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(clicking)
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(dramatic music)
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- So I played Daggerfall first and then got hooked
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and started playing all the other Bethesda games.
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But Arena at the time, I was like, oh, I don't know,
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that cover's so goofy, I don't think I could get into that.
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- You know, after we finished Redguard, the whole team,
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the whole entire company went downstairs into the basement
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and we would all package the games up to be shipped out
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and that was sort of how things worked back then.
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(whooshing)
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(game character grunting)
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- A girl, we've got a daughter, Catherine!
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(radroaches chittering)
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- Ow, that hurts!
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- We had to create gun combat from the ground up,
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something this company hadn't done
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since the Terminator games and so that was a big thing.
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And we knew with gun combat came combat spaces
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and that meant designers who knew how to make levels.
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- But I didn't wanna tell him,
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"Yeah, I'm actually taking pictures of this
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"so I can blow it up in a video game,"
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which is exactly what I was about to do.
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- We have a lot of takes of Ron Perlman giving us,
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"War never changes," in many, many ways.
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- [Game Narrator] War, war never changes.
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(gun firing)
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(beeping)
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(raider yelping)
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(guns firing)
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- Hello friends and welcome to Rockville, Maryland,
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home of Bethesda Game Studios,
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creators of the Elder Scrolls series
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and proud adoptive parents of the Fallout franchise.
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If you've watched our documentaries in the past
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you know we like to travel to developers
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and interview them about the games they've made,
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but until now we've never had an opportunity
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to talk to a team while the sausage is still being made.
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That's why we're here, to talk to the people
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behind Fallout 76, to dive into the game's design
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and find out about the challenges and pitfalls
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they encountered during the games development.
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To do this we spent over a week at the studio
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interviewing everyone we could, from design to art,
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to animation, QA, marketing and more.
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All to try and paint a picture
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of how Bethesda Game Studios make their games.
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So naturally, that also involves a lot of looking back.
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Many of the folks working on games here at BGS
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have credits on their older games, too.
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Games like Skyrim, Fallout 3,
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Oblivion, Morrowind and even Arena.
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Games that have each, in their own way,
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contributed to the story of Bethesda Game Studios
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and their plans for the future.
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But before we dive into the studio's exciting future,
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we've decided to spend some time looking back.
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We've got quite a lot of ground to cover here, folks,
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but as it turns out, a lot of Bethesda's history happened in
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this rather unsuspecting-looking office building behind me.
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(mystical music)
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- I had gotten Wayne Gretzky Hockey 3 for Christmas
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from my then girlfriend, who's now my wife.
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And I looked at the address on the box
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and it said Bethesda Softworks and I was like,
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"Oh these guys, they're doing that Terminator game as well,"
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so I said I'll just drive by the office.
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And I went to William and Mary in Virginia,
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this office was on my way, so we're right off of 270
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and this is the same building.
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So I remember, it was Martin Luther King Day,
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must've been '93, and I drove and just,
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I knocked on the door, I came in,
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but most people weren't here, it was a holiday
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and someone kinda met like, "Who are you? What do you want?"
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And I was like, "I love your games,
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"I wanna work here one day."
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And when there was an opening they finally said,
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"Hey, we have something," and I jumped,
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this is where I wanted to be.
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- [Interviewer] How big was the company then?
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- Oh!
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20-some people?
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The development staff was maybe 12.
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And so this is my 25th year, like, in my 25th year.
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Same building, right downstairs where you came in,
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that's where I came in.
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- [Danny] The original Bethesda Softworks
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was founded in 1986 by entrepreneur
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and software developer Christopher Weaver.
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Named after the town of Bethesda where it was founded,
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the studio developed and self-published a variety of games.
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Everything from football game Gridiron
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to some early hockey games
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and even some Terminator spin-offs.
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One of Todd's first responsibilities once he joined the team
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was to port a CD-ROM version of a role-playing game
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that had been made internally.
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Ted Peterson, Julian LeFay, and Vijay Lakshman
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were spearheading the project, a game that would take
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the first-person dungeon crawling of 1992's Wizardry 7
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and evolve it using more modern 3D graphics techniques.
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That game had been originally conceptualized
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as an arena combat game but quickly grew
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into something much, much larger.
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(tense classical music)
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- I think I found out about it
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because I worked at a software store at the time
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with a friend of mine in Houston,
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so we were just employees on the floor.
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I'm trying to think why we found out about it
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in the first place because I didn't necessarily
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follow RPGs or read Dragon Magazine or whatever.
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- [Interviewer] (chuckling) Right.
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- Maybe it was just the box art,
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I'm sure that was part of it.
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There's a lot of literature on the back about how it's,
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I don't know if the term open world was used at the time,
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but how it's this limitless thing
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and you can do this and you can do that
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and that sounded great to me,
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I always wanna just make my own story.
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And in playing it and thinking about it now,
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I don't think I ever did anything with the main quest,
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I left that to some other hero.
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No, I just wanna buy a house and chill,
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that's all I wanna do.
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Houses were really expensive in that game,
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I remember that too.
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- I saw Arena in the computer game store
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and looked at the cover and I was like,
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"There is no chance I'm buying that game."
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I don't know if we should leave that in this.
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So I played Daggerfall first and then got hooked
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and started playing all the other Bethesda games,
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but Arena at the time I was like,
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"Oh, I don't know, that cover's so goofy,
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"I don't think I could get into that."
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- [Interviewer] It's a strong cover, it's saying something!
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- It was, it was.
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- [Interviewer] Maybe it didn't speak to you.
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- It didn't.
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(both laughing)
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- It has massive ambition yet is very,
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very elegant, in my opinion.
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It knows what it is.
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It will feel really simplistic to an Elder Scrolls fan now,
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but in its day, it had massive scope.
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It gave you the feeling, despite it being old,
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of, "This world, I can do whatever I want,
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"I can go wherever I want,"
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and that the things you found, you felt were unique like,
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"I found this, only I did, and this was there for me,"
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and, like, it has the time warp.
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- [Danny] By the time Todd had finished
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his work on the CD-ROM port of Arena,
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the Elder Scrolls team was already working on Daggerfall,
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so Todd was made producer of a Terminator game.
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You have to understand that back in the mid 90s
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there were almost as many Terminator games
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as there were people living on earth.
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In fact, Bethesda had made a bunch of them themselves!
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But this Terminator game was going to be different.
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Terminator: Future Shock was Bethesda's first full 3D game.
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It had a height map, it had instanced 3D objects,
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and the game took place across large, sprawling levels
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set in post-apocalyptic cities.
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Good design practice, as it turns out.
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About a half dozen people were working with Todd
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on Future Shock and as that game was released
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and Daggerfall was going through its own tough development,
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many of that team went to help on the Elder Scrolls game.
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(adventurous music)
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- Because of the state of the project,
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I did half the levels as well,
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I did the sound effects for Daggerfall,
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so anything you hear in Daggerfall, the little guys,
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like, yelping, or all the creatures, a lot of them are me.
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- [Interviewer] Just in a microphone?
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- Yes.
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(interviewer chuckling) (Todd yelping)
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- At the time it just felt bigger and deeper
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than a lot of other RPGs out there and, you know,
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oddly enough it wasn't the quests so much in Daggerfall,
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the story of Daggerfall is kind of thin,
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it was more about your character
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and the world you're exploring.
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All these different dungeons you could go in,
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how you leveled up, through actions
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not just experience points, it was just
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a really different kinda game, it was really cool.
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- The memory I really have more than anything,
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because you start off in a dungeon
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which I thought was always a strength of the series,
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to kind of keep you walled in,
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don't show you everything at once.
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You really get used to that,
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that darkness and the corridors,
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you get taught about the fighting system and so forth.
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I didn't realize it at the time but that's great design.
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Only give you a few tools, let's give you a hammer
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and once you've mastered hammering in the nail,
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like in Karate Kid, then, okay,
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now we'll show you the wrench and whatever else.
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So when you finally do make it out of that first dungeon,
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which is not easy to do without seeing a map of it,
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you know, you get this whole big reveal
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and the music changes for the first time,
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and suddenly it's all these possibilities.
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- If Arena is the world,
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Daggerfall pushes on the character system.
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So if you look at the two character systems,
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Daggerfall introduces the whole skill system
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and the way you level up and the way factions feel about you
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and you have language and you have pluses and minuses.
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It's a very, very heavy character system, but awesome.
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A lot of the world stuff stays the same.
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And it has a very sophisticated quest system,
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despite how it might express itself
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if you go back and play it, but it mostly becomes a game
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about pushing the character system much, much further.
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- [Interviewer] Before we start, for the sake of
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our name bars, can you tell us your name and your job title?
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- Yes, my name is Ashley Chang,
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I'm the studio director at Bethesda Game Studios.
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- [Interviewer] All right, you've been
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here a little while, huh?
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- I have, I've been here for, oh man, 18 years.
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- [Interviewer] Okay!
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- I was one of two people
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in the marketing department at Bethesda Softworks,
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this is the old-school, mom and pop Bethesda Softworks.
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And the first thing I ever did when I joined the company
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was I was mailing out review copies of Battlespire.
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- [Interviewer] (chuckling) Okay.
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- Mailing, mailing them out, by myself,
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and then calling up all the press going,
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"Please play this game, please review this game."
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Todd and I worked on, I was the PR guy for Redguard,
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a very, very little-known game.
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- [Interviewer] The long-lost forgotten Elder Scrolls game.
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- It is!
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It's an action-adventure game,
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you should definitely try to find it if you can.
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And back then the company was so small,
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after we finished Redguard the whole team,
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the whole entire company, went downstairs into the basement
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and we would all package the games up to be shipped out,
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and that was sort of how things worked back then.
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00:12:40,129 --> 00:12:43,439
- It was a mix of, like, my love of Prince of Persia
253
00:12:43,440 --> 00:12:44,600
and Tomb Raider had come out,
254
00:12:44,600 --> 00:12:47,009
like real action-adventure mash-ups.
255
00:12:47,009 --> 00:12:50,409
More had kind of been going, but really not anywhere
256
00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:54,120
in a Daggerfall mix and then there was Battlespire,
257
00:12:54,120 --> 00:12:56,409
and a lot of the Terminator team that I had worked with,
258
00:12:56,409 --> 00:12:58,779
we were gonna do Redguard, we wanted to do something.
259
00:12:58,779 --> 00:13:01,699
I could see where we got with the engine at the time,
260
00:13:01,700 --> 00:13:06,700
like 3D was still coming online, that we could do something,
261
00:13:07,379 --> 00:13:09,689
we could make a much more rich world.
262
00:13:09,690 --> 00:13:13,530
Like, despite Daggerfall's ambition and Arena's ambition,
263
00:13:13,529 --> 00:13:16,500
the detail of the world was lacking for me personally.
264
00:13:16,500 --> 00:13:18,409
Like, I liked the game flow,
265
00:13:18,409 --> 00:13:20,279
like this is what we should be doing,
266
00:13:20,279 --> 00:13:22,009
I like the character system, but, like,
267
00:13:22,009 --> 00:13:24,750
I wanted Ultima-level detail in the world,
268
00:13:24,750 --> 00:13:26,620
I wanna break the bread and I wanna move the bottles
269
00:13:26,620 --> 00:13:27,600
and I wanna do all these things.
270
00:13:27,600 --> 00:13:29,940
And Redguard was a little bit of an experiment in, like,
271
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okay, how detailed of a world can we build?
272
00:13:32,639 --> 00:13:35,039
So the way we built the world in Redguard
273
00:13:35,039 --> 00:13:36,969
is how we built the world in Morrowind,
274
00:13:36,970 --> 00:13:39,139
just on a much, much larger scale.
275
00:13:39,139 --> 00:13:41,120
The other thing Redguard does at the time,
276
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also coming off of Daggerfall,
277
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we felt the world was generic,
278
00:13:45,690 --> 00:13:48,540
it was very kind of bland-Tolkien.
279
00:13:48,539 --> 00:13:50,500
It had backstory and stuff once you dug into it,
280
00:13:50,500 --> 00:13:52,537
but it didn't have something you could look at and say,
281
00:13:52,537 --> 00:13:56,019
"Oh, that's a little bit more unique."
282
00:13:56,019 --> 00:13:58,419
But that comes in Redguard
283
00:13:58,419 --> 00:14:01,082
and then Morrowind builds on that.
284
00:14:02,279 --> 00:14:05,659
Redguard was too safe, it missed a technology window,
285
00:14:05,659 --> 00:14:07,289
it really should've been a console game,
286
00:14:07,289 --> 00:14:08,649
it should've been on the PS2.
287
00:14:08,649 --> 00:14:11,299
Redguard did not do very well,
288
00:14:11,299 --> 00:14:13,789
it did very, very poorly for a lot of reasons.
289
00:14:13,789 --> 00:14:15,079
We made some bad decisions,
290
00:14:15,080 --> 00:14:17,840
we made some games that weren't out best stuff,
291
00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:21,170
and the company really got very, very small.
292
00:14:21,169 --> 00:14:22,149
- [Danny] Despite the success
293
00:14:22,149 --> 00:14:23,829
of the earlier Elder Scrolls games,
294
00:14:23,830 --> 00:14:26,530
these spinoffs, Battlespire and Redguard,
295
00:14:26,529 --> 00:14:28,970
had struggled at retail and put the company
296
00:14:28,970 --> 00:14:31,360
in a precarious financial position.
297
00:14:31,360 --> 00:14:33,129
In an effort to avoid bankruptcy,
298
00:14:33,129 --> 00:14:35,029
the organization restructured.
299
00:14:35,029 --> 00:14:37,949
A new company was formed, ZeniMax Media,
300
00:14:37,950 --> 00:14:40,320
which would act as administrative entity
301
00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:43,030
over the games development and publishing wing.
302
00:14:43,029 --> 00:14:46,149
A few year later, publishing and development were separated.
303
00:14:46,149 --> 00:14:48,870
Bethesda Softworks became the publishing arm,
304
00:14:48,870 --> 00:14:50,049
while the development staff
305
00:14:50,049 --> 00:14:53,039
had a new name, Bethesda Game Studios.
306
00:14:53,039 --> 00:14:55,539
All these entities would live under the same roof.
307
00:14:55,539 --> 00:14:58,750
In fact, they still do today, but only thanks
308
00:14:58,750 --> 00:15:01,893
to the incredible success of their next game.
309
00:15:02,846 --> 00:15:05,263
(epic music)
310
00:15:20,519 --> 00:15:22,549
- We needed to do Morrowind,
311
00:15:22,549 --> 00:15:25,469
do the game that we're here to do,
312
00:15:25,470 --> 00:15:27,420
and it's kind of like, this is our last shot,
313
00:15:27,419 --> 00:15:31,199
like if this one doesn't work, we're not here.
314
00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:34,810
I think the failures of the previous games
315
00:15:34,809 --> 00:15:36,512
made Morrowind what it was.
316
00:15:37,409 --> 00:15:39,006
Because that's where you say,
317
00:15:39,006 --> 00:15:41,986
"Well, we just gotta do what we think is right
318
00:15:41,986 --> 00:15:43,616
"and what our audience wants
319
00:15:43,616 --> 00:15:48,516
"and we already think we're not gonna be here,
320
00:15:48,517 --> 00:15:51,326
"so fuck it, let's just makes the game
321
00:15:51,326 --> 00:15:53,039
"that we think we should be making."
