Robert "Rob" O. Lee is a developer who worked on Fallout: New Vegas as an area designer.
Biography[edit]
Robert Lee has a bachelor's degree in digital art from the University of Toledo as well as "the majority of a second BA in Philosophy." He also attended Southern Methodist University and studied "Digital Interactive Technology, Video Game Design, 3ds Max, Photoshop, Scripting, Level Design."[Ext 1]
Career[edit]
Lee started his game industry career at Obsidian in September 2008 as a designer, but worked at Zenimax as a content designer for the Elder Scrolls Online from March 2012 to August 2013 before returning to Obsidian as a senior designer in May 2014. He left in June 2017 and work as a senior designer at multiple companies such as Deep Silver Volition and People Can Fly.[Ext 1]
Fallout Series[edit]
Robert Lee has worked on the base game of Fallout: New Vegas as well as the Old World Blues, Dead Money, and Lonesome Road. Quest design, writing dialogue, scripting, area design, encounter design, and location design were the areas he worked on for the projects.[Ext 1] When most of the team moved onto Dead Money, Lee stayed behind to fix bugs in the base game and also later stayed behind on Dead Money to also fix bugs. He also worked on the preproduction for Old World Blues. For Lonesome Road, he worked on balancing loot and polish.[Ext 2]
Robert Lee worked on various areas of the world including X-13 Research Facility, Executive Suites, Freeside, Nellis Air Force Base, Camp Guardian, Cottonwood Cove and Camp McCarran.
On X-13, Lee designed, wrote, and built the facility with art help and polishing from Kristen Altamirano.[Ext 3] He also scripted the Stealth Suit Mk II as well as the associated stealth tests.[Ext 4] Chris Avellone stated that he wrote the terminal entries found at the facility.[Dev 1]
For Dead Money, he worked with Chris Avellone to design the suites and create an interesting encounter for the player, with a conscious effort to create a challenging stealth effort.[Ext 5][Ext 6] He also worked on the quest Put the Beast Down, stating that designing the encounter with Dog and God was difficult due to the complex dialogue and urgency.[Ext 5]
On Freeside, he worked alongside Jesse Farrell on both quests, and locations.[Dev 2] He created the quest Wang Dang Atomic Tango as well as the characters found in the quest: Old Ben, Beatrix Russell, Fisto, and Santiago.[Ext 7] He also helped create and design Mick & Ralph's.[Ext 8]
For the Boomers, he again worked alongside Jesse Farrell to help create quests and locations.[Dev 2] Lee initially worked on George and the introductory artillery barrage, and later worked on Sunshine Boogie, Volare!, and Ant Misbehavin'. In Volare!, he worked on Argyll's portion as well as the final scripting for Pete's museum tour.[Ext 9] For the artillery barrage, Lee created the prototype, Akil Hooper worked on the script to make it more accurate with time, and Lee did the final polish for the barrage.[Ext 10]
He also wrote Camp Guardian, creating the unmarked quest Help for Halford, as well as Private Halford himself, naming him after the lead singer of Judas Priest.[Dev 2][Ext 11][Dev 3] He also created the Recompense of the Fallen with art help from Denise McMurry and Sydney Wolfram.[Ext 2] Additionally, he designed Cottonwood Cove, and created the option to release the radioactive barrels from the truck at the Cottonwood Overlook as an option to wipe out the Legion presence.[Ext 12]
On Camp McCarran, Lee worked alongside Eric Fenstermaker to design and write the location, though Fenstermaker was in charge of writing the major characters and quests, while Lee worked on side quests and setting up stores for merchants.[Ext 13][Dev 2]
Additionally, he or Farrell may have been responsible for setting up the destroyed caravans found during Heartaches by the Number.[Dev 4]
Employment History[edit]
| From | To | Company | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 2008 | March 2012 | Obsidian Entertainment | Designer |
| March 2012 | August 2013 | ZeniMax Online Studios | Content Designer |
| May 2014 | June 2017 | Obsidian Entertainment | Senior Designer |
| June 2017 | July 2019 | Gray Mantle Games | Senior Game Designer |
| July 2019 | November 2020 | Deep Silver Volition | Senior Tech Designer |
| November 2020 | Present | Striking Distance Studios | Senior Level Designer |
Credits[edit]
Fallout Series[edit]
| Year | Title | Credited |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 |  Fallout: New Vegas | Area Designer |
| 2011 |  Dead Money | Area Designer |
| 2011 |  Honest Hearts | Area Designer |
| 2011 |  Old World Blues | Area Designer |
| 2011 |  Lonesome Road | Area Designer |
Other Work[edit]
| Year | Title | Credited |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Alpha Protocol | Designer |
| 2014 | South Park: The Stick of Truth | Additional Design |
| 2019 | The Outer Worlds | Additional Area Design |
Behind the Scenes[edit]
- His birthday coincided with the end of Fallout: New Vegas’ development. On October 1, 2010, the official Bethesda Blog created a post featuring Robert Lee and a Fallout: New Vegas themed birthday cake that his wife made.[Ext 14]
References[edit]
- ↑ Chris Avellone: X-13 Emails and Character Writing Credits, 2011 August 9
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Rob Lee - Some Camp McCarran, a lot of Freeside, Camp Guardian, some Boomers"
(Fallout: New Vegas Developer Statements - Miscellaneous; Joshua Sawyer: Main Game Credits, 2012 June 23) - ↑ "Who's idea was that cool unmarked quest at Camp Guardian with the Lakelurks?"
Joshua Sawyer: I think the basic idea was mine but Rob Lee designed and implemented the whole thing.
(Joshua Sawyer Formspring answers) - ↑ "Was the non-Van Graff black combat armor that you find at the destroyed caravan intentional? Because I was relieved you can get cool-looking black combat armor without being affiliated with those Van Graff jerks..."
Joshua Sawyer: No idea. I think Rob Lee or Jesse Farrell set those encounters up.
(Joshua Sawyer Formspring answers)
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Robert Lee's Linkedin
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Fallout New Vegas Developer Interview: Robert Lee Part 1
- ↑ Robert Lee's Portfolio; X-13 Research Facility (Archived)
- ↑ Robert Lee's Portfolio; Stealth Suit Mk II (Archived)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Robert Lee's Portfolio; Dog/God and Christine (Archived)
- ↑ Robert Lee's Portfolio; Last Luxuries Suites (Archived)
- ↑ Robert Lee's Portfolio; Wang Dang Atomic Tango (Archived) - (Archive 2)
- ↑ Robert Lee's Portfolio; Mick & Ralph's (Archived)
- ↑ Robert Lee's Portfolio; Nellis AFB (Archived)
- ↑ Fallout New Vegas Developer Interview: Robert Lee Part 2
- ↑ Robert Lee's Portfolio; Camp Guardian - (Archive 2)
- ↑ Robert Lee's Portfolio; Cottonwood Cove (Archived)
- ↑ Robert Lee's Portfolio; Camp McCarran (Archived) - (Archive 2)
- ↑ Bethesda Blog: New Vegas News: It’s done! Plus PC reqs, and cake (October 1, 2010)