Justin Schram is a developer who worked at Bethesda Game Studios on Fallout 4 as a level designer. He was also the lead level designer on the add-on Nuka-World. He received special thanks on Fallout 76.
Career[]
Work on the Fallout series[]
As a level designer, some of Schram's responsibilities on Fallout 4 included dungeon building, points of interests, random encounters, exterior gameplay spaces, quests, and various game systems. As an example of the latter, he implemented the perks Animal Friend, Intimidation, and Wasteland Whisperer to suit a combat-avoidance play style.[1] He also designed the locations of Old North Church,[2] Suffolk County Charter School[3] and the Fens Street sewer,[4] as well as the quest The Big Dig and its associated locations and characters.[5][6]
Schram also served as the lead level designer on the add-on Nuka-World.[7] Although he left Bethesda in March 2017, he was credited with special thanks on Fallout 76 and the unmarked location of J. Schram's house was included as a reference to him.
Other work[]
During his time at Bethesda, Schram also worked on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Employment history[]
| From | To | Company | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 2009 | March 2017 | Bethesda Game Studios | Level Designer |
| April 2017 | February 2020 | Ubisoft Toronto | Team Lead Level Designer |
| February 2020 | October 2020 | Get Set Games | Senior Level Designer |
| October 2020 | November 2021 | Cloud Chamber | Senior Level Designer |
| January 2022 | Present | Playground Games | Associate Quest Director |
Credits[]
Fallout series[]
| Year | Title | Credited as/for |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Fallout 4 | Level Designer |
| 2016 | Nuka-World | Lead Level Designer |
| 2018 | Fallout 76 | Special Thanks |
Other work[]
| Year | Title | Credited as/for |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | Level Designer |
| 2020 | Watch Dogs: Legion | Team Lead Level Designers |
Notes[]
Justin designed many points of interest, mainly in the northwest region of the Commonwealth.
Gallery[]
Video[]
References[]
- ↑ Alumni Guest: Justin Schram From Bethesda Game Studios (reference starts at 4:30)
Justin Schram: "For Fallout 4, I actually developed three of the perks...the hold-up system. So, Animal Friend, Intimidation, and Wasteland Whisperer were these perks where you could get an enemy to not fight, you could essentially pacify them. I was trying to make a non-combat sort of play style." - ↑ Alumni Guest: Justin Schram From Bethesda Game Studios (reference starts at 1:02:17)
Justin Schram: "One of the spaces I worked on on Fallout 4 was the Old North Church, so I tried as much as I could to get the feel for what that actual space was, and to honor the history that was there. I was really worried, because I remember, I think it was a Call of Duty game that like, also used a church and they got all this hate mail from the church and the people that went there. I was really worried about that happening here, so I was just trying as much as I could to honor what the space was and the history there. Another interesting thing about that is that there are these, like, Revolutionary War catacombs under the Old North Church, and I watched a lot of, like, History Channel specials of them walking through to get a lot of inspirations for what the feel is there." - ↑ Alumni Guest: Justin Schram From Bethesda Game Studios (reference starts at 13:19)
Justin Schram: "So, in Fallout, you would have, like... I had Suffolk Charter School, which is this elementary school on the southern end of the map. And so, you sort of know what a school should look like on the inside and on the outside. And we build that, and then you sort of have to match the inside to that. So when you're designing a level, you have to remember this has to look on the inside what it should look like on the outside. So that's something you have to keep in mind." - ↑ Alumni Guest: Justin Schram From Bethesda Game Studios (reference starts at 59:19)
Justin Schram: "And then also, the Fens Street sewer I just thought was a nifty little, contained...self-contained dungeon experience that I was very proud of." - ↑ Alumni Guest: Justin Schram From Bethesda Game Studios (reference starts at 19:50)
Justin Schram: "So, this is my dungeon in Fallout 4, it's called the Big Dig. You explore a subway as you're digging through it, and opening things up. So you can see one of the cues that I have here is this rubble on the subway platform here. It's not subtle, but the player doesn't think about it, the player's not like 'oh, the designer's telling me I need to walk up here so I'm gonna walk up there.' It's just like, it's a subtle cue that this is the way you need to go. Another way we do that is rubble, so you see we have the rubble up in the corner here. The player instantly knows when they see that...rubble's sort of a cue that 'don't go this way.' It's destroyed, it's whatever... so we try to remove a lot of those options subtly. Like, the player doesn't feel limited, the player doesn't feel like we took options away, we're just trying to tell the player 'hey, maybe just don't go this way, it's not that important.'" - ↑ Alumni Guest: Justin Schram From Bethesda Game Studios (reference starts at 59:00)
Justin Schram: "I think I showed 'em here, so the Big Dig, I really like. I got to write a full suite of characters for that, and I had this really cool sort of interactive layout where you're sort of digging your way through. So I really liked that, that was an experiment. It was gonna be much more Minecraft-y. It didn't get that far, but I like how it turned out." - ↑ Fallout 4 – Vacationing in Nuka-World