Justin Loar
Level Design
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Designing Missions With Meaningful Choices
My thesis involved developing a process that the player makes, which has long-
missions to give players more control develop and grow.
that designers could apply to their
over their game narratives. I defined
meaningful choices as informed decisions I chose this topic because I wanted to
consequences on gameplay or narrative. from interactive fiction to mission design
that players can make that have lasting
My thesis establishes guidelines and
best practices for building meaningful
choices in game missions, including how
to communicate critical information to the
player, build lasting consequences, and
establish long-term player motivations.
My artifact is a three-mission campaign
for Fallout 4 in which players gather
resources and recruit soldiers to help
the Brotherhood of Steel establish a new
outpost in the Commonwealth. Each
mission revolves around a major choice
58
term ramifications for how the outpost will
LEVEL DESIGN
explore the best ways to apply principles
fundamentals. I took inspiration from
choose-your-own-adventure games and
story-driven role-playing games that aim
to captivate players in immersive stories.
This project provided key insights into
mission design and branching narrative
that could be applicable to all story-driven
games.