‘My Creation’ Interviews: Fallout 4’s Atomic Radio Mod

Once again, we return to shine the spotlight on some of the amazing Mod creators in the Bethesda Game Studios’ community.

This time around, we’re speaking with California native Kris Takahashi. Kris describes his day job – a freelance copywriter – as “the stuff they do on Mad Men, only with less smoking” and is a sports junkie. With the dream of being a pro athlete long gone, he has built up a fan base for his “interesting” mod for Skyrim, as well as projects for Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 3.

With Fallout 4’s Creation Kit release, Kris is already busy with two projects: Atomic Radio and Tales from the Commonwealth.

What inspired you to create the Atomic Radio?

When making mods, you're always looking for what best complements the base game, and talk radio just seemed like something that was relatively unexplored. I'd seen mods that just download stuff from the 50s and 60s, but I hadn't seen one that hand-crafted stuff specifically with the Fallout universe in mind.

How long after you started playing Fallout 4 did you come up with the idea?

The idea came before I started playing Fallout 4. I actually made the same mod, with a much smaller offering, for Fallout 3. To be honest, I was kind of worried when I found WRVR Broadcast Station that the base game already had a talk radio station, rendering Atomic Radio redundant, but it turns out the station was used for a quest and not the actual radio.

Any ambitions of being a DJ?

Ah, spoken like someone who has never heard me speak. The fact is I sound like a 12-year-old weasel with a sore throat, and I hate using my speaking voice anyway. Of course, Atomic Radio doesn't have a DJ, mostly because the conceit wouldn't allow it. A DJ wouldn't have a reason to play commercials from the Old World, so it's kind of just a mysterious, neverending broadcast like the Voyager records we sent to the aliens.

Are you currently working on any updates to the mod?

I'm going to add more content once I get done with my other project, but it won't get uploaded until I have at least an hour's worth of stuff. In fact, I'm probably never going to stop adding new bits. I'll rest when I'm dead.

What about new projects for Fallout 4?

On June 28, I released a new mod called "Tales from the Commonwealth," which adds three companions and about 15 quests. In total it's got about 7,000 lines and is 300 Megabytes in size. It's done in the same spirit as my Fallout 3 bundle, with some of the same characters returning.

What other mods have you been experimenting with from other users?

I am all about the clothing mods. I'm basically a grown man playing with dolls, dressing up my settlers like so many Kens and Barbies. It's an odd contrast because I personally haven't bought a new piece of clothing since April 2009 - and that was only because a random stranger decided to share his lunch with my foot.

So I have Apocalypse Accessories by Elianora, Shirts by Jordan1q2, Agent Outfits by Elise, and Armorsmith Extended by Gambit77 to craft it all. Again, a weird contrast because in real life I wear shirts by Hanes. Still don't wear pants.

There's a ton more, but it's hard to list them all. I should mention Chesko's Conquest because he is a Twitter bro and True Storms and Campfire by FadingSignal for throwing some dap my way in the last interview. A man does not forget his friends. Also, they're two great mods.

Any modders you’d like to give a shout out to for their assistance/help over the years?

It's probably too long to list. It's not necessarily modders, but I’d definitely like to thank everyone who's helped out, whether it's with managing the mod pages, contributing to the wiki or answering bug reports. One of the things they don't tell you about creating a successful mod is that you will have to answer customer service questions for the rest of your life. When people help with that, it makes it feel like less of a burden and more of a community project. So if you've done any of the above, thank you a million billion times, I would give you medals but the Olympic committee has yet to recognize modding as a sport.

I also think it's important to highlight the voice actors who donate their time and effort for little to no gratitude. It's their voices that breathe life and color into the stories being told. They are often overlooked and underappreciated, even by me, and I wish it weren't the case. So a hearty thanks to them.

Anything else you’d like to share?

If you'll allow me to get on my soapbox for a bit, I just want to remind folks that modding games is not a right. It's an incredible privilege, and one we're not entitled to have. What Bethesda has done for the past two decades is an amazing gift. No other developer bends over backwards to provide the tools and permissions to modify their creations, nor should they have to. Most artists – and game developers are certainly artists – are very protective of their work. And yet here is a company that not only goes out of its way to let us modify their art, but encourages us to do so.

Imagine if HBO let random people walk on to the set of Game of Thrones and cut Jon Snow's hair and replace Rickon with a cabbage. It'd be unthinkable. But that's what Bethesda lets us do, and there isn't a day goes by we shouldn't thank them for it.

Check out our previous modding interview, and keep your eyes on Bethesda.net for new Mod interviews.