Joel Burgess is a developer who worked at Bethesda Game Studios on Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 as the lead level designer and on Fallout 76 as an additional designer.
Career[]
Work on the Fallout series[]
For Fallout 3, Joel created the Liberty Prime sequence in Take it Back!, the Jefferson Memorial drainage chambers in The Waters of Life, and led the design of nearly all points of interest in the Capital Wasteland and downtown Washington, D.C.[1] He also wrote several notes and terminal entries for the game.[2] For the add-on Point Lookout, Joel served as the lead designer. Joel created Plik and his safari, which he described as his "pet project." He also voiced Plik himself, when a mistake during voiceover recording left Plik without any recorded lines.[3]
Joel implemented several Easter eggs in Fallout 3 and Fallout 4. In a July 2019 Twitter thread discussing Easter eggs and their acceptability in games, Joel talked about his belief that Easter eggs should make sense and appear believable even to players who are unfamiliar with the reference. He highlighted the Snatcher references in Minefield in Fallout 3 and the Vitale pumphouse in Fallout 4 (the latter containing several other Easter eggs),[4] as well as the Ray Bradbury tribute in the McClellan family townhome in Fallout 3, all of which he implemented.[5][6]
Other work[]
Before being hired by Bethesda, he worked at several companies (including Terminal Reality) as a designer and 3D artist. Joel left Bethesda in May 2016 and joined Ubisoft Toronto, where he served as the world director on Watch Dogs: Legion. He worked at Capybara Games as a studio director before co-founding Soft Rains Games, where he also serves as studio head.
Employment history[]
| From | To | Company | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 2003 | UCF GAMES Lab | 3D Artist |
| 2003 | 2003 | Dezign Corp./I-Net Holdings, LLC. | Designer / Art Lead |
| 2003 | 2004 | Terminal Reality | Level Designer |
| June 2005 | May 2016 | Bethesda Game Studios | Lead Level Designer |
| June 2016 | November 2019 | Ubisoft Toronto | World Director |
| November 2019 | 2022 | Capybara Games | Studio Director |
| 2022 | Present | Soft Rains Games | Studio Director |
Credits[]
Fallout series[]
| Year | Title | Credited as/for |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Fallout 3 | Lead Level Designer |
| 2009 | Point Lookout | Lead Designer Plik (uncredited) |
| 2015 | Fallout 4 | Lead Level Designer |
| 2018 | Fallout 76 | Additional Designer |
Other work[]
| Year | Title | Credited as/for |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | BloodRayne 2 | Level Designer |
| 2005 | Æon Flux | Additional Designer |
| 2006 | The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion | Additional Dungeon Art |
| 2011 | The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | Level Designer |
| 2013 | Gone Home | Additional Handwriting |
| 2020 | Watch Dogs: Legion | World Director |
| 2022 | Fallout 4 - Point Lookout (mod) | Special Thanks |
Notes[]
- He and his wife's dog, River, modeled, animated, and served as the voice actress for Dogmeat in Fallout 4.
- Joel designed several points of interest in the Commonwealth.
Gallery[]
Video gallery[]
External links[]
- Guest Speaker: Joel Burgess from Bethesda (FIEA presentation - October 1, 2012)
- GlitchCon 2014: Level Design by Joel Burgess (GlitchCon presentation - February 15, 2014)
- Fallout 4's Modular Level Design (GDC presentation with Nathan Purkeypile - April 14, 2016)
- Fallout 4 Point Lookout Mod Dev Div (guests Joel Burgess and Nate Purkeypile) (CHAD: A Fallout 76 Podcast - June 27, 2022)
References[]
- ↑ Geck Profile
- ↑ Joel Burgess' Blog: Fallout 3 Writing (archived)
Note: These notes and terminal entries include, but are not limited to: - ↑ Fallout 4 Point Lookout Mod with Joel Burgess and Nate Purkeypile (1:22:20)
Kenneth Vigue: "So, Plik's safari, who created Plik's safari, and uh, more importantly, who voices Plik?"
Joel Burgess: "Yeah, yeah, this is... for better or worse, this is all me. I really wanted to do this, this was a little bit of a pet project for me on the side. So I did all the scripting and set up the cell, but... oh Christ, this line... so yeah, I wrote this character. And I remember like, we were debating whether or not we were gonna do it or if we could support it and this, that, and the other thing. And so it's like a little bit of an open question. Y'know, again, it was a short project, we have this thing in, and we get to the voice sessions. And the voice actor comes into studio and is sitting with the audio engineer and the voice director and, y'know, does all the lines for Desmond, or basically he comes in and does 'ghoul' voice type. And Plik was originally meant to be voiced by the same actor. A lot of times during direction you'll give the actors like, 'hey, just like, do this character with a Southern accent.' So even though it's the same voice type, they'll put in an inflection on it. So all of Plik's lines were on a few sheets of the script, and those sheets just like... didn't make it into the booth. So like, the day wraps up and the voice recording is finished, and y'know, the actor goes about their life. And we get the VO lines back, and it's like, 'welp, we don't have anything for Plik and we don't have pickups.' Right? Pickups are the term for when you have a voice actor come back. So I went in the booth and it's... awful. Like, the original lines for this are me just doing my best impression of Grover wishing he had Robitussin. It's just bad, bad ghoul voice acting. But hey, it made it in and I'm happy it's there." - ↑ Joel Burgess on Twitter: "Stumbled across an old easter egg I put in Fallout 4. Actually, kind of an easter egg within an easter egg, within an easter egg.
I wonder how many people got how many parts of this?" - ↑ Joel Burgess on Twitter: "So, example: I think the easter egg I'm most proud of is the McClellan house in Fallout 3. I won't detail it in full here, but it's a location full of references to Ray Bradbury, and a specific story in the Martian Chronicles."
- ↑ Joel Burgess on Twitter: "If you know the source material, the name of the family, the address, the dead dog, the poem the robot reads... all big nods to Bradbury. The house itself basically mirrors Bradbury's story. It's a glaringly obvious homage if you get the reference."