322
00:15:53,039 --> 00:15:55,579
- Well, there's a contingent of fans out there who believe,
323
00:15:55,580 --> 00:15:58,410
and I actually have met a few even today,
324
00:15:58,409 --> 00:16:00,419
saying that it's the best game that they've ever played,
325
00:16:00,419 --> 00:16:01,629
it's the best game we've ever made,
326
00:16:01,629 --> 00:16:03,100
and it's been downhill since then.
327
00:16:03,100 --> 00:16:03,933
- [Interviewer] (chuckling) Right.
328
00:16:03,933 --> 00:16:05,709
- Like, Morrowind's the greatest game,
329
00:16:05,710 --> 00:16:07,389
and a lot of it is because of the tone,
330
00:16:07,389 --> 00:16:10,620
the flavor, the art direction, the character,
331
00:16:10,620 --> 00:16:12,769
the story in that game, and it was very unique,
332
00:16:12,769 --> 00:16:13,779
very, very unique for its time.
333
00:16:13,779 --> 00:16:16,329
- I thin kthe main idea behind Morrowind
334
00:16:16,330 --> 00:16:18,750
was stranger in a strange land.
335
00:16:18,750 --> 00:16:23,750
You are in an alien world and so how do we show that?
336
00:16:23,779 --> 00:16:25,269
We had a lot of different influences
337
00:16:25,269 --> 00:16:27,429
and the concept artist who did the work there
338
00:16:27,429 --> 00:16:32,170
did just crazy, amazing, weird ideas and it was awesome.
339
00:16:32,171 --> 00:16:33,456
You know, and we borrowed from a lot of things,
340
00:16:33,456 --> 00:16:35,439
you know, it felt a little bit like,
341
00:16:35,440 --> 00:16:39,233
what would Star Wars be if it was, you know, a fantasy game?
342
00:16:40,153 --> 00:16:42,950
And then combining the culture of dark elves
343
00:16:42,950 --> 00:16:44,520
from all these different influences
344
00:16:44,519 --> 00:16:48,766
and how they lived in giant bug shell-shaped houses
345
00:16:48,767 --> 00:16:51,080
and wore bug shells as armor
346
00:16:51,080 --> 00:16:55,031
and lived in this, essentially desert,
347
00:16:55,030 --> 00:16:57,959
how did that shape who they were?
348
00:16:57,960 --> 00:16:59,889
How did it shape how they built things?
349
00:16:59,889 --> 00:17:02,759
How did it shape what you as a player got to explore?
350
00:17:02,759 --> 00:17:04,029
It became a mix of a lot of
351
00:17:04,029 --> 00:17:06,369
really different and interesting things.
352
00:17:06,369 --> 00:17:10,349
A lot of it's based off of, you know, giant fungus
353
00:17:10,349 --> 00:17:14,859
or just strange thorny roots that grow in the Ashlands.
354
00:17:14,859 --> 00:17:16,539
So it was doing something weird
355
00:17:16,539 --> 00:17:19,049
and then playing of the idea of scale,
356
00:17:19,049 --> 00:17:21,049
so it's a little bit like Alice in Wonderland.
357
00:17:21,049 --> 00:17:23,079
Imagine taking things like mushrooms
358
00:17:23,079 --> 00:17:25,179
and scaling them up as giant trees.
359
00:17:25,180 --> 00:17:26,233
How does it feel now to run around that world?
360
00:17:26,232 --> 00:17:27,940
Well, it's pretty cool,
361
00:17:27,940 --> 00:17:29,980
I haven't done that before, that's interesting.
362
00:17:29,980 --> 00:17:32,082
So I think things like that stand out a lot,
363
00:17:32,082 --> 00:17:33,890
they make the world feel really different
364
00:17:33,890 --> 00:17:35,660
and not like something you've seen before.
365
00:17:35,660 --> 00:17:37,157
- Well, we knew we had to do it, I think,
366
00:17:37,156 --> 00:17:38,139
let me put it that way.
367
00:17:38,140 --> 00:17:41,300
The company really wanted to make Morrowind then,
368
00:17:41,299 --> 00:17:44,690
but it was such a, the ambition and scope were so big,
369
00:17:44,690 --> 00:17:47,603
obviously from the final product, that it took a while.
370
00:17:48,650 --> 00:17:51,769
And the team was only about 40 back then.
371
00:17:51,769 --> 00:17:53,349
- Microsoft approached us and they were doing
372
00:17:53,349 --> 00:17:57,839
the original Xbox and it was very PC-like,
373
00:17:57,839 --> 00:17:59,909
this would be great, we'll have an RPG.
374
00:17:59,910 --> 00:18:01,240
The other thing is, you need to go back
375
00:18:01,240 --> 00:18:03,440
to RPGs of that time, which are like
376
00:18:03,440 --> 00:18:05,167
Final Fantasy and other things.
377
00:18:05,166 --> 00:18:07,720
And it is, well, we don't really do the RPG
378
00:18:07,720 --> 00:18:12,720
that a console crowd wants, can we translate the menus?
379
00:18:12,789 --> 00:18:14,190
Can we keep the experience the same?
380
00:18:14,190 --> 00:18:17,820
Can we do a console RPG that we would wanna play?
381
00:18:17,819 --> 00:18:19,490
- And a game like Morrowind, you know, back then,
382
00:18:19,490 --> 00:18:21,440
the Japanese RPGs were what everyone loved,
383
00:18:21,440 --> 00:18:24,100
the Final Fantasies, that was what an RPG was.
384
00:18:24,099 --> 00:18:27,980
Western RPGs weren't really, you know...
385
00:18:27,980 --> 00:18:28,815
- [Interviewer] Cool?
386
00:18:28,815 --> 00:18:29,930
(Ashley laughing)
387
00:18:29,930 --> 00:18:30,980
- You could say that,
388
00:18:30,980 --> 00:18:33,099
but nobody was making them like we would.
389
00:18:33,099 --> 00:18:34,730
This is gonna be a first-person experience,
390
00:18:34,730 --> 00:18:35,740
this is gonna be an open world,
391
00:18:35,740 --> 00:18:37,829
you're gonna be able to go wherever you want,
392
00:18:37,829 --> 00:18:39,609
like Morrowind's not gonna hold your hand at all,
393
00:18:39,609 --> 00:18:42,859
you can break you game in Morrowind and we're not gonna,
394
00:18:42,859 --> 00:18:45,629
like, Morrowind literally tells you what you've done,
395
00:18:45,630 --> 00:18:47,970
you're about to break your save, are you sure you wanna go?
396
00:18:47,970 --> 00:18:50,019
And we go ahead and let you say yes!
397
00:18:50,019 --> 00:18:53,250
We let you say yes we let you break your game intentionally,
398
00:18:53,250 --> 00:18:55,490
that's how open that game is.
399
00:18:55,490 --> 00:18:58,839
- It was fantasy, open world, and the idea
400
00:18:58,839 --> 00:19:01,529
that you could just sort of wander anywhere and do anything,
401
00:19:01,529 --> 00:19:04,769
very, very unique at the time, a streaming system.
402
00:19:04,769 --> 00:19:07,619
How the NPCs, how they tried to make it so you could ask
403
00:19:07,619 --> 00:19:09,669
any NPC any question, which was great in theory.
404
00:19:09,670 --> 00:19:13,410
In practice, ah, but the ability to just sort of
405
00:19:13,410 --> 00:19:15,346
wander around and do whatever you want in that game.
406
00:19:15,346 --> 00:19:19,210
And I remember the first time I came across
407
00:19:19,210 --> 00:19:22,410
one of the ruins in that game and the feeling of exploration
408
00:19:22,410 --> 00:19:24,759
was just, you, literally, your mind was transported
409
00:19:24,759 --> 00:19:27,220
into another world in a way that,
410
00:19:27,220 --> 00:19:28,630
I love video games and gaming,
411
00:19:28,630 --> 00:19:31,610
but it was so unique to me for its time,
412
00:19:31,609 --> 00:19:32,839
it was just amazing.
413
00:19:32,839 --> 00:19:36,329
- So Morrowind comes out, is a much bigger success
414
00:19:36,329 --> 00:19:38,689
than even we, it's beyond what we need,
415
00:19:38,690 --> 00:19:41,210
it's a much bigger success that we anticipate,
416
00:19:41,210 --> 00:19:45,079
it's huge, and it's really huge on Xbox.
417
00:19:45,079 --> 00:19:47,409
I believe it became the second best-selling
418
00:19:47,410 --> 00:19:50,950
title behind Halo, it crushed because people were hungry
419
00:19:50,950 --> 00:19:52,819
for, "Oh my gosh, have you seen this thing?"
420
00:19:52,819 --> 00:19:57,019
So that really made it as far as us as a company
421
00:19:57,019 --> 00:20:01,500
and as a studio, and that was going into a Oblivion where,
422
00:20:01,500 --> 00:20:04,660
hey, the console part is huge.
423
00:20:04,660 --> 00:20:05,500
- [Interviewer] Right.
424
00:20:05,500 --> 00:20:09,603
- The audience that wants this is much bigger than we think.
425
00:20:11,009 --> 00:20:12,450
- [Danny] Morrowind, in many ways,
426
00:20:12,450 --> 00:20:15,480
is responsible for everything Bethesda has done since.
427
00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:17,640
Not only was it adored by those who play it,
428
00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:19,590
but it established the creative process
429
00:20:19,589 --> 00:20:23,250
through which BGS would make their open world games.
430
00:20:23,250 --> 00:20:25,420
The team had good tech, good art,
431
00:20:25,420 --> 00:20:27,370
good engine, good storytelling.
432
00:20:27,369 --> 00:20:30,909
It was the foundation of a team that still exists today.
433
00:20:30,910 --> 00:20:32,420
A team that would gain confidence
434
00:20:32,420 --> 00:20:34,400
with each project they took on.
435
00:20:34,400 --> 00:20:36,600
And though this team was working under the same roof
436
00:20:36,599 --> 00:20:39,029
as their parent company, the financial success
437
00:20:39,029 --> 00:20:41,599
of Morrowind gave them just enough slack on the leash
438
00:20:41,599 --> 00:20:44,639
to go for something even bigger.
439
00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:47,870
- Morrowind on is like the second phase of Bethesda.
440
00:20:47,869 --> 00:20:50,079
You have like the pre-Morrowind,
441
00:20:50,079 --> 00:20:51,619
you got the Arena, Daggerfall success,
442
00:20:51,619 --> 00:20:53,709
some bad things happen and the company's kinda uh,
443
00:20:53,710 --> 00:20:56,769
and it really got, there were six or seven of us.
444
00:20:56,769 --> 00:21:00,309
And then ZeniMax Media is formed to sort of recapitalize
445
00:21:00,309 --> 00:21:01,287
and, "Hey, what do you guys wanna do?"
446
00:21:01,287 --> 00:21:03,299
That's the other part that really needs to be mentioned,
447
00:21:03,299 --> 00:21:07,027
like that business side, to keep us independent and say,
448
00:21:07,027 --> 00:21:08,366
"Hey, what do you need to make Morrowind,
449
00:21:08,366 --> 00:21:09,539
"what you really want?"
450
00:21:09,539 --> 00:21:11,670
Without that, you know, we probably
451
00:21:11,670 --> 00:21:12,630
couldn't have pulled it off.
452
00:21:12,630 --> 00:21:14,150
And then so Morrowind on was like
453
00:21:14,150 --> 00:21:16,380
the second phase of the company.
454
00:21:16,380 --> 00:21:17,510
- You know, we all worked together,
455
00:21:17,509 --> 00:21:19,379
we all moved on to Oblivion afterwards
456
00:21:19,380 --> 00:21:21,930
which was, again, a big investment for the company.
457
00:21:23,069 --> 00:21:24,436
The company, were like,
458
00:21:24,436 --> 00:21:26,496
"There's a new generation of consoles coming,
459
00:21:26,497 --> 00:21:28,227
"we don't know what the spec is,
460
00:21:28,227 --> 00:21:29,777
"we're gonna make this big game,
461
00:21:29,777 --> 00:21:32,057
"it's gonna be a big AAA investment for the company,
462
00:21:32,057 --> 00:21:34,507
"and you're gonna wait four years, is that okay?"
463
00:21:37,500 --> 00:21:38,615
(eerie music)
464
00:21:38,615 --> 00:21:42,503
(sword clashing) (game character grunting)
465
00:21:42,503 --> 00:21:44,929
(booming)
466
00:21:44,930 --> 00:21:46,529
Actually, that was a very interesting four years for us
467
00:21:46,529 --> 00:21:48,910
because we were traditionally a PC developer all along,
468
00:21:48,910 --> 00:21:50,430
even though Morrowind was on Xbox.
469
00:21:50,430 --> 00:21:52,080
It took us a while to really pivot
470
00:21:52,079 --> 00:21:54,279
and it's hard for developers to do this.
471
00:21:54,279 --> 00:21:55,750
If you're traditionally a PC developer
472
00:21:55,750 --> 00:21:57,410
and you start making console games,
473
00:21:57,410 --> 00:21:58,900
like, it takes a different mindset.
474
00:21:58,900 --> 00:22:00,430
Oblivion was sort of our learning curve,
475
00:22:00,430 --> 00:22:02,600
that was our project to learn
476
00:22:02,599 --> 00:22:04,099
how to make games for consoles,
477
00:22:04,099 --> 00:22:06,609
how to make games run fast and look good
478
00:22:07,807 --> 00:22:10,269
within the constraints that consoles have.
479
00:22:10,269 --> 00:22:13,490
- I remember one of the high-level goals,
480
00:22:13,490 --> 00:22:15,440
not officially but we had been talking,
481
00:22:16,519 --> 00:22:21,009
if Morrowind was the Lord of the Rings trilogy,
482
00:22:21,009 --> 00:22:24,089
the books, you know, there's a lot of text,
483
00:22:24,089 --> 00:22:27,720
then Oblivion will be the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.
484
00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:31,240
You know, much more visceral, a different aesthetic,
485
00:22:31,240 --> 00:22:35,460
more colorful, more accessible in a lot of ways.
486
00:22:35,460 --> 00:22:37,683
- We were working on it for the Xbox 360 at the time,
487
00:22:37,683 --> 00:22:40,160
which was not actually out so we were working on
488
00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:41,570
hardware that was not done yet.
489
00:22:41,569 --> 00:22:42,869
So anytime you're trying to make a game,
490
00:22:42,869 --> 00:22:43,871
you don't know what the game is yet
491
00:22:43,872 --> 00:22:45,180
and you don't know what the hardware is,
492
00:22:45,180 --> 00:22:47,630
that combination can prove stressful (chuckling).
493
00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:50,039
That and then just how do we take
494
00:22:50,039 --> 00:22:51,658
a huge, open-ended role-playing game
495
00:22:51,659 --> 00:22:53,420
that's traditionally been on PC?
496
00:22:53,420 --> 00:22:54,640
They put Morrowind on console,
497
00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:56,620
but sort of the next evolution of that,
498
00:22:56,619 --> 00:22:58,742
the controls and the feel, and what things do you leave in,
499
00:22:58,742 --> 00:23:00,849
what things do you take out to make it
500
00:23:00,849 --> 00:23:03,119
have the most appeal but still keep the depth.
