Dogmeat returned as a companion in Bethesda Game Studios’ Fallout 3 in 2008, and featured even more prominently in Fallout 4, especially in the trailers and gameplay previews introducing the game in 2015. He and fellow developer Jean Simonet would go on walks with River, where Simonet noticed “she’d trot out ahead, but consistently stop to look back and check me.” That behavior went into the game, and significantly affected the game’s pathing logic, Burgess wrote.ĭogmeat is a character whose lineage extends to the first two games published by Interplay in 19. “Her markings happened to work really well for pose read + facial expression,” Burgess explained. River was the model for Dogmeat, visually as well as behaviorally.

“The more they bonded with, the more they saw Dogmeat as a character - a friend,” Burgess said of his colleagues. (plus, writing about game dev hurts less than grieving) /ayN1Vd6oqQ- Joel Burgess June 27, 2021īurgess wrote that by bonding with the developers, River helped them build an in-world companion who would be a friend more than “a canine weapon.” Burgess had been concerned that, without considerate development, that’s all Fallout 4’s signature companion would be. For twitter, I thought it'd be appropriate to look back at her impact on that game. Heartbroken doesn't cover it, but I won’t eulogize her here.

I said goodbye today to River, who most of you know as Fallout 4’s Dogmeat.

Fallout 3 can companions die