hell does someone with *that* resume get to be *lead level designer* (or lead anything-other-than-coffee-guy for that matter)? Are they that short on experienced people?
 
To Kharn (and nongenre aka Joel Burgess) on my negativity towards hiring Oblivion and Morrowind modders:
they have no experience in the game industry, they specifically have no experience on designing anything in Fallout's spirit (or you certainly didn't specify any reason for it) and although there are undoubtedly talented people there, I'd certainly like to see some experienced (and soulful) people working on Fallout 3 instead of some modders whose lifelong (aka 18 years) dream of becoming a game developer came true.
 
That sounds good to me, too Sander. You can hire somebody who made awesome UT deathmatch maps with six years experience, too, and that person may not have the soul you describe to "get" fallout and work on the titles. It's that special quality I really need - we can train folks who lack experience. So if you know anybody you think fits the bill, send 'em my way.

This isn't make a wish for modders.
 
It's strange that Bethesda only made this offer to Morrowind and Oblivion modders. At first, I thought this was a typical job offer on their main site:
http://www.bethsoft.com/links/bethsoft_jobs.html
but it seems that this is not the case.
Another thing is that they didn't mention "Knowledge of Fallout games a plus", which they did on their Quest designer job (on the page I linked to above).
Then again, maybe they will put this job up on their site. Otherwise, I would have to agree with Sander - hiring people on a forum isn't really the best decision.
 
nongenre said:
That sounds good to me, too Sander. You can hire somebody who made awesome UT deathmatch maps with six years experience, too, and that person may not have the soul you describe to "get" fallout and work on the titles. It's that special quality I really need - we can train folks who lack experience. So if you know anybody you think fits the bill, send 'em my way.

This isn't make a wish for modders.
Click to expand...
I trust you not. However, I do like the idea on getting Modders to help with map design, becuase Modders are usually gamers, too, and know what they like-Although targeting specifically Morrowind/Oblivion modders isn't looking promising on bringing back the old engine.

While I'm not one to praise someone for words, I think this guy has a flashlight, even if it looks dim. He's grasped some of the basic concepts for FO/2 combat system, and hopefully he becomes more faithful to FO than the ES series with this project.
 
Too bad he's a level designer and not the lead designer.

I also don't see any evidence for him grasping Fallout's concepts properly. He, for instance, also lambasted targeted shots in Oblivion for being too dependent on player skill (which is very much the case in Oblivion anyway), and with Fallout 3 probably being similar to Oblivion with its viewpoint I don't think this opinion would change at all for Fallout 3.
 
Lancelot said:
I wonder why they didn't want to hire the Troika people.
Click to expand...
Possibilities:
- Didn't like them.
- Wanted to make 'their own game'.
- Were never approached by Troika people, which is what was claimed but directly contradicted by Kharn.
- Afraid of the influence the Troika people would have on the fanbase, specifically concerning leaks.

Or a combination of the above.
 
It could be the Troika people were approached, but didn't want to work under another company's terms.

One of the reasons they left Interplay was because the corporate heavies refused to give them artistic freedom. I can imagine after doing things your own way for 8 years, it would be very hard to go back into a controlled environment
 
I truly hate my lack of ability to catch details like that. If he's the lead map designer and is hiring modders, then that just makes him a lazy bastard.
 
oh, for fucks sake! oblivion modders? I never thought I would come to hate Beth so much!



If I was a milionaire, I would track down every single man who worked on Fallout and hire them to make a sequel!
 
oh, for fucks sake! oblivion modders? I never thought I would come to hate Beth so much!
Click to expand...

I doubt the modders would have anything to do with the level design. Most likely they'd be given design docs and told to do the script programming. What fun! :D

If I was a milionaire, I would track down every single man who worked on Fallout and hire them to make a sequel!
Click to expand...

You'd need more than a million. :)
 
Lumpy said:
It's strange that Bethesda only made this offer to Morrowind and Oblivion modders. At first, I thought this was a typical job offer on their main site:
http://www.bethsoft.com/links/bethsoft_jobs.html
but it seems that this is not the case.
Click to expand...
This only proves that the offers teh Bethesda has made, are but silly jokes made by hateful people, more than likely one of us, maybe. Or so I belive. So it's all a huge hoax.
 
Sander said:
- Were never approached by Troika people, which is what was claimed but directly contradicted by Kharn.
Click to expand...

And I'll attest it again. That is just not the case.

Davaris said:
It could be the Troika people were approached, but didn't want to work under another company's terms.
Click to expand...

Nope.

Davaris said:
I can imagine after doing things your own way for 8 years, it would be very hard to go back into a controlled environment
Click to expand...

Boyarsky now works for Blizzard.
 
Davaris said:
oh, for fucks sake! oblivion modders? I never thought I would come to hate Beth so much!
Click to expand...
I doubt the modders would have anything to do with the level design. Most likely they'd be given design docs and told to do the script programming. What fun! :D
Click to expand...
In addition, we have this particular quote:

+ I'm looking for folks who have already done some great work for the community. Dungeons are the best, because that's the closest to what your actual job will be, but if you've done a great quest or housing mod that you feel demonstrates your ability, then submit it!

Dungeons are the best huh? Well, unless they are focusing on interior scenery, I see no good things from this... But it may just be me... that word always remind's me of dungeon crawling, which is not good IMO...
 
Boyarsky now works for Blizzard.
Click to expand...

Yes I heard about that.

Its one thing to work on something that is not your IP, but its another thing entirely to work on something that made your reputation while taking orders from people that don't understand it or care about it. That would be a difficult thing for anyone.



Davaris wrote:
It could be the Troika people were approached, but didn't want to work under another company's terms.


Nope.
Click to expand...

I've heard that one as well and yet its too idiotic for me to believe. Why would anyone not hire the best people for the job?
 
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