501
00:23:03,119 --> 00:23:05,189
- It kinda swings more traditional fantasy,
502
00:23:05,190 --> 00:23:08,448
you know, so in Oblivion it's more castles
503
00:23:08,448 --> 00:23:11,410
and lots of shiny armor, a beautiful world.
504
00:23:11,410 --> 00:23:15,759
Like we wanted to do forests, we wanted lots of NPCs,
505
00:23:15,759 --> 00:23:18,410
lots of people, they all have full schedules,
506
00:23:18,410 --> 00:23:19,910
they'll eat, they'll sleep.
507
00:23:19,910 --> 00:23:22,200
- [Danny] Oblivion was a very intentional pivot
508
00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:23,960
to something more accessible
509
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:25,970
and it wasn't without a backlash.
510
00:23:25,970 --> 00:23:27,509
Some fans of Morrowind saw it
511
00:23:27,509 --> 00:23:30,200
as a dumbing down of their favorite RPG.
512
00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:32,430
Many elements of the game were simplified.
513
00:23:32,430 --> 00:23:34,330
There seemed to be less, less skills,
514
00:23:34,329 --> 00:23:37,109
less weapon types, less factions and diseases.
515
00:23:37,109 --> 00:23:38,929
Having voice acting for every line
516
00:23:38,930 --> 00:23:41,670
of dialog meant less speech options.
517
00:23:41,670 --> 00:23:44,509
Morrowind was an incredible RPG sandbox
518
00:23:44,509 --> 00:23:46,579
but with the dawn of HD graphics,
519
00:23:46,579 --> 00:23:49,339
Todd and the team had to pick their battles.
520
00:23:49,339 --> 00:23:52,189
They wanted a bigger world, they wanted far more detail.
521
00:23:52,190 --> 00:23:53,830
They wanted a more simplified interface
522
00:23:53,829 --> 00:23:55,549
that would work on consoles.
523
00:23:55,549 --> 00:23:57,990
They wanted to bring fantasy into the mainstream
524
00:23:57,990 --> 00:23:59,579
and that meant paring back.
525
00:23:59,579 --> 00:24:02,919
But the team was still small and this work required
526
00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:05,480
to make the Oblivion the game they wanted to make
527
00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:07,319
wasn't without its challenges.
528
00:24:07,319 --> 00:24:11,710
- So the forests for Oblivion were really interesting.
529
00:24:11,710 --> 00:24:15,170
We used SpeedTree, we were, I believe,
530
00:24:15,170 --> 00:24:17,730
the first video game company to use SpeedTree.
531
00:24:17,730 --> 00:24:18,563
- [Interviewer] No way!
532
00:24:18,563 --> 00:24:21,259
- Yeah, and it worked incredibly well for us, it was great.
533
00:24:22,170 --> 00:24:23,880
But what we ended up doing is
534
00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:25,390
we used all the SpeedTree assets
535
00:24:25,390 --> 00:24:27,230
and we'd bake 'em out and we'd put 'em in the game
536
00:24:27,230 --> 00:24:30,860
and we created a procedural generation system.
537
00:24:30,859 --> 00:24:33,969
So we generated each area of the game and made it
538
00:24:33,970 --> 00:24:36,549
and it turned out it wasn't so good.
539
00:24:36,549 --> 00:24:39,049
So all the artists then basically
540
00:24:39,049 --> 00:24:42,289
did like a terraforming pass where we'd go over
541
00:24:42,289 --> 00:24:45,950
the procedurally-generated work and make it hand-crafted
542
00:24:45,950 --> 00:24:48,990
and it took two years to do.
543
00:24:48,990 --> 00:24:49,823
- [Interviewer] Right.
544
00:24:49,823 --> 00:24:51,680
- It was an insane undertaking
545
00:24:52,710 --> 00:24:54,809
and we really had to ramp up the team
546
00:24:54,809 --> 00:24:56,539
of environmenters to come do that.
547
00:24:56,539 --> 00:24:57,609
- Like we knew what we needed to make,
548
00:24:57,609 --> 00:24:59,639
we knew the number of towns, but, like, okay,
549
00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:01,440
this town has how many buildings?
550
00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:02,370
How many NPCs?
551
00:25:02,369 --> 00:25:03,429
How many interiors?
552
00:25:03,430 --> 00:25:04,263
How many exteriors?
553
00:25:04,262 --> 00:25:05,449
Like, all the details.
554
00:25:05,450 --> 00:25:07,450
So it used to be, well, we needed a town, somebody make it
555
00:25:07,450 --> 00:25:09,037
and then the artist would go off and make it
556
00:25:09,037 --> 00:25:10,420
and the designer would help design it
557
00:25:10,420 --> 00:25:12,210
and then you'd have your town.
558
00:25:12,210 --> 00:25:14,260
So it was really from that to now
559
00:25:14,260 --> 00:25:16,609
it's very much more designed out
560
00:25:16,609 --> 00:25:18,359
as far as how big the town is,
561
00:25:18,359 --> 00:25:20,905
how many buildings are in it, what it's made up of.
562
00:25:20,905 --> 00:25:23,426
The way we designed dungeons, some of them are for quests
563
00:25:23,426 --> 00:25:26,689
and some of them were more randomized
564
00:25:26,690 --> 00:25:28,779
and then we had the Oblivion realm so it's like, okay,
565
00:25:28,779 --> 00:25:30,990
making dungeons is obviously a big part of this
566
00:25:30,990 --> 00:25:33,170
and it sort of separated there.
567
00:25:33,170 --> 00:25:34,003
And then figuring out how
568
00:25:34,002 --> 00:25:36,429
we were gonna make all the Oblivion realms,
569
00:25:36,430 --> 00:25:37,799
I remember that as a key part on the schedule,
570
00:25:37,799 --> 00:25:40,129
like, we had our game and our date
571
00:25:40,130 --> 00:25:41,460
and we knew what we were doing but the Oblivion realms
572
00:25:41,460 --> 00:25:43,910
we still hadn't quite figured out what they were.
573
00:25:43,910 --> 00:25:45,529
- [Danny] During this stage at BGS
574
00:25:45,529 --> 00:25:47,799
there was no delineation between designers.
575
00:25:47,799 --> 00:25:50,299
Level designers were also quest designers.
576
00:25:50,299 --> 00:25:51,970
And as the game got more complex
577
00:25:51,970 --> 00:25:54,160
this was beginning to cause issues.
578
00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:55,779
Elements of the game were getting trimmed
579
00:25:55,779 --> 00:25:58,700
in an attempt to make the Xbox 360 launch date,
580
00:25:58,700 --> 00:26:02,299
and in some cases, to even fit the game on the disc.
581
00:26:02,299 --> 00:26:03,299
- So in the shipped game
582
00:26:03,299 --> 00:26:04,976
there's an arena in the Imperial City
583
00:26:04,977 --> 00:26:07,700
and the original plan was there was going to be
584
00:26:07,700 --> 00:26:10,470
an arena in every city and I had done
585
00:26:10,470 --> 00:26:14,819
the majority of that work and we ripped it all out
586
00:26:14,819 --> 00:26:16,049
because we realized we need to
587
00:26:16,049 --> 00:26:18,409
focus on one to make it better.
588
00:26:18,410 --> 00:26:22,019
That was painful, that was 800 lines of dialog,
589
00:26:22,019 --> 00:26:24,339
that was all the scripting work.
590
00:26:24,339 --> 00:26:27,250
And it was definitely the right decision, absolutely.
591
00:26:27,250 --> 00:26:29,240
It was fun to do all the fighting
592
00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:30,380
and fight and become a champion,
593
00:26:30,380 --> 00:26:33,140
but I actually really enjoy when I play it,
594
00:26:33,140 --> 00:26:35,700
just betting on a fight and watching
595
00:26:35,700 --> 00:26:37,920
and finding all the weird bugs with that.
596
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:41,680
Like, I would set it up so the two combatants,
597
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:46,009
there would be a nord woman and an elf guy and they would,
598
00:26:46,009 --> 00:26:48,839
I look at the script they were always really evenly matched,
599
00:26:48,839 --> 00:26:52,329
and, invariably, one team would always win,
600
00:26:52,329 --> 00:26:55,279
and it was supposed to be random, and I didn't know why!
601
00:26:55,279 --> 00:26:57,980
And I wasn't taking into account some of,
602
00:26:57,980 --> 00:27:00,890
like, the racial abilities, like nords are stronger,
603
00:27:00,890 --> 00:27:03,120
so this guy was beating the crap out of this person
604
00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:06,599
and I didn't, I had to figure out all that stuff.
605
00:27:06,599 --> 00:27:08,362
- [Interviewer] The Khajiits were always losing.
606
00:27:08,363 --> 00:27:11,460
(both laughing)
607
00:27:11,460 --> 00:27:15,299
- So for us for Oblivion compared to Morrowind,
608
00:27:15,299 --> 00:27:17,039
the biggest thing is scale.
609
00:27:17,039 --> 00:27:19,399
Morrowind's actually kind of a small game,
610
00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:21,816
and if you actually look at the draw distance
611
00:27:21,816 --> 00:27:25,230
it's foggy pretty much right in front of the player.
612
00:27:25,230 --> 00:27:27,980
We didn't have LOD, there were no mountain views
613
00:27:27,980 --> 00:27:31,230
in Morrowind, so for Oblivion it was,
614
00:27:31,230 --> 00:27:32,539
hey, you're in this giant valley,
615
00:27:32,539 --> 00:27:34,089
you can see the mountains everywhere,
616
00:27:34,089 --> 00:27:35,599
and that's what started the whole,
617
00:27:35,599 --> 00:27:37,839
hey, if I can see it, I can go there and explore it,
618
00:27:37,839 --> 00:27:40,159
that really happened in Oblivion.
619
00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:42,500
That initial view when you come out of the dungeon
620
00:27:42,500 --> 00:27:45,180
from character generation and see the world
621
00:27:45,180 --> 00:27:47,410
and see the water and see the ruins reflect in it,
622
00:27:47,410 --> 00:27:50,980
we spent a lot of time on, like, the framing of that,
623
00:27:50,980 --> 00:27:53,730
how the water looks, how the mountains look, to know that,
624
00:27:53,730 --> 00:27:56,769
hey, welcome to this world, go do whatever you want in it.
625
00:27:56,769 --> 00:27:58,859
- Elder Scrolls games are like kitchen sink games.
626
00:27:58,859 --> 00:28:01,279
There are so many systems, so much crafting,
627
00:28:01,279 --> 00:28:04,160
there's magic, there's all these different systems
628
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:05,240
that have to interact together.
629
00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:07,569
There's cities you can explore that are teeming with people.
630
00:28:07,569 --> 00:28:08,403
- How are you?
631
00:28:08,403 --> 00:28:10,371
- There hasn't been a nuclear annihilation yet,
632
00:28:10,371 --> 00:28:11,730
you know what I mean?
633
00:28:11,730 --> 00:28:14,470
Everything's still there, everything's still beautiful.
634
00:28:14,470 --> 00:28:16,549
- So we started getting into this when we realized that
635
00:28:16,549 --> 00:28:18,129
the guards are the best reflection,
636
00:28:18,130 --> 00:28:20,190
we started doing this in Oblivion,
637
00:28:20,190 --> 00:28:22,950
the guards are the best reflection of the character.
638
00:28:22,950 --> 00:28:27,299
So they comment on you, they comment on what you're wearing,
639
00:28:27,299 --> 00:28:29,960
your accomplishments, like, hey, I heard you did this thing,
640
00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:31,660
or, like, and it gets really tough
641
00:28:31,660 --> 00:28:32,932
with stuff like the Thieves' Guild, they're like,
642
00:28:32,932 --> 00:28:35,859
"Did I see you sneaking out of that house?"
643
00:28:35,859 --> 00:28:38,740
- But the voice cast in general had not been figured out
644
00:28:38,740 --> 00:28:40,880
other than let's bring folks back
645
00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:42,230
from Morrowind who we like.
646
00:28:43,599 --> 00:28:47,102
Michael Mack, the voice of the redguards and so forth.
647
00:28:51,259 --> 00:28:53,299
- Cast a few more people to fill in the space
648
00:28:53,299 --> 00:28:55,623
or change up the cast from before.
649
00:29:04,282 --> 00:29:07,259
- And all in all, it's 10 or 11 actors
650
00:29:07,259 --> 00:29:12,259
for what I think started out as 60, 70,000 lines of dialog
651
00:29:13,119 --> 00:29:14,849
and eventually we had to trim that down
652
00:29:14,849 --> 00:29:17,240
to 40, 50 or something like that it shipped with.
653
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:18,980
Because it physically, at the time,
654
00:29:18,980 --> 00:29:20,690
we could not fit it on the disc,
655
00:29:20,690 --> 00:29:22,663
it was just too much, something had to go.
656
00:29:27,940 --> 00:29:30,110
- I don't see any good options here.
657
00:29:30,109 --> 00:29:35,109
- One actor per race, gender, and some were ever shared.
658
00:29:36,420 --> 00:29:38,190
The nords, I think the male nord
659
00:29:38,190 --> 00:29:40,250
and the male orc are the same guy,
660
00:29:40,250 --> 00:29:41,507
and originally they were gonna be different
661
00:29:41,507 --> 00:29:45,190
and we had to combine 'em, it was just pure disc space
662
00:29:45,190 --> 00:29:46,680
whereas now you could just, you know,
663
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:49,200
we could just tack on another archive you could download,
664
00:29:49,200 --> 00:29:50,819
it's all down to your local hard drive space
665
00:29:50,819 --> 00:29:53,429
on your console or whatever you're playing on.
666
00:29:53,430 --> 00:29:56,090
So it's a lot of ground covered by very few people
667
00:29:56,089 --> 00:29:59,329
so days and days and days and days and days of just
668
00:30:00,559 --> 00:30:03,700
imperial male with Wes Johnson, our local voice actor.
669
00:30:03,700 --> 00:30:05,430
- In fact, I always forget his name,
670
00:30:05,430 --> 00:30:06,480
but one of our voice actors,
671
00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:08,509
I see him like once every two months
672
00:30:08,509 --> 00:30:09,990
at the Dunkin Donuts down the street.
673
00:30:09,990 --> 00:30:11,539
I swear to God, I always mean to say hi to him,
674
00:30:11,539 --> 00:30:13,940
I can never remember his name, it's so embarrassing.
675
00:30:13,940 --> 00:30:14,773
- [Interviewer] And he goes, "Halt!"
676
00:30:14,772 --> 00:30:16,574
- And he's great (laughing).
677
00:30:16,575 --> 00:30:17,913
And I'm like, next time.
678
00:30:17,913 --> 00:30:20,496
(rain falling)
679
00:30:21,952 --> 00:30:24,173
(sword clashing)
680
00:30:24,173 --> 00:30:26,567
(booming)
681
00:30:26,567 --> 00:30:29,983
(game character yelping)
682
00:30:40,159 --> 00:30:42,020
- [Danny] Oblivion's four-year development cycle
683
00:30:42,019 --> 00:30:43,500
was tough on the team.
