Featured Creator: skinnytecboy

From Douglas Adams to George Lucas, funny robot companions have long been a staple of space sci-fi.

So we’re so happy one of the first Verified Creations for Starfield was such a companion, made by a veteran Companion Creator, skinnytecboy. With this Creation, you can meet the confused but lovable D.E.R.-3C (or Derek to his friends) outside the Lodge. He will greet you as “Dan” (regardless of your player name) and the surprising and hilarious commentary continues from there.

In our interview, skinnytecboy discusses his inspirations, challenges, sense of humor and future plans for Creations. We previously interviewed him about his Skyrim and Fallout 4 companions, so we were excited to get updated on his creative process now that he’s creating companions to accompany you across the Settled Systems and beyond.

Tell us about DER-3C. What inspired this Creation and what do you hope he brings to players' games?

Derek is a somewhat confused and almost childlike Robot companion who is utterly convinced that the player is called Dan. Why? Well, that tale awaits us.

Usually when I start a creation, it will stem from an initial idea that leads to research into the character type; what’s their humour, what do they like and dislike, what kind of things would they say about any given circumstances? In Derek’s case however, it began a little differently. The first initial gem of an idea came from an Alan Partridge scene called Dan, in which poor Alan attempts (and fails) to get the attention of Dan who is walking off far in the distance. I’m sure we’ve all experienced that kind of embarrassment. You are in a public place and you see someone you know and shout their name but they don’t hear you. Do you carry on shouting? Do you shout louder?

With this initial idea in place, I then thought about the idea that Derek is utterly convinced that the player is Dan. The reasons for this will unfold in the future. All we need to know right now, is that to Derek, the player is Dan!

Additionally, from the outset of writing, I wanted Derek to be childlike in nature, ever optimistic and possibly naive. Rather like Benjamin Doon, I’ve designed Derek to progressively grow as he travels alongside the player. This as a concept is really interesting to me and I like the challenge it imposes upon me as a creative. For example; what does Derek think about Neon the first time he visits it? Or what does he think about the other companions? Does he grow from his initial questions and opinions?

Essentially, with all of the above in mind, I ultimately hope that Derek adds some humour to the player experience and hopefully some pathos too. I hope that Derek provides a welcome comic relief while you traverse the unknown in Starfield.

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What is it about creating companions that you like best?

Companions provide insights to the world around us or make us feel that there are consequences to our actions. Over the years, companions and their capabilities in BGS games have evolved so much. In Starfield, while it can be annoying to accidentally shoot the wrong spaceship and upset Sarah or listen to her continual jibes when we become over encumbered, we have to stop for a moment and think “wow! Sarah knows what we did!” It’s amazing that we now have the potential to make companions really immersive with the new Creation Kit and game engine.

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You've released companions for Skyrim, Fallout 4, and now Starfield. How does each setting impact your personal flavor of humor?
All these games have their individual lore, which as a writer I try to encompass. But in the end, my sense of humour remains the same, no matter which game I am creating for. Essentially, my followers tend to question the world around them, and each world is as interesting as each other to write for.

From a technical perspective however, the ability of what you can do is limited by each of the aforementioned games. For example. In Skyrim, I know that game like the back of my hand, but trying to make Ben or Mharphin run scenes took a bit of a learning curve. In Fallout 4 however, the above became a feature, meaning that you could launch a custom dialogue scene from any comment. For the little time I played with Fallout Creation Kit, this was the first new feature that I thought was wonderful. Thankfully, this feature exists in Starfield too.

With so many new systems in Starfield, what are the new challenges and opportunities for Creators looking to make their own companion Creation?

in Starfield, there is so much yet to explore. The universe that Starfield gives us is an amazing playground for creativity—anything is possible, you just need an idea.

Where companions are concerned, alongside the scene features from the Fallout Creation Kit, there is another great dialogue feature called Events. The latter is very exciting and the possibilities it provides to a writer are endless. Imagine this, rather than companions repetitively commenting on a player action, the repeat of those actions begins to unlock a growing stream of opinions and thoughts from the companions. For example, if the player keeps doing the same action that warrants a response, say falling from height, wouldn’t the companion begin to wonder if the player was falling on purpose? Wouldn’t they comment on that? This would be truly immersive wouldn’t it.

With events and other functions included in the Creation Kit, there’s a real opportunity to make story through familiarity (getting to know the player through their actions).

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Do you have any ideas for future Creations you'd like to make that you can tell us about?

I do have a particular idea cooking right now, but I am hoping to collaborate with it, so I won’t spill the beans here.

However, In the back of my mind I do wonder how Benjamin Doon would fare in the universe of Starfield. Lore-wise this is possible, but I would not pursue this idea unless I can recreate his likeness in Starfield. I have only just begun to peek under the hood, and this is not something I have tried yet. But who knows.

In my 12 years of modding, I have learned to never say never.