Todd Howard
| Todd Howard | |
|---|---|
| Born | Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Video game designer/producer |
| Employer | Bethesda Game Studios |
| Known for | The Elder Scrolls, Fallout 3 |
Todd Howard is an American video game designer, art director, and producer. He is currently game director and executive producer for Bethesda Game Studios, where he has led the creation of Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls video game series. GamePro magazine named him to the Top 20 Most Influential People in Gaming over the last 20 years.[1] He has also been named one of IGN’s Top Game Creators of All Time.[2]
Contents |
Early life
Howard was born in Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania and developed an interest in computers, particularly video games, at a very young age.[3] He considers Wizardry and Ultima 3 to be inspirations for his future games.[3] He is a 1989 graduate of Emmaus High School in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. In 1993, he graduated from The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he majored in finance despite his desire to create video games, saying "it seemed like the easiest path to get through college".[3] After playing Wayne Gretzky Hockey 3 he requested a job from a Bethesda office he encountered each day on his commute from school to home, but was denied.[3]
Bethesda Softworks
Beginning and other games
Howard joined Bethesda Softworks in 1994. His first game development credit for Bethesda Softworks was the producer and designer of The Terminator: Future Shock.
His other development credits were for SkyNET, Sea Dogs and Pirates of the Caribbean.
The Elder Scrolls
Howard's first development credit for The Elder Scrolls came in the form of The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall, released in 1996. He was also the project leader and designer of The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard released in 1998.
Howard would then become the project leader and designer of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and for the downloadable content that followed.
Between Morrowind and Oblivion he helped develop The Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey which was released on N-Gage
He led the creation of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and of all of its downloadable content.
After taking a break from The Elder Scrolls and developing Fallout 3, he returned to the series to develop the fifth installment, Skyrim. It was released in 2011. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim received universal acclaim from critics.
Fallout
He was Game Director and Executive Producer of Fallout 3. He also helped in the production of Fallout: New Vegas, however, most of the work was done by another video game developer - Obsidian Entertainment.
Speaker
He is a frequent speaker at industry events, and his games have been featured in everything from Newsweek, CNN, USA Today, and The Today Show, to magazine covers worldwide. Howard has stated that Bethesda's philosophy for the Elder Scrolls games is to allow people to "live another life, in another world."[4]
Notable appearances
Howard spoke before developers at the 2009 D.I.C.E. Summit, sharing his three rules of game development:
- Great games are played not made. – "You can have the greatest design document ever made, and you're going to change 90 percent of it as soon as you play the game."
- Keep it simple. – Doing something really well takes time, more time than you think it will. Simple systems acting together create complexity that players can appreciate.
- Define the experience - "Don't define your game by a list of bullet points... define it by the experience you want people to have."[5]
He also said that developers should ignore demographics and installed base, and follow their passions, saying “if install base really mattered, we'd all make board games, because there are a lot of tables.”[6]
External links
- Todd Howard at MobyGames
- "Fallout 3 Q&A," with Todd Howard, Gamespot, August 2, 2007.
- "Fallout Official Website"
- "The Elder Scrolls Official Website"
- "Falling Into Fallout 3: Director Todd Howard Talks Scope And Evolution" Gamasutra, October 13, 2008.
References
- ^ http://bethblog.com/index.php/2009/05/07/around-the-web-interviews-edition-2/
- ^ http://games.ign.com/top-100-game-creators/index.html
- ^ a b c d Road To Skyrim: The Todd Howard Interview.
- ^ http://www.elderscrolls.com/codex/team_rpgnextgen.htm
- ^ "DICE 2009: The Following Colorful Wisdom Is From Todd Howard". MTV. http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/02/20/dice-2009-the-following-wisdom-is-from-todd-howard.
- ^ Chris Remo. "DICE 09: Bethesda's Howard On Supreme Playability". Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=22418.