684
00:30:43,500 --> 00:30:46,269
They had doubled in size trying to keep up with the workload
685
00:30:46,269 --> 00:30:50,230
causing them to missed the Xbox 360 launch by 4 months.
686
00:30:50,230 --> 00:30:51,860
But this delay probably only
687
00:30:51,859 --> 00:30:54,059
contributed to Oblivion's success.
688
00:30:54,059 --> 00:30:56,159
By the time the game arrived on store shelves,
689
00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:58,210
console players were foaming at the mouth
690
00:30:58,210 --> 00:30:59,870
to get their hands on this game.
691
00:30:59,869 --> 00:31:01,489
The scale of Oblivion was something
692
00:31:01,490 --> 00:31:04,019
that had never been seen on a consoles before.
693
00:31:04,019 --> 00:31:06,139
And while some of the Morrowind fans may have felt
694
00:31:06,140 --> 00:31:08,250
that the game had been overly simplified,
695
00:31:08,250 --> 00:31:10,380
Oblivion struck a chord with gamers
696
00:31:10,380 --> 00:31:13,420
in a way that no RPG ever had before.
697
00:31:13,420 --> 00:31:15,279
Not only was it a red letter day
698
00:31:15,279 --> 00:31:17,579
for the open world console game,
699
00:31:17,579 --> 00:31:20,230
but it had tapped into a love of the fantasy genre
700
00:31:20,230 --> 00:31:22,500
that had never had its mainstream moment.
701
00:31:22,500 --> 00:31:25,299
You could argue the release of Lord of the Rings films
702
00:31:25,299 --> 00:31:27,119
had helped, or perhaps they had
703
00:31:27,119 --> 00:31:29,250
just tapped into the same thing.
704
00:31:29,250 --> 00:31:32,279
Oblivion was a costly venture for ZeniMax Media.
705
00:31:32,279 --> 00:31:34,660
Four long years and a lot of money
706
00:31:34,660 --> 00:31:36,779
went into the development of this game,
707
00:31:36,779 --> 00:31:38,379
so they wanted a backup.
708
00:31:38,380 --> 00:31:39,590
Something else for the team
709
00:31:39,589 --> 00:31:41,859
to work on as Oblivion wound down.
710
00:31:41,859 --> 00:31:44,449
Something they could use all this technology on
711
00:31:44,450 --> 00:31:47,009
but perhaps in a different genre.
712
00:31:47,009 --> 00:31:49,839
- Looking toward Oblivion, which was a four-year gap,
713
00:31:49,839 --> 00:31:51,829
three-and-a-half years, about four years,
714
00:31:51,829 --> 00:31:53,829
you realize, this is gonna take a while.
715
00:31:54,809 --> 00:31:56,589
You know, there wasn't pressure, but hey,
716
00:31:56,589 --> 00:31:58,259
we should probably get more than one thing going
717
00:31:58,259 --> 00:31:59,599
'cause these things take a while,
718
00:31:59,599 --> 00:32:01,709
what would you like to make?
719
00:32:01,710 --> 00:32:05,420
And we made a list, you know, it was basically,
720
00:32:05,420 --> 00:32:08,090
post-apocalyptic, we had some other worlds,
721
00:32:08,089 --> 00:32:10,539
you know, science fiction this, I could go through the list
722
00:32:10,539 --> 00:32:11,373
but you never know if we'll make 'em
723
00:32:11,373 --> 00:32:12,843
so I don't wanna spoil it.
724
00:32:12,843 --> 00:32:16,560
I actually made this logo for the post-apocalyptic game,
725
00:32:16,559 --> 00:32:18,799
it was called Apocalypse Road.
726
00:32:18,799 --> 00:32:20,509
It was like a road sign that said Apocalypse.
727
00:32:20,509 --> 00:32:22,339
And I had written Fallout, it's Fallout.
728
00:32:22,339 --> 00:32:24,829
And they said, "You want Fallout?"
729
00:32:24,829 --> 00:32:27,336
Yeah, but that's, you know, we don't have that.
730
00:32:27,336 --> 00:32:31,067
And somebody here knew someone at Interplay and said,
731
00:32:31,067 --> 00:32:32,767
"I think, you know, they're having a rough time,
732
00:32:32,767 --> 00:32:35,680
"they're not using it, we might be able to acquire it."
733
00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:38,346
And I was like, "Oh my God, that would be a dream.
734
00:32:38,346 --> 00:32:39,940
"If you could get that, I'm tellin' you,
735
00:32:39,940 --> 00:32:41,960
"this would be perfect here."
736
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:45,873
It fits what we do, it's different but the vibe of the game,
737
00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:49,240
it would fit with our style of game.
738
00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:52,222
And, maybe, it was probably a while, it was a year,
739
00:32:53,279 --> 00:32:54,369
he comes back and says, I remember,
740
00:32:54,369 --> 00:32:57,909
I actually got a sticky note from Todd Vaughn on my,
741
00:32:57,910 --> 00:33:01,920
I can remember it vividly, just a sticky note on my desk
742
00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:05,610
when I came back said, "Got you Fallout, it's yours."
743
00:33:05,609 --> 00:33:09,126
It was just like, when does that happen?
744
00:33:10,044 --> 00:33:12,544
(eerie music)
745
00:33:39,109 --> 00:33:41,159
- Yeah, Fallout was incredibly exciting
746
00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:44,759
for everyone here because it was new, new to us.
747
00:33:44,759 --> 00:33:47,009
We'd all played the Fallout games before,
748
00:33:47,009 --> 00:33:49,424
I think most people here are fans of Fallout 1 and 2,
749
00:33:49,424 --> 00:33:51,579
and it was exciting to, hey,
750
00:33:51,579 --> 00:33:54,299
we've all been a fantasy group, right?
751
00:33:54,299 --> 00:33:56,169
We're makin' fantasy role-playing games.
752
00:33:56,170 --> 00:33:58,960
Let's jump in to a post-apocalyptic world,
753
00:33:58,960 --> 00:33:59,799
what's that gonna be like?
754
00:33:59,799 --> 00:34:01,389
- [Interviewer] You a big fan of those older games?
755
00:34:01,390 --> 00:34:03,090
- Oh my God, I loved 'em!
756
00:34:03,089 --> 00:34:04,939
I think it's genius stuff, you know?
757
00:34:04,940 --> 00:34:06,809
All the credit to Tim Cain and Jason Anderson,
758
00:34:06,809 --> 00:34:10,282
all those guys who did that game.
759
00:34:10,282 --> 00:34:11,820
That's the other thing, why don't you
760
00:34:11,820 --> 00:34:13,420
make your own post-apocalyptic thing?
761
00:34:13,420 --> 00:34:16,920
I said, well, we could, we could do all this gameplay,
762
00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:18,539
but there's this shtick with it,
763
00:34:18,539 --> 00:34:22,920
with Vault-Tec and the world, the 50s, that's the sauce.
764
00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:25,579
Even though, I know there was a lot of fan angst,
765
00:34:25,579 --> 00:34:27,420
understandably so, I would've been the same way.
766
00:34:27,420 --> 00:34:29,530
- If you ever get a chance to work on a video game,
767
00:34:29,530 --> 00:34:30,960
work on a Fallout game, you can do
768
00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:32,523
practically anything in a Fallout game.
769
00:34:32,523 --> 00:34:33,809
- [Interviewer] (chuckling) Right.
770
00:34:33,809 --> 00:34:35,739
- And just the breadth of the storytelling,
771
00:34:35,739 --> 00:34:39,459
the breadth of the art direction, the tone and the humor,
772
00:34:39,460 --> 00:34:42,670
I mean, it's unlike anything else.
773
00:34:42,670 --> 00:34:46,190
When we got it and we started Fallout 3, that was just,
774
00:34:46,190 --> 00:34:47,990
for me personally, I was excited,
775
00:34:47,989 --> 00:34:50,535
I was very, very excited to be working on that game.
776
00:34:50,536 --> 00:34:53,702
(old patriotic music)
777
00:34:59,367 --> 00:35:01,309
- When it was time for Bethesda to pick a location
778
00:35:01,309 --> 00:35:03,849
for their Fallout game, they chose Washington, D.C.
779
00:35:03,849 --> 00:35:05,860
and they did so for a number of reasons.
780
00:35:05,860 --> 00:35:08,480
First of all, thematically, it just kind of works, right?
781
00:35:08,480 --> 00:35:11,050
This is the center of government in the United States,
782
00:35:11,050 --> 00:35:12,269
there's a pretty good chance that
783
00:35:12,269 --> 00:35:14,719
if a nuclear war happens, this is gonna get hit.
784
00:35:14,719 --> 00:35:16,739
Second of all, it gave them creative distance
785
00:35:16,739 --> 00:35:19,269
from those earlier Fallout games which we set, of course,
786
00:35:19,269 --> 00:35:21,550
on the west coast of the United States.
787
00:35:21,550 --> 00:35:25,440
And third of all, this was 20 miles from Rockville, Maryland
788
00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:26,679
where Bethesda's based.
789
00:35:26,679 --> 00:35:30,369
This nuclear apocalypse happened in their own backyard.
790
00:35:30,369 --> 00:35:31,659
- Well, this is how we make our games.
791
00:35:31,659 --> 00:35:35,027
Like, when we first decide on a game, we start with a map.
792
00:35:35,027 --> 00:35:37,069
And so we started with a map of D.C.
793
00:35:37,070 --> 00:35:39,130
and started mapping out the locations
794
00:35:39,130 --> 00:35:41,260
and where everything is gonna be.
795
00:35:41,260 --> 00:35:43,173
- So I remember Matt Carofano, the lead artist,
796
00:35:43,172 --> 00:35:44,799
this was after 9-11, he went down
797
00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:46,500
to D.C. to take reference photos.
798
00:35:46,500 --> 00:35:48,730
So he's walkin' around the capitol in different areas,
799
00:35:48,730 --> 00:35:50,369
lookin' up, lookin' down, takin' photos,
800
00:35:50,369 --> 00:35:52,336
and security comes up like, "What're you doing?
801
00:35:52,336 --> 00:35:53,730
"You can't do that." And they stopped him.
802
00:35:53,730 --> 00:35:55,889
He was like, "I'm just taking pictures,"
803
00:35:55,889 --> 00:35:57,769
and they're like, "No, you're not."
804
00:35:57,769 --> 00:36:00,000
So a lot of the artists did go downtown
805
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:01,789
and being right here it was much easier to do.
806
00:36:01,789 --> 00:36:03,059
- So I went down and took a lot
807
00:36:03,059 --> 00:36:05,159
of photographs of the capitol,
808
00:36:05,159 --> 00:36:07,690
which turns out is not a good idea to do,
809
00:36:07,690 --> 00:36:09,579
I do not recommend doing this.
810
00:36:09,579 --> 00:36:12,086
I asked one of the police officers,
811
00:36:12,086 --> 00:36:15,480
"Hey, I make video games, can I take pictures?"
812
00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:18,289
The cop went, "Yeah, take as many pictures as you want,"
813
00:36:18,289 --> 00:36:20,400
and while I'm taking pictures of the capitol
814
00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:23,369
I realized I'm taking pictures of a very angry guard
815
00:36:23,369 --> 00:36:24,929
in the capitol and he came out
816
00:36:24,929 --> 00:36:27,239
and told me I had to leave immediately
817
00:36:27,239 --> 00:36:30,839
and didn't want any questions asked.
818
00:36:30,840 --> 00:36:32,630
But I got enough reference to build the capitol
819
00:36:32,630 --> 00:36:36,313
but I was very careful about not wanting to do that again,
820
00:36:36,313 --> 00:36:39,150
because it's security risks but,
821
00:36:39,150 --> 00:36:41,190
hey, I just wanted to make a cool video game,
822
00:36:41,190 --> 00:36:42,197
but I didn't wanna tell him,
823
00:36:42,197 --> 00:36:43,807
"Yeah, I'm actually taking pictures of this
824
00:36:43,806 --> 00:36:45,669
"so I can blow it up in a video game,"
825
00:36:45,670 --> 00:36:47,710
which was exactly what I was about to do.
826
00:36:47,710 --> 00:36:50,240
- And a lot of the concept art for that game was,
827
00:36:50,239 --> 00:36:54,069
like, a ruined capitol building which, you know,
828
00:36:54,070 --> 00:36:56,894
back then and even now is a little iffy, it's a little shaky
829
00:36:56,893 --> 00:37:01,549
and I remember that we bought ads in the Metro
830
00:37:01,550 --> 00:37:03,380
and we used that concept art,
831
00:37:03,380 --> 00:37:05,300
so you're walkin' through the D.C. Metro
832
00:37:05,300 --> 00:37:08,039
and you're seeing like this massive piece of concept art
833
00:37:08,039 --> 00:37:10,269
on an ad of, like, this decayed,
834
00:37:10,269 --> 00:37:12,326
destroyed, nuked capitol building.
835
00:37:12,327 --> 00:37:14,900
And I was like, are you sure this is a good idea?
836
00:37:14,900 --> 00:37:17,075
I mean, I guess.
837
00:37:17,074 --> 00:37:18,230
(both laughing)
838
00:37:18,230 --> 00:37:20,920
- We knew that the game was set in Washington D.C.,
839
00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:22,400
we know what the overall story is,
840
00:37:22,400 --> 00:37:24,730
and then we start with the map,
841
00:37:24,730 --> 00:37:27,590
and looking at where in Washington, D.C.
842
00:37:27,590 --> 00:37:28,423
the player is gonna go.
843
00:37:28,422 --> 00:37:30,679
So one of the first things you realize when you look
844
00:37:30,679 --> 00:37:33,159
at any map, you have a lot of real estate to cover
845
00:37:33,159 --> 00:37:35,149
and you want your quests to take
846
00:37:35,150 --> 00:37:36,740
the player all over the place.
847
00:37:36,739 --> 00:37:39,589
That sort of naturally involves going into
848
00:37:39,590 --> 00:37:41,750
easier zones, more difficult zones.
849
00:37:41,750 --> 00:37:43,570
And then we start come up with,
850
00:37:43,570 --> 00:37:45,710
because we want to tell the story,
851
00:37:45,710 --> 00:37:47,784
but we tell the story through the quests.
852
00:37:47,784 --> 00:37:51,359
So for us it was coming up with those quests
853
00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:53,769
and how they all fit together and what feels good
854
00:37:53,769 --> 00:37:55,599
and what are the core combat beats.
855
00:37:55,599 --> 00:37:57,420
When we started talking about Fallout
856
00:37:57,420 --> 00:37:58,659
we knew that we wanted to do something
857
00:37:58,659 --> 00:38:01,639
structurally different and so that structure was
858
00:38:01,639 --> 00:38:06,009
a main quest and miscellaneous quests but no factions.
859
00:38:06,010 --> 00:38:08,240
- [Danny] Oblivion had over a dozen joinable factions
860
00:38:08,239 --> 00:38:09,679
but there were four main ones:
861
00:38:09,679 --> 00:38:11,759
the Thieves Guild, the Mages Guild,
862
00:38:11,760 --> 00:38:14,520
the Fighters Guild, and the Dark Brotherhood.
863
00:38:14,519 --> 00:38:17,059
And each of these had exhaustive quest lines
864
00:38:17,059 --> 00:38:19,799
that took the team significant time to design.
