It's quite an undertaking to put together a mod, especially when it's big enough to constitute a completely different game. In the video above, Jake Dekker dives into the development process behind two notoriously big Fallout mods: Miami and Cascadia.
Taking place within the same time period of Fallout 4, Fallout Miami delivers a story set in a city that wasn't hit by a nuke during the apocalypse. When Jake spoke with two of the project leads of Fallout Miami, they explained the game started as a simple idea in 2016. However, after starting to work on that idea, it quickly became apparent it was more than what a few modders could handle, and so a full team was pulled together. Putting over 50 people on a team raised its own share of problems though, which everyone had to work together on to overcome.
Unlike Miami, the Seattle-focused Fallout Cascadia has almost nothing to do with Fallout 4's story, taking place years later. The mod has changed leadership a few times, but the team behind it has a clear vision of what they want it to be. Existing within a map that's roughly twice the size of Fallout 4's, Cascadia is an ambitious project. The team behind it is scattered across several countries around the world, but the project is--slowly but surely--coming together.
Jake expands on the hidden hardships behind creating both of these mods in his video, and uses the stories behind both Fallout Miami and Fallout Cascadia to paint a clearer picture about what it means to create a large story-driven mod. As you'll see, the process involves a lot more moving parts than people think. That said, if you want to help out, both teams are accepting volunteers. Head to the Fallout Miami website or Fallout Cascadia website and sign-up.
There's plenty about game development that's never really brought up in the public eye, but we're trying to do a better job of showcasing those parts of the process. If you like Jake's video, you might also enjoy our new Audio Logs series, which brings in game designers to talk about the hidden details, mechanics, and features that make some of the game industry's most popular titles play as well as they do. For example, Episode 1 sees God of War creative director Cory Barlog talk about the PS4 exclusive's most impactful scene and how it almost didn't happen.