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Influential Video Game Designers
Todd Howard: Worldbuilding in Tamriel and Beyond
The newest addition to our Influential Video Game Designers series explores the work of Todd Howard, executive producer at Bethesda Studios, known for how he consistently pushes the boundaries of open-world gaming and player agency.
Howard's games create worlds in which players can design their own characters and tell their own stories. While many games tell the story of the game's main character, Todd Howard's worldbuilding approach to game design focuses more on telling the story of the game's world, whether it be the high fantasy environments of the Elder Scrolls series or the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the Fallout series. This focus on sculpting the world allows for remarkable amounts of player freedom and choice in an expansive game environment by creating a landscape rich with open opportunity.
Drawing on both academic discussions of narrative, world design, and game design, as well as on officially released interviews, speeches, and presentations given by Howard and other designers at Bethesda Games, Wendi Sierra highlights three core areas set Howard's design perspective apart from other micronarratives, iterative design, and the sharing of design tools. Taken as a whole, these three elements demonstrate how Howard has used a worldbuilding perspective to shape his games. In doing so, he has impacted not only Bethesda Studios, but also the landscape of game design itself.
Howard's games create worlds in which players can design their own characters and tell their own stories. While many games tell the story of the game's main character, Todd Howard's worldbuilding approach to game design focuses more on telling the story of the game's world, whether it be the high fantasy environments of the Elder Scrolls series or the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the Fallout series. This focus on sculpting the world allows for remarkable amounts of player freedom and choice in an expansive game environment by creating a landscape rich with open opportunity.
Drawing on both academic discussions of narrative, world design, and game design, as well as on officially released interviews, speeches, and presentations given by Howard and other designers at Bethesda Games, Wendi Sierra highlights three core areas set Howard's design perspective apart from other micronarratives, iterative design, and the sharing of design tools. Taken as a whole, these three elements demonstrate how Howard has used a worldbuilding perspective to shape his games. In doing so, he has impacted not only Bethesda Studios, but also the landscape of game design itself.
- GenresNonfiction
176 pages, Paperback
First published December 24, 2020
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 17, 2021
Not a lot of insight really, just a lot of 'critical' fluff. The author doesn't really come to any meaningful or interesting conclusions about any of the topics covered beyond Todd Howard is good at/known for worldbuilding. Then the book just ends with a transcripted podcast from like 10 years ago with no additional commentary that the author didn't have anything to do with. It's very odd.
The introduction is the best section as it goes into Howard's history in the industry and spends some time on Redguard, as a defining moment in his career, and no one talks about or remembers Redguard, so that is nice.
The introduction is the best section as it goes into Howard's history in the industry and spends some time on Redguard, as a defining moment in his career, and no one talks about or remembers Redguard, so that is nice.
Displaying 1 of 1 review