865
00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:23,100
So they made the decision to drop factions quest lines,
866
00:38:23,099 --> 00:38:25,519
instead incorporating factions like the Enclave
867
00:38:25,519 --> 00:38:28,269
and Brotherhood of Steel into the main quest.
868
00:38:28,269 --> 00:38:30,250
Perhaps one of the reasons they cut it
869
00:38:30,250 --> 00:38:32,889
was a particularly significant design challenge
870
00:38:32,889 --> 00:38:36,509
that they hadn't figured out yet, gun combat.
871
00:38:36,510 --> 00:38:38,800
The original Fallout games were turn-based,
872
00:38:38,800 --> 00:38:42,380
using a system known as V.A.T.S to aid the player in combat.
873
00:38:42,380 --> 00:38:44,829
So the team pooled together a group of designers
874
00:38:44,829 --> 00:38:46,690
to help get this turn-based style
875
00:38:46,690 --> 00:38:49,800
of combat into their 3D FPS.
876
00:38:49,800 --> 00:38:51,940
This group was known as a strike team.
877
00:38:51,940 --> 00:38:54,829
So, by the time the public saw the game for the first time,
878
00:38:54,829 --> 00:38:58,099
first-person V.A.T.S had been realized, but it was something
879
00:38:58,099 --> 00:39:01,549
that BGS struggled with throughout development.
880
00:39:01,550 --> 00:39:02,690
- Well, one of the big things with Fallout,
881
00:39:02,690 --> 00:39:07,059
we had to create gun combat from the ground up,
882
00:39:07,059 --> 00:39:09,130
something this company hadn't done
883
00:39:09,130 --> 00:39:10,720
since the Terminator games.
884
00:39:10,719 --> 00:39:15,719
- I had grabbed Emil and said, okay, we need something,
885
00:39:15,809 --> 00:39:17,769
it's like Knights of the Old Republic
886
00:39:17,769 --> 00:39:19,902
meets crash mode in Burnout.
887
00:39:21,210 --> 00:39:23,639
We were like, how do we put these two things together?
888
00:39:23,639 --> 00:39:26,199
We messed with some really phase-based stuff
889
00:39:26,199 --> 00:39:28,980
but then it kinda came together.
890
00:39:28,980 --> 00:39:30,409
But I would tell you, that was one
891
00:39:30,409 --> 00:39:33,109
during the development everybody questioned.
892
00:39:33,110 --> 00:39:33,943
- [Interviewer] Really?
893
00:39:33,943 --> 00:39:36,320
- Well, you can either go like, is this a superpower?
894
00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:37,960
Is this just a glory shot?
895
00:39:37,960 --> 00:39:39,632
Like, what is the actual,
896
00:39:40,559 --> 00:39:43,650
what should the player be feeling or what's the use of it?
897
00:39:43,650 --> 00:39:46,490
- We went from Oblivion, which had, you know,
898
00:39:46,489 --> 00:39:47,629
it was a very robust RPG,
899
00:39:47,630 --> 00:39:49,369
it was still very sort of hardcore,
900
00:39:49,369 --> 00:39:52,789
we were making the bridge to a more general
901
00:39:52,789 --> 00:39:55,920
player-friendly game but it was still pretty hardcore.
902
00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:59,210
And Fallout had guns and our combat in Oblivion was,
903
00:39:59,210 --> 00:40:01,809
like, you swung and you're in some kind of distance
904
00:40:01,809 --> 00:40:02,650
and you hit, right?
905
00:40:02,650 --> 00:40:04,410
And then when you have guns you have all sorts
906
00:40:04,409 --> 00:40:06,819
of different combat mechanics you have to take into account,
907
00:40:06,820 --> 00:40:10,030
very technically, high-technical requirements
908
00:40:10,030 --> 00:40:12,019
that are had by many projects that have done
909
00:40:12,019 --> 00:40:15,019
first-person shooters much, not only in experience
910
00:40:15,019 --> 00:40:16,210
but better than we could ever do it.
911
00:40:16,210 --> 00:40:18,900
So we were trying to find that balance between
912
00:40:18,900 --> 00:40:20,590
how are we gonna keep players
913
00:40:20,590 --> 00:40:22,200
who love our role-playing games
914
00:40:22,199 --> 00:40:23,980
and also make a decent first-person shooter,
915
00:40:23,980 --> 00:40:26,150
because those two things don't often mix
916
00:40:26,150 --> 00:40:27,963
and that sort of was V.A.T.S.
917
00:40:27,963 --> 00:40:30,330
V.A.T.S was, you know, part of Fallout,
918
00:40:30,329 --> 00:40:32,269
it worked very well within the lore of Fallout
919
00:40:32,269 --> 00:40:34,340
and we were able to make it so, hey,
920
00:40:34,340 --> 00:40:37,170
you're not so great at twitch-shooty,
921
00:40:37,170 --> 00:40:39,519
you can hit that button, pause the game, see what you want,
922
00:40:39,519 --> 00:40:42,869
select targets, just like Fallout 1 and 2, right?
923
00:40:42,869 --> 00:40:45,085
- [Danny] It would take BGS another Fallout game before
924
00:40:45,085 --> 00:40:48,679
they'd get the feel for this aim-down-sights combat down.
925
00:40:48,679 --> 00:40:51,149
But one of the improvements they'd made over Oblivion
926
00:40:51,150 --> 00:40:53,210
came from the team's new structure.
927
00:40:53,210 --> 00:40:55,760
Designers were now split into two pools:
928
00:40:55,760 --> 00:40:58,040
level designers and quest designers.
929
00:40:58,039 --> 00:40:59,440
This allowed for the design of
930
00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:02,800
better combat spaces, more varied locations,
931
00:41:02,800 --> 00:41:05,680
and a lot more variety when it came to quests.
932
00:41:05,679 --> 00:41:07,279
It meant that instead of one person
933
00:41:07,280 --> 00:41:10,269
taking creative leadership of a chunk of the game,
934
00:41:10,269 --> 00:41:13,369
designers were working together to solve problems.
935
00:41:13,369 --> 00:41:14,989
What this resulted in was a game
936
00:41:14,989 --> 00:41:17,159
packed full of memorable moments.
937
00:41:17,159 --> 00:41:20,519
So we decided to ask the team about some of their favorites.
938
00:41:20,519 --> 00:41:22,929
Vaults full of Garys, tunnels full of snakes,
939
00:41:22,929 --> 00:41:24,630
and much, much more.
940
00:41:24,630 --> 00:41:26,650
But seeing as we have to start somewhere,
941
00:41:26,650 --> 00:41:29,012
how about we start with the start?
942
00:41:29,989 --> 00:41:32,069
- I always loved the vaults.
943
00:41:32,070 --> 00:41:33,190
Probably every Fallout we do
944
00:41:33,190 --> 00:41:34,820
you'll be coming out of a vault.
945
00:41:34,820 --> 00:41:37,090
I like the emerging into the world.
946
00:41:37,090 --> 00:41:39,000
And it was an initial idea,
947
00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:41,500
I'm usually designing the very beginning of a game.
948
00:41:41,500 --> 00:41:42,489
Like, okay, it's like this,
949
00:41:42,489 --> 00:41:44,005
you live your whole life in the vault
950
00:41:44,005 --> 00:41:47,549
and that snapshot of your life as you go through it
951
00:41:47,550 --> 00:41:50,030
and then the emerging, I love the beginning of Fallout 3.
952
00:41:50,030 --> 00:41:50,920
- [Interviewer] Right.
953
00:41:50,920 --> 00:41:52,260
- And if you go back, if you've played it a bunch,
954
00:41:52,260 --> 00:41:53,720
it's a little bit like, I just wanna get,
955
00:41:53,719 --> 00:41:56,500
a lot of people feel like the game hasn't started,
956
00:41:56,500 --> 00:41:59,019
but I love the, like, when you step out,
957
00:41:59,019 --> 00:42:00,673
you do feel like you lived your life in a vault.
958
00:42:00,673 --> 00:42:03,684
(wind whistling)
959
00:42:03,684 --> 00:42:06,184
(eerie music)
960
00:42:07,139 --> 00:42:08,427
But if it was just the view, like, you see that clip
961
00:42:08,427 --> 00:42:09,787
and you look at the view and you're like,
962
00:42:09,786 --> 00:42:11,469
"It's okay, it's not bad, it's okay,"
963
00:42:11,469 --> 00:42:13,509
but it's the fact that, the stuff you did beforehand
964
00:42:13,510 --> 00:42:17,130
that make you really feel like the character you're playing.
965
00:42:17,130 --> 00:42:19,320
Anytime there's sort of dissonance with that emotion or,
966
00:42:19,320 --> 00:42:21,650
or I know more than the guy on the screen or whatever,
967
00:42:21,650 --> 00:42:24,740
then we're trying to like massage it back.
968
00:42:24,739 --> 00:42:26,549
- Actually, we learned from Oblivion,
969
00:42:26,550 --> 00:42:30,019
this is when we have a controlled area in the beginning
970
00:42:30,019 --> 00:42:31,230
that's your characters gen,
971
00:42:31,230 --> 00:42:32,340
we're trying to teach you things,
972
00:42:32,340 --> 00:42:34,450
get your character made, and then that's the point
973
00:42:34,449 --> 00:42:37,509
where we get to set you loose into the game world.
974
00:42:37,510 --> 00:42:41,150
And we want it to be sorta overwhelming.
975
00:42:41,150 --> 00:42:42,160
How amazing is this?
976
00:42:42,159 --> 00:42:43,259
What am I gonna do?
977
00:42:43,260 --> 00:42:46,600
And we want that vista to be really impressive,
978
00:42:46,599 --> 00:42:49,630
so a lot of work goes into how much you can see?
979
00:42:49,630 --> 00:42:50,760
Where does your eye lead?
980
00:42:50,760 --> 00:42:52,768
Do you think you're gonna run down to the ruins?
981
00:42:52,768 --> 00:42:56,913
Can you see the LOD for the Red Rocket station?
982
00:42:58,000 --> 00:43:00,699
And how am I gonna go explore this world?
983
00:43:00,699 --> 00:43:02,009
So we try to lead you into it
984
00:43:02,010 --> 00:43:04,160
but then let you go wherever you want
985
00:43:04,159 --> 00:43:07,949
and there were lots of discussions about how the game looked
986
00:43:07,949 --> 00:43:12,829
in terms of being a dystopian, post-apocalyptic wasteland,
987
00:43:12,829 --> 00:43:14,239
but I think a lot of it really was
988
00:43:14,239 --> 00:43:16,819
we wanted this oppressive feeling in the game,
989
00:43:16,820 --> 00:43:20,550
we wanted it to feel bad and that you are the hero
990
00:43:20,550 --> 00:43:24,070
who's gonna come help make this world better.
991
00:43:24,070 --> 00:43:28,160
And it was a big jump from the lush forests of Oblivion
992
00:43:28,159 --> 00:43:33,159
to a blasted nuclear wasteland with dead trees everywhere.
993
00:43:33,769 --> 00:43:35,257
A lot of the environment artists joked,
994
00:43:35,257 --> 00:43:36,927
"Hey, we're not allowed to use the color green
995
00:43:36,927 --> 00:43:38,920
"unless it's in the HUD."
996
00:43:38,920 --> 00:43:41,559
There's no live plants, there's no grass,
997
00:43:41,559 --> 00:43:43,650
it's all dead, it's all brown.
998
00:43:43,650 --> 00:43:45,990
- Everyone's dead so you don't want it to feel like too lit,
999
00:43:45,989 --> 00:43:46,839
but you also don't want people
1000
00:43:46,840 --> 00:43:48,289
just stumbling around in the dark,
1001
00:43:48,289 --> 00:43:49,989
so you have to find like this fine line of,
1002
00:43:49,989 --> 00:43:52,649
like, just enough flickering lights that you can navigate
1003
00:43:52,650 --> 00:43:55,900
and see all the monsters, find the quest items.
1004
00:43:55,900 --> 00:43:58,389
So you have to play through every quest
1005
00:43:58,389 --> 00:44:00,819
to adjust the lighting, like where are the people standing,
1006
00:44:00,820 --> 00:44:02,200
make sure they have a nice light on 'em
1007
00:44:02,199 --> 00:44:03,472
and they're not just, like,
1008
00:44:03,472 --> 00:44:05,634
a really bright background and they're in the shadow.
1009
00:44:05,634 --> 00:44:08,744
And then it'll move 'cause something'll change in the quest
1010
00:44:08,744 --> 00:44:09,779
and you just have to keep playing it
1011
00:44:09,780 --> 00:44:11,840
and keep adjusting it all the time.
1012
00:44:11,840 --> 00:44:13,039
- Before class, eh? - Get out of my way
1013
00:44:13,039 --> 00:44:14,663
you stupid Tunnel Snakes!
1014
00:44:16,130 --> 00:44:18,960
- I can show you a real tunnel snake, Amata.
1015
00:44:18,960 --> 00:44:20,750
- Adam Adamowicz, our concept artist
1016
00:44:20,750 --> 00:44:23,079
who passed away a few years ago.
1017
00:44:23,079 --> 00:44:27,529
Yeah, he had drawn this concept art.
1018
00:44:27,530 --> 00:44:31,810
We knew that we wanted, like, I had had the idea of,
1019
00:44:31,809 --> 00:44:36,259
there's this greaser gang and they're the bullies
1020
00:44:36,260 --> 00:44:39,500
and it's a very 50s type of, you know, greaser gang thing
1021
00:44:39,500 --> 00:44:41,882
and he had down a concept art, a concept image
1022
00:44:41,882 --> 00:44:45,353
with that exact logo, Tunnel Snakes.
1023
00:44:51,552 --> 00:44:53,820
- Tunnel Snakes Rule is awesome.
1024
00:44:53,820 --> 00:44:55,740
And, by the way, if you ever see,
1025
00:44:55,739 --> 00:44:56,899
if you're ever online somewhere
1026
00:44:56,900 --> 00:44:59,349
and you see a guild or a thing that says Tunnel Snakes Rule,
1027
00:44:59,349 --> 00:45:01,795
that's us, to a T every time.
1028
00:45:01,795 --> 00:45:03,369
(interviewer laughing)
1029
00:45:03,369 --> 00:45:05,839
Anytime someone here is making a faction or guild
1030
00:45:05,840 --> 00:45:08,440
or a clan, or whatever in another game,
1031
00:45:08,440 --> 00:45:09,900
everyone at the studios knows,
1032
00:45:09,900 --> 00:45:12,722
yeah, it's Tunnel Snakes Rule.
1033
00:45:14,668 --> 00:45:16,300
(gun firing)
1034
00:45:16,300 --> 00:45:17,893
- Ah, Gary!
1035
00:45:19,822 --> 00:45:21,432
- Gary! - Gary!
1036
00:45:25,170 --> 00:45:26,760
- That's a classic example of something
1037
00:45:26,760 --> 00:45:28,220
I had nothing to do with.
1038
00:45:28,219 --> 00:45:31,679
It was just the level designers just doing something,
1039
00:45:31,679 --> 00:45:35,250
they had, "We need a vault, we need an experiment, go!"
