River, the real-life dog who inspired Dogmeat from Fallout 4, has passed away.
Joel Burgess, studio director at Capybara Games and former developer on Fallout 3, 4 and 76 at Bethesda, took to Twitter to look back at her impact on Fallout 4.
I said goodbye today to River, who most of you know as Fallout 4’s Dogmeat.
Heartbroken doesn’t cover it, but I won’t eulogize her here. For twitter, I thought it’d be appropriate to look back at her impact on that game.
(plus, writing about game dev hurts less than grieving) pic.twitter.com/ayN1Vd6oqQ
— Joel Burgess (@JoelBurgess) June 27, 2021
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Dogmeat is a recurring dog non-player character in the Fallout series who acts as a possible companion to the player. Dogmeat is one of the most popular companions in the series, and was even a part of trailers made to promote Fallout 4.
“What we wanted was a companion first, and a combat ally second,” Burgess wrote of Dogmeat in Fallout 4.
“River attended countless meetings; but not just to be poked, prodded, recorded and filmed as reference – her biggest job was just to BE with the team,” Burgess continued.
“The more they bonded with her, the more they saw Dogmeat as a character – a friend.”
The Dogmeat team was just a handful of us early on – as River stole hearts around the studio, however, more and more folks found ways to pitch in and help bring her personality into the game.
She was more than a mascot or an inspiration – she was part of the team.
— Joel Burgess (@JoelBurgess) June 27, 2021
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River’s looks were almost directly replicated to the in-game model,” Burgess revealed.
“Not just because of her beauty (but yes, that too), her markings happened to work really well for pose read + facial expression.”
“One of the earliest impacts River had was on pathing,” Burgess said. “@jean_simonet [former Bethesda developer Jean Simonet] and I would take long walks with her, and he noticed that she’d trot ahead, but consistently stop to look back and check in me.
“This behavior went into the game, and really connects the dog to you.”
River really loved making people happy… sometimes by bringing us large objects. Her intentions were pure, but her judgement wasn’t always perfect.
This helped inspire the item-fetching and seeking behaviors, worked on by @jonpaulduvall & @RadHamster, among others. pic.twitter.com/1W171AD8Hd
— Joel Burgess (@JoelBurgess) June 27, 2021
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“We also crafted the dog’s combat AI to focus on holding enemies in place,” Burgess said. “Direct damage and finishing moves are secondary. (He also HATES being too far from you) This didn’t just give Dogmeat a distinctive combat style from other companion NPCs; it was a character choice.