This Fallout 4 mod looks so good Bethesda just hired one of its designers

London in the post-apocalypse
(Image credit: Bethesda / The Folon Team)

I imagine the dream for many modders, who largely work as volunteer developers, is to catch the eye of a big game studio and get a job there. It's happened with Valve in particular (it hired the modders who created Counter-Strike, Dota, and Team Fortress, just to name a few). Modder Brendan Greene was hired by Bluehole to create PUBG, Dean Hall went from contract worker to project lead at Bohemia based on his DayZ mod, Riot hired CS:GO pro and map-maker Sal Garazzo, who's now co-lead game designer for Valorant… the list goes on.

The list goes on right here, actually. A developer working on a mod we've been writing a lot about lately, Fallout: London, has been hired by Bethesda. Lead technical adviser for the upcoming "DLC-sized" Fallout 4 mod, Ryan Johnson, is leaving the project to take a job as an associate level designer at Bethesda, according to an announcement from the mod team. The announcement doesn't mention which Bethesda game Johnson will work on, though Fallout 76 would seem a pretty good bet.

The announcement also reassures fans that Johnson's departure won't seriously impact the development of the mod. "Luckily for us, we have known about this move for awhile and thus Ropiequet has helped collate his knowledge into invaluable design documentation so the rest of the team can work on in his stead seamlessly," the announcement states. (Ropiequet is Johnson's online handle).

"More so, Ropiequet finished all of his expected level design tasks as well as a few extra ones we didn't expect him to do! The man's professionalism and dedication will honestly and truly be missed and felt throughout the team, however it brings us hand on heart joy to know that he will be taking his amazing talents to a company we all love."

This isn't the first time Bethesda has plucked talent from the Fallout: London mod team. Last year it hired Fallout: London's lead writer, Stephanie Zachariadis, as an associate quest designer. And according to the mod team, another job offer was recently made to Fallout: London's project lead Dean Carter to work on Fallout 76, though after "some very hard soul searching" Carter decided to decline the offer to continue work on the mod.

As we saw recently, Fallout: London is shaping up to be a huge and interesting mod, what with all the bike-riding, boat-piloting, and weaponized elephants in post-apocalyptic England. The mod is due out sometime in 2023… unless the entire team gets hired by Bethesda before then. 

Thanks, GamesRadar.

Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.

Read more
Skyblivion evil character
With the next Elder Scrolls and Fallout games still years away, here are 6 upcoming total conversion mods for Skyrim and Fallout 4 to get excited about
Fallout: Nuevo Mexico screenshot
After resuming work following a 'hold' in 2024, Fallout: Nuevo Mexico is now officially cancelled: 'The costs ahead, both financial and personal, are too great'
Skyblivion
Fan remake of Oblivion in Skyrim has a new video, looks amazing, is set for release 'this year,' and I struggle to imagine the rumoured official Oblivion remake doing much better
A foppish figure stands in fine clothes and a strange red mask.
Hero modders take a break from their 25-year quest to make the rest of Morrowind to make the Oblivion we should have got instead
Mortimer Goth swanning around inside a New Vegas casino built inside the Sims 2
A Fallout: New Vegas fan is so fed up waiting for a remake he's decided to do it himself. The twist? He's making it in the Sims 2
Fallout 76 - a player in a vault suit gives a thumbs up
Fallout 76's former project lead says it's still his favourite game he worked on, but the initial reception was demoralising: 'I got yelled at in an Apple Store, I'll never forget'
Latest in Fallout
Ghoul in sunglasses
I'm convinced being a ghoul in Fallout 76 is the best way to vibe in West Virginia, thanks to these powerful perk cards and my new true love: Radiation
Fallout 76 ghoul screenshots
Getting to level 50 in Fallout 76 to become a ghoul actually isn't as daunting as it seems, which is why I created a new character
Scorched person with their hands on their head
Ghoul players in Fallout 76 are starting to place their camps in the most radioactive areas of the map, and regular humans aren't happy: 'I had to inject 30+ radaway into my veins'
Fallout 76 ghoul screenshots
How to become a ghoul in Fallout 76
Ghoul in sunglasses
Some Fallout 76 players have encountered a 'major game-breaking bug' which either makes it impossible to complete the ghoul quest or just makes you temporarily invisible
A ghoul player character standing next to another ghoul
'You are hereby conscripted': Fallout 76 players demand newly-transformed ghoul players help them mine radioactive ore
Latest in News
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all