1040
00:45:35,250 --> 00:45:36,099
- They did all these vaults
1041
00:45:36,099 --> 00:45:39,400
and they had this one with all the Garys.
1042
00:45:39,400 --> 00:45:41,139
And the level designer comes to me, he's like,
1043
00:45:41,139 --> 00:45:42,929
we had, it was a big deal,
1044
00:45:42,929 --> 00:45:45,889
we record all the VO and we have to lock it.
1045
00:45:45,889 --> 00:45:48,106
And he's like, "We have this vault with all the clone Garys,
1046
00:45:48,106 --> 00:45:49,956
"I wanted to record some more lines,
1047
00:45:49,956 --> 00:45:51,269
"just the guy saying Gary,"
1048
00:45:51,269 --> 00:45:52,710
I'm like, "They do what?"
1049
00:45:52,710 --> 00:45:53,572
He says, "They just say Gary."
1050
00:45:53,572 --> 00:45:56,519
I'm like, "That's the fucking stupidest thing I ever heard."
1051
00:45:56,519 --> 00:45:59,849
- I remember when we added it, I remember it being,
1052
00:45:59,849 --> 00:46:02,920
I'm always assembling the scripts before they go off to VO.
1053
00:46:02,920 --> 00:46:06,349
I think at the time, I always think things are stupid
1054
00:46:06,349 --> 00:46:08,572
at first, I'm like, this is stupid.
1055
00:46:09,469 --> 00:46:10,730
All right, fine, whatever!
1056
00:46:10,730 --> 00:46:12,469
- So you want us to reopen the archives,
1057
00:46:12,469 --> 00:46:14,136
get him to record Gary over and over?
1058
00:46:14,137 --> 00:46:16,286
And he's like, "Trust me."
1059
00:46:16,286 --> 00:46:17,972
- (laughing) Gary!
1060
00:46:17,972 --> 00:46:19,019
(gun firing)
1061
00:46:19,019 --> 00:46:21,550
- And they go in and they do it and it,
1062
00:46:21,550 --> 00:46:22,780
I tell you what, before that,
1063
00:46:22,780 --> 00:46:25,620
that is one of the worst levels you'll ever play,
1064
00:46:25,619 --> 00:46:27,069
can you imagine it without the?
1065
00:46:27,070 --> 00:46:30,070
But then it goes in and there's a couple, oh my God,
1066
00:46:30,070 --> 00:46:32,317
I was so wrong, it's great, I'm like,
1067
00:46:32,317 --> 00:46:34,407
"Perfect, I love it, it's hilarious!"
1068
00:46:35,420 --> 00:46:36,253
- Gary!
1069
00:46:37,356 --> 00:46:40,104
(gun firing)
1070
00:46:40,103 --> 00:46:42,754
- (laughing) Gary!
1071
00:46:42,755 --> 00:46:43,588
- Gary!
1072
00:46:44,690 --> 00:46:46,900
- We had this nice tower kit that I'd been working on,
1073
00:46:46,900 --> 00:46:48,260
I was like, "Ah, this'll be really cool."
1074
00:46:48,260 --> 00:46:51,330
And the designer knew, hey, we want this to be
1075
00:46:51,329 --> 00:46:53,319
this group of people who thought they were above
1076
00:46:53,320 --> 00:46:56,890
all of the way this horrible wasteland would live
1077
00:46:56,889 --> 00:46:59,509
so literally we put them above all the wasteland,
1078
00:46:59,510 --> 00:47:00,940
so they had this really tall tower
1079
00:47:00,940 --> 00:47:04,280
out in the middle of nowhere and it turned out to be
1080
00:47:04,280 --> 00:47:06,560
the perfect view for, all right,
1081
00:47:06,559 --> 00:47:09,927
let's nuke Megaton, if you choose to do that.
1082
00:47:09,927 --> 00:47:12,177
(rumbling)
1083
00:47:14,692 --> 00:47:16,858
(booming)
1084
00:47:20,599 --> 00:47:23,529
- The verticality was interesting,
1085
00:47:23,530 --> 00:47:25,330
it gave us some advantages like, you know,
1086
00:47:25,329 --> 00:47:28,369
you could have Allistair Tenpenny at the very top
1087
00:47:28,369 --> 00:47:29,960
in a very unique position where he's like
1088
00:47:29,960 --> 00:47:32,297
sniping people in the wasteland.
1089
00:47:32,297 --> 00:47:36,349
But the real challenge there was just all the permutations
1090
00:47:36,349 --> 00:47:39,170
of, you know, do I let the ghouls out?
1091
00:47:39,170 --> 00:47:40,003
Who do I save?
1092
00:47:40,003 --> 00:47:40,836
Who don't I?
1093
00:47:40,835 --> 00:47:42,829
Because we had this goal in Fallout 3
1094
00:47:42,829 --> 00:47:44,449
that the player can do anything,
1095
00:47:44,449 --> 00:47:46,331
if the player wants to kill a quest giver,
1096
00:47:46,331 --> 00:47:48,309
they can kill a quest giver.
1097
00:47:48,309 --> 00:47:51,239
We talked about Megaton, if you tell Lucas Simms,
1098
00:47:51,239 --> 00:47:54,129
the sheriff, that you're gonna disarm the bomb
1099
00:47:54,130 --> 00:47:56,400
and so you have the good quest,
1100
00:47:56,400 --> 00:47:59,133
and you shoot him and kill him,
1101
00:47:59,969 --> 00:48:03,689
but then you disarm the bomb, like, who rewards you?
1102
00:48:03,690 --> 00:48:06,317
His little son actually come up to you like,
1103
00:48:06,317 --> 00:48:09,760
"My dad's dead but he wanted you to have this," like...
1104
00:48:13,472 --> 00:48:15,950
- Every Fallout game I do what I call a profanity pass
1105
00:48:15,949 --> 00:48:17,429
where I go through all the dialog
1106
00:48:17,429 --> 00:48:20,009
and I rip out probably 50% of the profanity,
1107
00:48:20,010 --> 00:48:21,480
'cause it really doesn't need it.
1108
00:48:21,480 --> 00:48:23,289
But in the case of Fallout 3 in Little Lamplight,
1109
00:48:23,289 --> 00:48:25,139
we have the character of Mayor MacCready
1110
00:48:25,139 --> 00:48:27,739
who we decided we want this kid to be the most foul-mouthed,
1111
00:48:27,739 --> 00:48:32,022
like, we were gonna through 80% of the F-bombs on this kid.
1112
00:48:37,998 --> 00:48:39,840
- And he comes, the voice actor we got,
1113
00:48:39,840 --> 00:48:41,920
I don't even know what the kid's parents were thinking,
1114
00:48:41,920 --> 00:48:45,110
but he just did a great job and it comes across as a kid
1115
00:48:45,110 --> 00:48:46,590
who's trying to be tough and he's the mayor
1116
00:48:46,590 --> 00:48:49,260
and he's in charge and, oh God,
1117
00:48:49,260 --> 00:48:51,243
it's little moments like that.
1118
00:48:56,617 --> 00:48:59,310
(eerie music)
1119
00:48:59,309 --> 00:49:02,690
- [Danny] Fallout 3 was a success for Bethesda Game Studios
1120
00:49:02,690 --> 00:49:05,760
and as they moved onto their next Elder Scrolls project,
1121
00:49:05,760 --> 00:49:07,700
a corporate level decision was made
1122
00:49:07,699 --> 00:49:09,919
to make a sequel to Fallout.
1123
00:49:09,920 --> 00:49:12,309
Fallout: New Vegas was made by many of the developers
1124
00:49:12,309 --> 00:49:14,000
who worked on the original games.
1125
00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:15,900
The game was put together in 18 months
1126
00:49:15,900 --> 00:49:18,500
and so launched in a pretty buggy state,
1127
00:49:18,500 --> 00:49:20,699
but fans generally appreciated the way in which
1128
00:49:20,699 --> 00:49:23,299
Obsidian evolved the first person Fallout.
1129
00:49:23,300 --> 00:49:26,450
They tightened up the gun combat, added back factions,
1130
00:49:26,449 --> 00:49:28,739
and created a wonderfully immersive world
1131
00:49:28,739 --> 00:49:30,739
packed full of interesting stories.
1132
00:49:30,739 --> 00:49:34,449
There aren't many New Vegas posters lining the halls of BGS
1133
00:49:34,449 --> 00:49:36,129
and in talking to the team here,
1134
00:49:36,130 --> 00:49:38,190
it sounds like they weren't overly involved
1135
00:49:38,190 --> 00:49:39,530
in the production at all.
1136
00:49:39,530 --> 00:49:41,600
- We were very hands-off with that.
1137
00:49:41,599 --> 00:49:43,319
We had, I think, you know,
1138
00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:46,010
it was corporate level decided we should do this
1139
00:49:46,010 --> 00:49:49,970
and we wanted to support them as best we could
1140
00:49:49,969 --> 00:49:51,899
but we knew they were capable folks
1141
00:49:51,900 --> 00:49:53,210
and they were doing their own thing.
1142
00:49:53,210 --> 00:49:55,360
I think we had like one or two meetings with them just to,
1143
00:49:55,360 --> 00:49:57,420
like, go over some high-level stuff
1144
00:49:57,420 --> 00:49:59,407
and like what are the ground rules?
1145
00:49:59,407 --> 00:50:00,623
What should we be doing?
1146
00:50:01,579 --> 00:50:04,610
But we were busy working on our own stuff here so we knew,
1147
00:50:04,610 --> 00:50:06,610
that was one of the things, we knew that, like, listen,
1148
00:50:06,610 --> 00:50:09,120
if they were gonna do this, we were not gonna really
1149
00:50:09,119 --> 00:50:10,815
have the time to work on it with them
1150
00:50:10,815 --> 00:50:12,389
because we're doing our own stuff.
1151
00:50:12,389 --> 00:50:13,900
- [Interviewer] How much support did you give Obsidian
1152
00:50:13,900 --> 00:50:14,849
when it came to New Vegas?
1153
00:50:14,849 --> 00:50:16,581
Was that very much just their very own
1154
00:50:16,581 --> 00:50:17,509
thing that was going on or?
1155
00:50:17,510 --> 00:50:18,908
- It pretty much was their own,
1156
00:50:18,907 --> 00:50:22,119
we were pretty knee-deep in Skyrim at that point
1157
00:50:22,119 --> 00:50:24,489
and there really wasn't a lot of help
1158
00:50:24,489 --> 00:50:26,169
that we could give them.
1159
00:50:26,170 --> 00:50:27,490
Interesting enough, of all the people,
1160
00:50:27,489 --> 00:50:29,229
I was probably the one on the team
1161
00:50:29,230 --> 00:50:31,490
that worked on New Vegas the most, actually,
1162
00:50:31,489 --> 00:50:35,349
but they did a heck of a job where we literally gave them
1163
00:50:35,349 --> 00:50:40,349
like this, here is the engine and the tech, Godspeed.
1164
00:50:40,480 --> 00:50:42,349
And we gave them all the source, it was basically,
1165
00:50:42,349 --> 00:50:45,019
we gave them all the raw assets from Fallout 3,
1166
00:50:45,019 --> 00:50:46,630
like, here's everything, you know,
1167
00:50:46,630 --> 00:50:48,670
they gave us a great pitch, a great story,
1168
00:50:48,670 --> 00:50:50,510
and it was pretty exciting, actually,
1169
00:50:50,510 --> 00:50:52,920
to see someone else do their take on it
1170
00:50:52,920 --> 00:50:55,690
and it was obviously well-received as well,
1171
00:50:55,690 --> 00:50:58,190
but I thought they did a great job with that game.
1172
00:50:59,876 --> 00:51:02,626
(majestic music)
1173
00:51:14,190 --> 00:51:16,880
- [Danny] The team at BGS has a monthly hands-on meeting
1174
00:51:16,880 --> 00:51:18,789
where their new studios in Austin
1175
00:51:18,789 --> 00:51:20,980
and Montreal are dialed in.
1176
00:51:20,980 --> 00:51:23,300
They begin each meeting with a list of new employees
1177
00:51:23,300 --> 00:51:25,700
and recognition of their anniversaries.
1178
00:51:25,699 --> 00:51:30,419
- This is in Montreal, Jason, a year, Sebastian, one year,
1179
00:51:30,420 --> 00:51:33,322
Katja, four years, Jared, four years,
1180
00:51:33,322 --> 00:51:36,405
Jarod, four years, five years, sorry.
1181
00:51:37,288 --> 00:51:39,865
Gabe's five years, and Nate and Emmet, five years,
1182
00:51:39,864 --> 00:51:40,786
so a lot of people.
1183
00:51:40,786 --> 00:51:43,786
(crowd applauding)
1184
00:51:45,440 --> 00:51:47,099
- [Danny] It went on for quite a while,
1185
00:51:47,099 --> 00:51:49,569
the top Bethesda Birthday that month going to
1186
00:51:49,570 --> 00:51:54,373
quest designer Brian Chappy Chapin, who celebrated 17 years.
1187
00:51:55,329 --> 00:51:58,130
The average tenure at BGS is pretty high.
1188
00:51:58,130 --> 00:52:01,019
This has meant that as they moved from project to project,
1189
00:52:01,019 --> 00:52:04,170
the team has become more battle-hardened and more trusting
1190
00:52:04,170 --> 00:52:07,000
of the process through which they make their games.
1191
00:52:07,000 --> 00:52:08,969
Bethesda has a process.
1192
00:52:08,969 --> 00:52:12,309
They overlap projects so that as one game is being finished,
1193
00:52:12,309 --> 00:52:14,139
another is being spun up.
1194
00:52:14,139 --> 00:52:16,480
They always start with the map.
1195
00:52:16,480 --> 00:52:19,019
They add new technology help to build the world.
1196
00:52:19,019 --> 00:52:22,079
Then they write stories, add in new tent-pole ideas,
1197
00:52:22,079 --> 00:52:25,259
and create strike teams to focus on problematic areas.
1198
00:52:25,260 --> 00:52:27,780
Crucially, they've gotten better at finishing games
1199
00:52:27,780 --> 00:52:30,220
and pulling less out of them at the last minute.
1200
00:52:30,219 --> 00:52:32,959
This is a process that used to terrify the studio,
1201
00:52:32,960 --> 00:52:34,360
but through experience,
1202
00:52:34,360 --> 00:52:36,039
they've become a lot more comfortable with.
1203
00:52:36,039 --> 00:52:38,210
- I don't know, let's say seven, eight months
1204
00:52:38,210 --> 00:52:39,882
before release, it's a serious mess.
1205
00:52:39,882 --> 00:52:40,839
- [Interviewer] Right.
1206
00:52:40,840 --> 00:52:41,673
- Always.
1207
00:52:42,690 --> 00:52:44,730
Hey, we wanna push 'em in this direction
1208
00:52:44,730 --> 00:52:47,150
but things just don't click together as much as you want
1209
00:52:47,150 --> 00:52:48,351
and then you start shaving.
1210
00:52:48,351 --> 00:52:50,670
There's tricks you have to nudge the player this way
1211
00:52:50,670 --> 00:52:53,869
or, hey, let's cut this or let's change this into this,
1212
00:52:53,869 --> 00:52:57,150
or let's make this expose itself and become,
1213
00:52:57,150 --> 00:52:59,119
you know, more of a thing.
