Tag Archives: Nick James Pearce

Building The Forgotten City: Interview with Nick James Pearce

Sitting down with The Forgotten City, a story-driven mod for Skyrim, was one of the most immersive experiences in recent memory. It has left such an impression and heightened expectations when it comes to story and atmosphere. Luckily, I’ve gotten to know Nick Pierce through email and asked if he would mind answering some questions for Giga.

He humbly obliged.

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Why mod Skyrim? How does that particular game fit the goals of the project?
So many reasons. First of all, modding Skyrim is awesome fun! Though I probably don’t use the same definition of “fun” as most other people. For me, it’s a creative outlet. I get to activate parts of my brain that I don’t get to use in my day-to-day. I suppose the alternative to modding Skyrim would have been to make my own indie game, but it wouldn’t have been anything like The Forgotten City. Modding Skyrim is like standing on the shoulder of a giant (the giant being Bethesda Game Studios); it allows you to do things you couldn’t dream of doing alone.
I started modding Skyrim because I was inspired by a lot of modders from Oblivion and Fallout and wanted to try my hand at it.
I also drew a lot of inspiration from my favorite side-quests in Bethesda’s games. For example, I remember stumbling across the Dark Brotherhood by accident in Oblivion, and being blown away by how much work had gone into something I might never have discovered; that made it feel personal, something unique to my adventure. I remember stumbling across Vault 11 in Fallout: New Vegas (technically made by Obsidian, published by Bethesda) and its chilling social experiments which exposed some dark truths about society. I remember “Waking Nightmare” in Skyrim; entering a dream state to travel to the past, if only in a superficial way. I remember discovering the ancient Dwarven underground city of Blackreach, and wishing I could have explored it more. The Forgotten City takes loose threads from all of these quests, and weaves them into something I hope is even greater. It’s an homage to Bethesda.
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What sort of challenges did you have to  overcome with this mod?
Well this mod took me 1700 hours to make, and I think more than half of that was spent fixing bugs. Some of them were pretty funny. I had this one ridiculous bug for a long time where Brandas, on his deathbed, covered in horrific burns and speaking his last words, was supposed to fade away into death. Unfortunately, just before he died, he would stand up out of bed, face the player, then comically ragdoll into the floor. In the end it was caused by something that just seemed totally unexpected.
Generally though the key challenges were acquiring the skills I just didn’t have. When I started I had no idea how to use the Creation Kit, write scripts in Papyrus, cast voice actors, master sound files. The whole time I was learning on the fly. Every time I hit a big hurdle I had this feeling of dread as I realized: “If I can’t sort this out, this project is dead in the water, and everything I’ve done so far is for nothing.” (I’m an optimist, you see.) But three years on, I never encountered a hurdle I couldn’t overcome—that’s pretty satisfying, looking back.
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“Modding Skyrim is like standing on the shoulder of a giant (the giant being Bethesda Game Studios); it allows you to do things you couldn’t dream of doing alone.”
What are the perks of modding, as opposed to full game design?

The main one is creative control. I wasn’t pandering to a demographic, and I didn’t try to simplify anything to make it more accessible to the general population. I made a game for intelligent gamers, because that’s what I wanted to play. It turns out a lot of other people wanted to play that too.

Another perk of modding is that you get to work on all aspects of the project, not just one aspect. One of my favorite parts were working with the 18 voice actors I cast: getting to know them, listening to their performances, hearing the lines I’d written come to life, sounding better than I had ever imagined. And now I chat with most of them online pretty regularly. I’d like to think of them as friends. That’s been a lot of fun. Also, working with Trent Moriarty (the composer) has been really fascinating and thrilling as well. I don’t know how, but he managed to take a few ideas and emotions and transform them into these achingly beautiful musical compositions. I feel privileged to have witnessed him working his magic.

Another perk is not having to worry about how many people play it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty stoked that 50,000 people have downloaded it within 2 weeks of launch (from Nexus, Steam Workshop and ModDB combined), and I wanted to make sure Trent and the voice actors got as much exposure as possible, but I would have been happy enough if the number was a fraction of that.

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What is your history with Game Design? Were there other projects before The Forgotten City?
I don’t have a history in game design: this is my first project. If you don’t count the terrible games I made in QBasic when I was 13, which I don’t, because they were terrible.
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 How does it feel to have The Forgotten City receive such praise?
It’s been a big relief to get such positive feedback. I tried to pitch the game at intelligent gamers, and I wasn’t sure how well that would be received; TFC gives players a bit more credit for being intelligent than the vanilla quests. . . The reaction has shown there are a lot of intelligent gamers out there, and they seem to appreciate games that treat them as such.
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Gorgeous concept art from Fallout 4.
 Are there any other projects in the works?
At the moment I’m weighing my options, but one possibility I’m excited about is a Fallout 4 expansion. I’ve had a lot of requests for that, and I’m looking forward to playing Fallout 4 and dreaming up some ideas for sci-fi social experiments in Vaults.
The Forgotten City has seen praise by many outlets, including Giga, and can be downloaded via the Skyrim Nexus or through the Steam Workshop.

