Joel Burgess is a developer who worked at Bethesda Softworks as lead level designer on Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, and on Fallout 76 as an additional designer.
Career
For Fallout 3, Burgess 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.[Ext 1] He also wrote several notes and terminal entries for the game.[Dev 1] For the add-on Point Lookout, he served as the lead designer.
Burgess implemented several Easter eggs in Fallout 3 and Fallout 4. In a July 2019 Twitter thread discussing Easter eggs and their acceptability in games, he 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),[Dev 2] as well as the Ray Bradbury tribute in the McClellan Family Townhome in Fallout 3, all of which he implemented.[Dev 3][Dev 4]
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 Softworks | Lead Level Designer |
| June 2016 | November 2019 | Ubisoft Toronto | World Director |
| November 2019 | March 2023 | Capybara Games | Studio Director |
| November 2022 | Present | Soft Rains | Co-founder/Studio Head |
Credits
Fallout series
| Year | Title | Credited |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Fallout 3 | Lead Level Designer |
| 2009 | Point Lookout | Lead Designer |
| 2015 | Fallout 4 | Lead Level Designer |
| 2018 | Fallout 76 | Additional Designer |
Other work
| Year | Title | Credited |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 2019 | Grindstone | Design/Additional Level Design |
| 2020 | Watch Dogs: Legion | World Director |
Notes
He and his wife's dog, River, modeled, animated, and served as the voice actress for Dogmeat in Fallout 4.
References
- ↑ Joel Burgess' Blog: Fallout 3 Writing (archived)
- ↑ 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."