1214
00:52:59,119 --> 00:53:01,059
And then when you ship it sometimes,
1215
00:53:01,059 --> 00:53:02,462
there's something you miss, you realize,
1216
00:53:02,463 --> 00:53:04,510
ugh, this is the one everyone's drifting toward
1217
00:53:04,510 --> 00:53:06,340
and that wasn't our intention.
1218
00:53:06,340 --> 00:53:08,910
- Three months before we ship there's this pocket
1219
00:53:08,909 --> 00:53:10,329
where things are in the game,
1220
00:53:10,329 --> 00:53:12,449
you're in alpha transitions into beta,
1221
00:53:12,449 --> 00:53:15,966
and the game is done and, like, people are like,
1222
00:53:15,967 --> 00:53:19,329
"Yeah, this doesn't feel right, it sucks!"
1223
00:53:19,329 --> 00:53:23,099
And you're like, I know, but we always get it,
1224
00:53:23,099 --> 00:53:26,269
like we know that it sucks, that's our job at that point
1225
00:53:26,269 --> 00:53:28,719
to make it not suck, to make it fun.
1226
00:53:28,719 --> 00:53:32,299
Like it's a, you know, it's finally, the giant block
1227
00:53:32,300 --> 00:53:34,810
of granite has been delivered to the sculptor,
1228
00:53:34,809 --> 00:53:36,079
thank you, it's sitting in there,
1229
00:53:36,079 --> 00:53:39,119
now I'm just chiseling away little by little,
1230
00:53:39,119 --> 00:53:41,250
just give me a little more time, it's getting there.
1231
00:53:41,250 --> 00:53:43,159
And at this point we've been doing it
1232
00:53:43,159 --> 00:53:44,690
so long we know it'll get there.
1233
00:53:44,690 --> 00:53:48,130
- Yeah, I think everyone here to almost an obsessive level
1234
00:53:48,130 --> 00:53:50,670
wants these games to be amazing.
1235
00:53:50,670 --> 00:53:53,356
We don't, like, hold back,
1236
00:53:53,356 --> 00:53:56,487
we're putting everything we possibly can into this game.
1237
00:53:56,487 --> 00:53:59,086
And that, actually, is probably our biggest problem,
1238
00:54:00,030 --> 00:54:01,200
there's a time when you gotta realize,
1239
00:54:01,199 --> 00:54:03,879
okay, this isn't gonna be good enough,
1240
00:54:03,880 --> 00:54:05,070
maybe we should cut this back
1241
00:54:05,070 --> 00:54:06,840
or pare this back a little bit.
1242
00:54:06,840 --> 00:54:10,289
But it's not for a lack of trying.
1243
00:54:10,289 --> 00:54:12,969
Everyone wants everything in this game every time
1244
00:54:12,969 --> 00:54:14,146
and then the next game it's,
1245
00:54:14,146 --> 00:54:15,896
"Okay, that was great, what can we do now?
1246
00:54:15,896 --> 00:54:16,866
"How can we make this better?
1247
00:54:16,867 --> 00:54:18,055
"We're done, next!"
1248
00:54:18,054 --> 00:54:20,969
You know, what're we gonna do that can blow that one away,
1249
00:54:20,969 --> 00:54:22,969
no one will ever wanna play that game again
1250
00:54:22,969 --> 00:54:24,339
after they've seen this.
1251
00:54:24,340 --> 00:54:25,490
- [Interviewer] That didn't work for Skyrim.
1252
00:54:25,489 --> 00:54:26,889
- No, that's good.
1253
00:54:26,889 --> 00:54:31,889
Our fans are amazing, that they play our games for so long,
1254
00:54:32,079 --> 00:54:34,960
having the creation kit and modding
1255
00:54:34,960 --> 00:54:38,742
be such a big part of Bethesda is just really, really cool.
1256
00:54:39,639 --> 00:54:40,929
I'll often go look at mods
1257
00:54:40,929 --> 00:54:44,199
and just can't believe what they've done.
1258
00:54:44,199 --> 00:54:46,339
Mostly on the visual front, like,
1259
00:54:46,340 --> 00:54:48,130
oh, wow, that's really amazing
1260
00:54:48,130 --> 00:54:50,910
how they're using some new effects on the games.
1261
00:54:50,909 --> 00:54:54,899
Or the teams who will go and try to recreate
1262
00:54:54,900 --> 00:54:56,910
one of our older games in the newer engine,
1263
00:54:56,909 --> 00:55:00,690
that's like the biggest, I don't know,
1264
00:55:00,690 --> 00:55:02,369
praise you could possibly get
1265
00:55:02,369 --> 00:55:05,389
that people want to remake an entire game you worked on
1266
00:55:06,380 --> 00:55:07,980
in the newer engine just 'cause it'll be
1267
00:55:07,980 --> 00:55:09,340
a little bit better and cooler
1268
00:55:09,340 --> 00:55:12,990
and they wanna see what they can do, it's really awesome.
1269
00:55:12,989 --> 00:55:15,429
- There are a lot of people on the team, myself included,
1270
00:55:15,429 --> 00:55:18,659
are huge fans of mods and the modding community.
1271
00:55:18,659 --> 00:55:21,269
And they've been doing it for just as long as we have!
1272
00:55:21,269 --> 00:55:24,610
The modding community is 15, 18 years old,
1273
00:55:24,610 --> 00:55:26,980
that's unheard of in the industry, no one, like,
1274
00:55:26,980 --> 00:55:28,380
there are no fans of, like,
1275
00:55:28,380 --> 00:55:29,930
not even the Minecraft community is that old,
1276
00:55:29,929 --> 00:55:32,339
like, there's nothing like that in the industry
1277
00:55:32,340 --> 00:55:34,643
so we're in a really unique situation.
1278
00:55:42,275 --> 00:55:44,858
(gentle music)
1279
00:55:54,998 --> 00:55:56,315
- You know, I talked to Todd a lot about this
1280
00:55:56,315 --> 00:55:57,450
because it was just kind of Todd and I
1281
00:55:57,449 --> 00:55:59,672
talking about Skyrim early on, nobody was working on it,
1282
00:55:59,672 --> 00:56:02,369
they were still working on Fallout stuff.
1283
00:56:02,369 --> 00:56:06,730
And we both wanted, he and I somehow align on the ideas
1284
00:56:06,730 --> 00:56:09,070
of what we wanna do in the next Elder Scrolls game.
1285
00:56:09,070 --> 00:56:10,970
We both wanted something that wasn't sort of
1286
00:56:10,969 --> 00:56:14,519
the generic fantasy of Oblivion
1287
00:56:14,519 --> 00:56:18,739
but wasn't as alien as Morrowind was.
1288
00:56:18,739 --> 00:56:20,492
So we wanted to do something
1289
00:56:20,492 --> 00:56:22,769
that had a lot more of the local culture,
1290
00:56:22,769 --> 00:56:23,603
so we picked the nords,
1291
00:56:23,603 --> 00:56:25,440
we were both excited about doing nords,
1292
00:56:25,440 --> 00:56:27,750
but wanted to kind of mix in some of the other elements
1293
00:56:27,750 --> 00:56:30,619
from the other provinces around Skyrim.
1294
00:56:30,619 --> 00:56:33,719
And then I drew a map and that kind of helped me figure out,
1295
00:56:33,719 --> 00:56:35,269
well, what is this game?
1296
00:56:35,269 --> 00:56:37,059
All right, I'll make a map and I'll start figuring out
1297
00:56:37,059 --> 00:56:39,239
where everything goes and what could be in it.
1298
00:56:39,239 --> 00:56:41,779
And I pulled references for all the different regions,
1299
00:56:41,780 --> 00:56:43,450
'cause early on we told the team, hey, yeah,
1300
00:56:43,449 --> 00:56:45,984
we're gonna be making Skyrim and everyone was like,
1301
00:56:45,985 --> 00:56:47,336
"Is it gonna be all snow?
1302
00:56:47,336 --> 00:56:49,340
"That sounds really boring."
1303
00:56:49,340 --> 00:56:52,283
So I did a presentation for the whole team that was,
1304
00:56:52,282 --> 00:56:54,156
"No, it's not gonna be all snow and plus,
1305
00:56:54,157 --> 00:56:56,710
"there's so many different kinds of snow you don't realize."
1306
00:56:56,710 --> 00:56:59,559
So we broke apart this sort of arctic environment
1307
00:56:59,559 --> 00:57:03,309
into tundra, different types of tundra, volcanic tundra,
1308
00:57:03,309 --> 00:57:08,309
the more open fields tundra, rocky wastelands on the edges,
1309
00:57:08,960 --> 00:57:12,480
a snow environment, a arctic glacier environment,
1310
00:57:12,480 --> 00:57:14,416
and then forests, make 'em different,
1311
00:57:14,416 --> 00:57:18,000
we can have pine forests, we can have fall forests,
1312
00:57:18,000 --> 00:57:19,130
which we called it 'cause we kinda
1313
00:57:19,130 --> 00:57:22,510
set the tone of the game in the fall.
1314
00:57:22,510 --> 00:57:25,300
- What it was, it felt that Oblivion
1315
00:57:25,300 --> 00:57:28,070
had tipped back to being too generic.
1316
00:57:28,070 --> 00:57:29,670
It's welcoming, right?
1317
00:57:29,670 --> 00:57:33,157
But it doesn't have, its character just became,
1318
00:57:33,157 --> 00:57:36,200
"I'm the next gen role-playing game in forests."
1319
00:57:36,199 --> 00:57:38,869
And we needed something that at an instant
1320
00:57:38,869 --> 00:57:43,699
felt a bit more rugged and had its own identity.
1321
00:57:43,699 --> 00:57:47,599
And the dragons and the shouting, they work into that.
1322
00:57:47,599 --> 00:57:50,900
- Fallout 3 had a very tight design, it was very,
1323
00:57:50,900 --> 00:57:53,450
we hadn't done factions, it was a smaller game
1324
00:57:53,449 --> 00:57:55,346
in a lot of ways than even Oblivion,
1325
00:57:55,346 --> 00:57:56,940
which allowed us to polish.
1326
00:57:56,940 --> 00:58:00,460
And we knew that with Skyrim we were gonna go big again.
1327
00:58:00,460 --> 00:58:02,639
- Skyrim would be the team's fourth bite
1328
00:58:02,639 --> 00:58:05,429
at their particular brand of open world role-playing game.
1329
00:58:05,429 --> 00:58:07,449
And with that confidence came the drive
1330
00:58:07,449 --> 00:58:10,029
to improve on things that they had done before.
1331
00:58:10,030 --> 00:58:12,420
To plan better so they had more time
1332
00:58:12,420 --> 00:58:14,829
to add new flavors to their world.
1333
00:58:14,829 --> 00:58:18,719
- We'll come up with the basic ideas
1334
00:58:18,719 --> 00:58:20,829
behind each town or each city and say,
1335
00:58:20,829 --> 00:58:23,329
all right, these are the people who live here,
1336
00:58:23,329 --> 00:58:26,469
it's kinda based on, you know, if it's Solitude,
1337
00:58:26,469 --> 00:58:29,169
it's a heavy Imperial presence and we want it to be
1338
00:58:29,170 --> 00:58:31,950
near a port, come up with some ideas.
1339
00:58:31,949 --> 00:58:34,029
And then Ray, one of our concept artists, drew that
1340
00:58:34,030 --> 00:58:35,730
and put it on top of a cliff
1341
00:58:35,730 --> 00:58:38,139
with an arch over to another rock formation
1342
00:58:38,139 --> 00:58:40,094
and everyone was like, "Oh, all right, this is really cool,
1343
00:58:40,094 --> 00:58:41,463
"this is starting to feel really unique."
1344
00:58:41,463 --> 00:58:43,730
- With the cave kit we tried to do a lot of different things
1345
00:58:43,730 --> 00:58:46,300
'cause I already did the cave kit on Fallout 3
1346
00:58:46,300 --> 00:58:49,970
so we tried to branch out and make them a lot more organic.
1347
00:58:49,969 --> 00:58:51,079
'Cause the way we would build them before
1348
00:58:51,079 --> 00:58:52,759
it was pretty much LEGO pieces
1349
00:58:52,760 --> 00:58:55,490
and it would all snap together in 90 degree angles,
1350
00:58:55,489 --> 00:58:58,819
caves aren't really 90 degree angles so we expanded on that
1351
00:58:58,820 --> 00:59:00,730
and added all these pieces that you can jam in
1352
00:59:00,730 --> 00:59:03,760
so things can flow around really natural.
1353
00:59:03,760 --> 00:59:05,350
It's more work for the designers
1354
00:59:05,349 --> 00:59:09,969
but then it doesn't just feel like old-school grid RPG thing
1355
00:59:09,969 --> 00:59:11,419
so I think it made a big difference
1356
00:59:11,420 --> 00:59:12,599
and sort of laid the ground work
1357
00:59:12,599 --> 00:59:16,052
for what we did on Fallout 4 which went even further.
1358
00:59:19,715 --> 00:59:22,660
(peaceful music)
1359
00:59:22,659 --> 00:59:23,492
- [Danny] Whatever way you slice it,
1360
00:59:23,492 --> 00:59:27,960
one of the elements that defines Bethesda games is bugs.
1361
00:59:27,960 --> 00:59:29,929
These games, with all their openness,
1362
00:59:29,929 --> 00:59:33,210
all their interactive objects and emergent storytelling,
1363
00:59:33,210 --> 00:59:35,420
are rife with bugs.
1364
00:59:35,420 --> 00:59:37,269
In the past, bug hunting was something
1365
00:59:37,269 --> 00:59:40,630
that was done by the entire team as they approached launch
1366
00:59:40,630 --> 00:59:43,809
but as the studio grew, they were able to put resources
1367
00:59:43,809 --> 00:59:46,590
into starting a quality assurance department.
1368
00:59:46,590 --> 00:59:48,000
Now they were hiring people,
1369
00:59:48,000 --> 00:59:50,019
many of whom were fans of the games,
1370
00:59:50,019 --> 00:59:53,199
to join their QA department and find bugs for them.
1371
00:59:53,199 --> 00:59:57,509
And as it turns out, bugs came in all shapes and sizes.
1372
00:59:57,510 --> 00:59:59,530
- There were some that dealt with menus and then you'd be
1373
00:59:59,530 --> 01:00:01,330
the person who was just scrolling through menus
1374
01:00:01,329 --> 01:00:04,239
trying to find typos, trying to find issues with the menus.
1375
01:00:04,239 --> 01:00:06,329
Then there are the people that had the gameplay access
1376
01:00:06,329 --> 01:00:08,440
where they were trying to find
1377
01:00:08,440 --> 01:00:10,809
whether they could run through a wall
1378
01:00:10,809 --> 01:00:13,940
or whether this collection of spells,
1379
01:00:13,940 --> 01:00:15,619
if we're using Skyrim as an example,
1380
01:00:15,619 --> 01:00:17,269
would cause the game to crash.
1381
01:00:17,269 --> 01:00:19,373
So there were teams that were specifically put on,
1382
01:00:19,373 --> 01:00:21,750
quest completion and making sure they can get
1383
01:00:21,750 --> 01:00:24,130
from point A to point B without any issues,
1384
01:00:24,130 --> 01:00:25,930
just running the specific path.
