Gaming News Indiana Jones, Starfield, Elder Scrolls 6… Todd Howard talks about future Bethesda/Xbox games
Invited to spend some time with Lex Fridman for the Lex Fridman Podcast, Todd Howard, known as one of the creators of popular series like Fallout or The Elder Scrolls, indulged in some indiscretions about the future Bethesda/Xbox games. If you’re dying to learn more about the highly enigmatic Indiana Jones and the ambitious Starfield, this article should bring you your daily dose of good news.
summary
- Starfield: From Elon Musk to “magnificent devastation”
- The Elder Scrolls 6: A Commitment to Doing Well
- Indiana Jones: The Adventures of Young Todd Howard
Starfield: From Elon Musk to “magnificent devastation”
Todd Howard first recalls Bethesda’s deep desire to create a game where it is possible to visit outer space. The creator himself has always been fascinated by this idea, he who began to develop an RPG that will take place in our galaxy called “Traveller‘ on the Apple II, a project that will never be completed. Todd Howard, a big fan of SunDog but also of Star Control II, apps that take place beyond our atmospheric plane, said in 2016 that the planets are designed to design Starfield. So far, the studio has been content to create RPGs set on a single planet. With Starfield, the promise is to allow the player to visit hundreds of them. Bethesda has therefore been working on a system to organize these universes in a “within reason‘ without the impression of standing in front of a fractal. The group worked on a tool using handcrafted landscape tiles to compose diverse and varied realistic environments. Then there was a game design question: do players really want to visit potentially empty planets like the ones in the galaxy? Todd Howard decided to let the player scavenge for resources on deserted stars themselves and found it nice to feel like the first human setting up an outpost on an uncharted planet. After all, as the famous designer recalls, Buzz Aldrin evoked a “great desolation” when he first walked the moon.
The other game design issue that came up during development is finding the right balance between simulation and fun.. On this point, Todd Howard wanted to clarify: Starfield is not a hardcore simulation of space survival, but there are systems that the player must learn that can present a minimum of constraints, such as the good construction of ships, or even the others Environmental parameters to tame such as gas, temperature or even the toxicity of the worlds to be explored. Although robots exist, the latter are described as utilitarian and designed to facilitate human labor. Finally, Todd Howard revealed that he told Elon Musk about Starfield after visiting SpaceX where he saw a lot of amazing and inspiring things. He reiterates his admiration for all these people who push back the rules of physics and always says he’s impressed when he sees fuselages and shuttles at the Air and Space Museum.
Unlike Starfield, which is a new license, The Elder Scrolls series has existed since 1994. It has now been 11 years since the last episode of the saga featuring Skyrim was released. Bethesda knows that expectations for The Elder Scrolls VI are high, very high. Despite the game’s formalization at E3 2018, few details have been leaked. The longevity of Skyrim, a game that keeps releasing versions”finally“Ten years after its initial release, Todd forces Howard and his teams to think of a title that will last a decade or even two. Of course, there will always be community mods to turn Elder Scrolls 6 into a giant proving ground. Bethesda has also recruited modders to become professionals who will help build the future of the saga.
At the moment we know that music has already been recorded, but The development stage of the future Elder Scrolls does not seem to have progressed very far. Todd Howard recalled the importance of the user interface and in particular the skill system, as well as the role of artificial intelligence: the latter must make the player feel like they’re behaving intelligently when they’re not there just to be killed. According to the few clues Microsoft has left (from documents for regulators in Activision’s acquisition project), The Elder Scrolls 6 could be exclusive to Xbox. During the podcast, Todd Howard also recalled the long history between the Elder Scrolls and the Xbox.
Indiana Jones: The Adventures of Young Todd Howard
The interesting thing about developing an Indiana Jones game, according to Todd Howard, is that it’s all based on the character and not the universe, which isn’t common in a Bethesda game.. The Elder Scrolls father says Raiders of the Lost Ark is his all-time favorite film and has always dreamed of working on the series. In 2009, he met the people at LucasArts Rights with the idea of offering an Indiana Jones game. Looking back, Todd Howard has no regrets as he admits he didn’t have the right team to start the project he envisioned back then.
A decade later, he reunites with the people at Lucas, now being acquired by Disney. The Group is now used to working with external partners. Fallout’s father discusses this old project again and the Lucas people show interest. This time the deal doesn’t fail. The baby is entrusted to Machine Games, which “the ideal partner‘ said Howard. “They just do a great job with this game. If you love Indiana Jones, this is a declaration of love for the character‘ judge the developers. In terms of the style of the game, the description is intriguing. “It’s a unique blend, it’s not just one thing, on purpose. The people at Machine Games wanted to do something unique“. We’ll have to wait a little longer before we know what’s so extraordinary about this creation.
