Sad news broke in the gaming community recently that River, the real-life inspiration behind Fallout 4's NPC Dogmeat, has passed away. To honor River, game designer Joel Burgess took to Twitter to share a behind the scenes look at how the German shepherd influenced Dogmeat's behavior in game.
Dogmeat is an NPC companion dog that can be found in all four main Fallout games. In Fallout 4, Dogmeat is one of the earliest NPCs companions players can recruit. Dogmeat is found at an abandoned trucker stop, and will join players on their journey if they so choose. Dogmeat can assist players in many ways, including alerting them to hidden loot or holding down enemies in combat. Dogmeat also appears to have a history in the Fallout 4 world before players find him, as detective Nick Valentine will remark that he has worked with Dogmeat in the past.
Joel Burgess, a game designer and owner of River, took to Twitter recently to announce River's passing and share stories of her time at the Bethesda office. According to Joel's thread, he became concerned about the direction of Dogmeat's design when he saw reference images on a team member's desk that were all of German shepherds who were snarling or attacking. The team working on Dogmeat's design "wanted a companion first, and a combat ally second." Joel began bringing River into the office to bond with the people working on Dogmeat in the hopes that they in turn would design a dog companion in the video game that players would want to bond with.
Burgess also pointed out specific observations he and other team members made about River's behavior that were then integrated into Dogmeat's NPC design in Fallout 4. For instance, they noticed when taking River on walks that she would walk ahead of the group, but always look back to check on her human companion's progress. Dogmeat's pathing in the game reflects this, as he will run forward then stop and look at players while they catch up. Dogmeat's design team also programmed him to focus holding enemies in place, with direct attacks being secondary. Burgess says this was to show Dogmeat's specific desire to protect players when they attacked.
As the Twitter thread ends, Burgess remarks, "The strange thing about Dogmeat is that nothing's strange about Dogmeat." The team behind the NPC wanted to create a normal dog companion in Fallout 4 to help ground players as they navigated a post-apocalyptic wasteland full of mutated animals, robots, and other strange phenomenon. Judging by the outpouring of condolences on Twitter, Dogmeat seems to have stolen the hearts of many players, and River's legacy will live on in Fallout 4 for a long time to come.
Source: Joel Burgess
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