The Forgotten City Tells a Story for the Ages

Bethesda Softworks often has the best support when it comes to post-launch modification. Such has been the case ever since Morrowind, adding hundreds of hours to an already time-encompassing game. Skyrim has also left open its proverbial bed chambers, accepting anything from Thomas the Train as a dragon to all manners of nudity.

All jokes aside, there is still plenty of life left in Skyrim on the PC, at least as long as people like Nick Pearce have something to say about it.

The Forgotten City adds a whole new area for players to explore, packaged with its own narrative and a plethora of top-notch voice acting. A quick download and a bit of a walk leads hopeful dungeon divers to a gorgeous scene of a cave mouth just behind the veil of a waterfall. What lies beyond the entrance are mysteries beyond typical logic.

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Charred corpses lay strewn about broken Dwarven architecture, husks of their former grandiose. After delving deeper to the heart of the underground city, a desperate girl looms over a massive well, her face in obvious despair. She approaches Dovakhiin, asking him to help find her brother, who has been exploring the ruins. Accepting the quest feels simple enough, but after the exchange is over, one quickly realizes that in order to find him, one must take a leap of faith.

Falling through that shaft felt like a mistake, but luckily a deep pool of water lies at the bottom. Once again the player gets to explore a destroyed city, eventually coming across a lake house. Inside is a broken soul gem, and a note that tells of the tragedy and pleads for help. Magic then swirls about the only doorway, giving the player no choice. Stepping in flings the hero into the past, before the tragedy.

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Stepping out of the lake house is a powerful moment. The sheer beauty of the place, after witnessing what will befall it, immediately plants seeds of wanting to save the city. There are several little moments like this in The Forgotten City that demonstrate the modder’s keen understanding of using the environment to tell the story. Frankly, this first moment is brilliant. Invested in the story already, players are introduced to a host of characters as a simple farmer leads the Dragonborn to the Jarl, or Mayor of the city.

Many people are introduced, giving hints to their story and background with expertly crafted dialogue. Even the characters’ tone is used to add more to each exchange, something that vanilla Skyrim often failed to achieve. In fact, much of the appeal of The Forgotten City is uncovering each character’s unique story.

After a strange meeting with the Jarl, in which the player presents him with a letter written from his future self, the Dwarven Law is introduced. After this conversation, the Jarl tasks Dovakhiin to find out who will trigger the calamity that ends their utopia and to stop them by any means necessary. He looks out at his city from his perch at the top of the Citadel, desperately wanting things to stay how they are.

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“The many shall suffer for the sins of the one.”

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As the story progresses, the Dwarven Law reveals itself  as being quite the moral dilemma. Many characters call the Jarl’s leadership into question, leaving many to ask just what is against the Law. Others sought refuge from the brutal world outside, seeing the Law as a saving grace. This idea of morality is paralleled with the characters.

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One such example is that of Vernon, a produce vendor in the city square. He seems to enjoy his work and is happily ready to sell his wares, but his mood drastically changes when a note comes from under the door. The note calls Vernon an abomination and threatens him, all in blood red ink. Players can take this note straight to the Jarl and sentence him to death, yet a more interesting option lies in showing the letter to Vernon. Vernon, seeing this treatment before, reveals that he is gay. Players are then left to find who would write such a letter and try to resolve the issue.

This focus on characters and narrative permeate the entire game. There is little combat to be had; only a few situations lead to a sword being drawn. Where the mod shines is how its narrative proposes an interesting “Who will do it?” detective scenario, while also elaborating on the mysterious Dwarves of Tamriel. Truly the story is worth exploring, especially when factoring in the multiple ways to finish the quest and return to the present. Learning a character’s motives through looking at what they have in their home, or their subtle shift in tone rewards players who pay attention to detail.

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The Forgotten City also sports a polish that many mods fail to achieve on their first few versions. Other players have complained about certain events not triggering correctly, but I found no such problems during my six-hour playthrough. I did spend a lot of time walking back and forth in the area when trying to solve a puzzle, wracking my brain to think outside the box. When I finally succeeded, I felt that I was rewarded for my cleverness and laughed at my fear of destroying the city. I would reload a save every time I accidentally stole a carrot or hit the wrong dialogue choice. The cataclysm can be reversed by revisiting the lake house and going through the portal again, creating a Groundhog Day-esque time loop.

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Dr. Who would be proud of Pearce’s use of time travel and the theories associated with it.

The Forgotten City’s final moments are truly epic as the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. Things are clarified in interesting ways. To get the best ending, one has to use what’s been learned in order to do something absurdly brilliant. Finishing the game, for me, was a bittersweet moment. Bringing closure to the characters of the city brought true joy to my heart. I’ll even go as far as saying I teared up a bit. Yet, I was left feeling hungry for more adventure, wanting to discover other things lost to the destructive nature of time.

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This adventure is an excellent example of game modification being used to its true potential. The atmosphere adds layers of depth to the expertly crafted narrative, while talented actors and actresses give a flawless performance. Like a giant puzzle, solving the mysteries of this long-forgotten city is rewarding both on a mechanical level and on an emotional one.

The Forgotten City is the candle I will hold up to all other mods that follow.