1385
01:00:25,929 --> 01:00:28,579
Some would have to divert and do side quests.
1386
01:00:28,579 --> 01:00:31,349
There were achievement testers that would do the quests
1387
01:00:31,349 --> 01:00:33,750
or do what they needed to do in order to figure out
1388
01:00:33,750 --> 01:00:35,159
whether the achievements and trophies
1389
01:00:35,159 --> 01:00:37,000
were gonna pop properly.
1390
01:00:37,000 --> 01:00:38,750
- [Danny] Skyrim wasn't the first Bethesda game
1391
01:00:38,750 --> 01:00:40,920
to ship with bugs, but thanks to capture cards
1392
01:00:40,920 --> 01:00:42,869
and the growing popularity of YouTube,
1393
01:00:42,869 --> 01:00:44,940
it was the first to have so many of them
1394
01:00:44,940 --> 01:00:47,280
immortalized for millions to see.
1395
01:00:47,280 --> 01:00:49,250
I asked the team about some of their favorites,
1396
01:00:49,250 --> 01:00:51,019
some you may have seen yourself,
1397
01:00:51,019 --> 01:00:53,119
and others you probably haven't.
1398
01:00:53,119 --> 01:00:58,119
- In the DLC for Skyrim, I think it was Dawnguard,
1399
01:00:58,199 --> 01:01:03,199
there was artwork that was supposed to be a fork and knife.
1400
01:01:03,349 --> 01:01:04,182
So there's a fork and knife,
1401
01:01:04,182 --> 01:01:05,800
you weren't supposed to be able to pick them up,
1402
01:01:05,800 --> 01:01:07,900
they were just supposed to be placed on the table,
1403
01:01:07,900 --> 01:01:10,269
but there are two in the game, still to this day
1404
01:01:10,269 --> 01:01:12,210
'cause they never fixed it,
1405
01:01:12,210 --> 01:01:14,030
that you can pick up and hold as weapons
1406
01:01:14,030 --> 01:01:15,750
and you can enchant them and you can, like,
1407
01:01:15,750 --> 01:01:19,320
decapitate people with an eating fork and an eating knife.
1408
01:01:19,320 --> 01:01:21,663
Had a blast doing this but the bug part of it,
1409
01:01:21,663 --> 01:01:23,650
like that part wasn't that big of a deal,
1410
01:01:23,650 --> 01:01:27,329
but the bug part of it came where if you created a save game
1411
01:01:27,329 --> 01:01:30,650
and then loaded that game with the fork and knife equipped,
1412
01:01:30,650 --> 01:01:33,900
it would load you into the artwork somewhere in the game.
1413
01:01:33,900 --> 01:01:35,490
So, like, you'd just be in the middle
1414
01:01:35,489 --> 01:01:36,659
of a table place setting.
1415
01:01:36,659 --> 01:01:38,309
- [Interviewer] The game, like, when you load back in,
1416
01:01:38,309 --> 01:01:40,500
makes you, like, the plate?
1417
01:01:40,500 --> 01:01:43,050
- Yeah, you're basically the plate, and you're not,
1418
01:01:43,050 --> 01:01:44,650
you're not standing on top of the table,
1419
01:01:44,650 --> 01:01:46,530
you're standing in the table,
1420
01:01:46,530 --> 01:01:48,019
anywhere where there's a fork and knife
1421
01:01:48,019 --> 01:01:49,550
if it's in the same load set.
1422
01:01:49,550 --> 01:01:52,440
So if I'm in that area and there happens to be
1423
01:01:52,440 --> 01:01:55,429
somewhere later in the level a fork and knife,
1424
01:01:55,429 --> 01:01:57,699
it will propel me to where the fork and knife are.
1425
01:01:57,699 --> 01:01:59,059
- So after Skyrim came out,
1426
01:01:59,059 --> 01:02:00,659
the first thing there's videos going up on YouTube
1427
01:02:00,659 --> 01:02:03,129
of people throwing buckets over people's heads in towns.
1428
01:02:03,130 --> 01:02:05,583
- Welcome to the Pawned Prawn.
1429
01:02:05,583 --> 01:02:06,847
What can I do for you?
1430
01:02:06,847 --> 01:02:09,653
- You don't look so good, are you feelin' all right?
1431
01:02:13,500 --> 01:02:17,010
- I have all sorts of interesting items for sale.
1432
01:02:17,010 --> 01:02:19,380
- Because our system for the AI was literally
1433
01:02:19,380 --> 01:02:21,869
a line of sight, a pick drawn from the center of the head
1434
01:02:21,869 --> 01:02:23,059
to whatever they were going for.
1435
01:02:23,059 --> 01:02:23,893
You put a bucket on their head
1436
01:02:23,893 --> 01:02:25,490
they couldn't see you anymore, right?
1437
01:02:25,489 --> 01:02:27,369
No one thought to do that, all our QA,
1438
01:02:27,369 --> 01:02:29,009
all the hundreds of hours, thousands,
1439
01:02:29,010 --> 01:02:30,530
tens of hundreds of thousands hours
1440
01:02:30,530 --> 01:02:31,880
we collectively played that game.
1441
01:02:31,880 --> 01:02:36,039
- The giants would launch, like, characters into the sky
1442
01:02:36,039 --> 01:02:38,480
and I didn't know that the bear was being launched.
1443
01:02:38,480 --> 01:02:40,199
Every once in a while you would see, like,
1444
01:02:40,199 --> 01:02:43,000
you'd be playing Skyrim before we released,
1445
01:02:43,000 --> 01:02:44,059
you're like running around,
1446
01:02:44,059 --> 01:02:46,360
and you would just see a mammoth, like,
1447
01:02:46,360 --> 01:02:49,530
fly up in the air and then you'd see it,
1448
01:02:49,530 --> 01:02:52,140
like, drop, and you're like, "What the hell is going on?"
1449
01:02:52,139 --> 01:02:54,279
Like, little by little, that's how I started asking
1450
01:02:54,280 --> 01:02:55,358
the animator who animated the giant, like,
1451
01:02:55,358 --> 01:02:56,778
"Dude, have you seen the flying mammoths?
1452
01:02:56,777 --> 01:02:59,169
"Like, what's happening?"
1453
01:02:59,170 --> 01:03:01,180
Something will aggro the giant,
1454
01:03:01,179 --> 01:03:02,406
the giant will then hit the ground
1455
01:03:02,407 --> 01:03:05,430
and because they're always paired with the mammoths,
1456
01:03:05,429 --> 01:03:07,469
they send them in the air,
1457
01:03:07,469 --> 01:03:09,980
but I never saw the bear until we released.
1458
01:03:09,980 --> 01:03:11,250
And so then the game released
1459
01:03:11,250 --> 01:03:12,710
and then suddenly there's this whole thing
1460
01:03:12,710 --> 01:03:16,039
where my bear was being launched across the map
1461
01:03:16,039 --> 01:03:19,219
and then, obviously, spawned that fan video
1462
01:03:19,219 --> 01:03:22,392
of that bear that keeps flying around and all that.
1463
01:03:25,019 --> 01:03:26,759
- [Player] Attack bear, please attack bear.
1464
01:03:26,760 --> 01:03:28,720
Yes! (laughing)
1465
01:03:28,719 --> 01:03:30,980
- [Danny] As much as we all enjoy a good flying bear,
1466
01:03:30,980 --> 01:03:32,829
bugs weren't the only element of Skyrim
1467
01:03:32,829 --> 01:03:35,130
to be immortalized in by internet culture.
1468
01:03:35,130 --> 01:03:37,309
Emil is responsible for so much
1469
01:03:37,309 --> 01:03:39,230
of what makes these games special.
1470
01:03:39,230 --> 01:03:41,480
He's written all the the Dark Brotherhood quest lines,
1471
01:03:41,480 --> 01:03:43,539
he helped design every lockpicking game
1472
01:03:43,539 --> 01:03:44,949
Bethesda has ever worked on,
1473
01:03:44,949 --> 01:03:48,000
he even wrote an entire arena combat mode for Skyrim,
1474
01:03:48,000 --> 01:03:51,010
with arenas in every city just like the original concept
1475
01:03:51,010 --> 01:03:54,310
for Oblivion, but just like that it didn't make it in.
1476
01:03:54,309 --> 01:03:57,070
But despite all of his work on all of these elements,
1477
01:03:57,070 --> 01:04:00,230
the thing that Emil is probably most famous for
1478
01:04:00,230 --> 01:04:02,679
is a single line of guard dialogue
1479
01:04:02,679 --> 01:04:05,679
that he wrote in about five seconds.
1480
01:04:05,679 --> 01:04:10,679
- Yeah, so, again, I was Dark Brotherhood, guard dialog...
1481
01:04:13,789 --> 01:04:15,519
- [Interviewer] Are you responsible for arrow in the knee,
1482
01:04:15,519 --> 01:04:16,353
then, is that what you're telling me?
1483
01:04:16,353 --> 01:04:18,222
- Yeah, I am, actually (laughing)
1484
01:04:18,222 --> 01:04:20,740
that is the weirdest thing ever.
1485
01:04:20,739 --> 01:04:24,779
But yeah, it's just, it was one line of dialog
1486
01:04:24,780 --> 01:04:28,860
in a stack of hundreds, I don't know,
1487
01:04:28,860 --> 01:04:30,539
the guys say a bunch of stuff.
1488
01:04:30,539 --> 01:04:33,940
And for some reason, could never have foretold,
1489
01:04:33,940 --> 01:04:37,670
to this day I still don't know why, there you have it.
1490
01:04:37,670 --> 01:04:39,090
Yeah, so weird.
1491
01:04:39,090 --> 01:04:41,161
- [Interviewer] Presumably you wrote it just one late night.
1492
01:04:41,161 --> 01:04:42,720
- Yeah, I was just writing a stack of 'em,
1493
01:04:42,719 --> 01:04:44,769
a bunch of randomized lines like,
1494
01:04:44,769 --> 01:04:45,603
"I used to be an adventurer like you
1495
01:04:45,603 --> 01:04:47,590
"then I took an arrow in the knee,"
1496
01:04:47,590 --> 01:04:49,834
you know, "hey, I saw a horker down there,"
1497
01:04:49,833 --> 01:04:50,909
you know, whatever, it wasn't,
1498
01:04:50,909 --> 01:04:53,559
didn't give it a second thought, like, you know,
1499
01:04:53,559 --> 01:04:56,210
just trying to get into the mindset
1500
01:04:56,210 --> 01:04:57,302
of what these guys are like.
1501
01:04:57,302 --> 01:04:59,702
- I used to be an adventurer like you,
1502
01:04:59,702 --> 01:05:01,422
then I took an arrow in the knee.
1503
01:05:02,519 --> 01:05:03,789
- [Danny] Something else Emil worked on
1504
01:05:03,789 --> 01:05:05,230
was the dragon language.
1505
01:05:05,230 --> 01:05:07,559
The team had wanted to put believable dragons
1506
01:05:07,559 --> 01:05:10,190
into a 3D Elder Scrolls game since forever,
1507
01:05:10,190 --> 01:05:12,740
and now that they finally had to the technology to do it,
1508
01:05:12,739 --> 01:05:16,199
they wanted it to be an integral part of the main quest.
1509
01:05:16,199 --> 01:05:17,359
- I don't know if this has ever come out,
1510
01:05:17,360 --> 01:05:20,940
but one of the biggest inspirations for the shouts
1511
01:05:20,940 --> 01:05:25,139
is actually the power of the voice in the Dune movie.
1512
01:05:25,139 --> 01:05:25,972
- [Interviewer] Oh really?
1513
01:05:25,972 --> 01:05:28,300
- Yeah, the Maud'Dib, yeah,
1514
01:05:28,300 --> 01:05:30,310
'cause he has that device (grunting)
1515
01:05:30,309 --> 01:05:32,130
and it blows up the rock.
1516
01:05:32,130 --> 01:05:33,950
There's a sort of cadence to it,
1517
01:05:33,949 --> 01:05:37,529
'cause each shout can be a maximum of three words
1518
01:05:37,530 --> 01:05:40,010
and so, like, if you find one word,
1519
01:05:40,010 --> 01:05:42,131
it's an exhale like "Fus,"
1520
01:05:42,130 --> 01:05:45,009
if there's two words it's an inhale
1521
01:05:45,010 --> 01:05:47,486
then an exhale, it's like "Fus ro!"
1522
01:05:47,485 --> 01:05:50,440
And then if it's like, "Fus ro dah!"
1523
01:05:50,440 --> 01:05:52,679
So getting that pattern and that sort of,
1524
01:05:52,679 --> 01:05:55,519
it feels a little bit musical but you feel a power behind it
1525
01:05:55,519 --> 01:05:57,909
and then coming up with all the shouts and stuff.
1526
01:05:57,909 --> 01:05:59,719
- [Danny] For Fallout 4, the team had put together
1527
01:05:59,719 --> 01:06:02,889
a strike team to figure out how V.A.T.S combat could work
1528
01:06:02,889 --> 01:06:06,009
and for Skyrim, there were a bunch of strike teams, too.
1529
01:06:06,010 --> 01:06:07,670
One of them ran for the entire length
1530
01:06:07,670 --> 01:06:10,240
of the game's development, as it was responsible
1531
01:06:10,239 --> 01:06:12,716
for one of the most important parts of the game,
1532
01:06:12,717 --> 01:06:14,090
the dragons.
1533
01:06:14,090 --> 01:06:17,340
- They're very special because they have to,
1534
01:06:17,340 --> 01:06:19,350
if you think about draw distance, right?
1535
01:06:19,349 --> 01:06:21,639
In games you wanna be a fish in a bowl.
1536
01:06:21,639 --> 01:06:23,049
Okay, when can I unload something
1537
01:06:23,050 --> 01:06:25,620
or when can I deal with memory issues?
1538
01:06:25,619 --> 01:06:27,589
But the dragon, you expect to see the dragon
1539
01:06:27,590 --> 01:06:29,950
from as far as your eye can see, right?
1540
01:06:29,949 --> 01:06:32,299
Because you can go wherever your eye can see
1541
01:06:32,300 --> 01:06:36,280
so he's basically like loaded all the time
1542
01:06:36,280 --> 01:06:40,190
and he's costly, he has the most bones,
1543
01:06:40,190 --> 01:06:42,635
you know, the most dense mesh.
1544
01:06:42,635 --> 01:06:45,410
If you think about him, he's a heavy character.
1545
01:06:45,409 --> 01:06:47,119
- Dragons were tough in multiple ways.
1546
01:06:47,119 --> 01:06:48,289
Just how did they work?
1547
01:06:48,289 --> 01:06:49,726
Just with the way the games work
1548
01:06:49,726 --> 01:06:51,509
and the way we build the worlds,
1549
01:06:51,510 --> 01:06:53,340
it's very sort of cell-based 'cause technically
1550
01:06:53,340 --> 01:06:55,030
it has to load a certain number of cells
1551
01:06:55,030 --> 01:06:57,750
and a certain number of acres and so the technical aspect of
1552
01:06:57,750 --> 01:06:59,590
well, here's this thing that's in the sky
1553
01:06:59,590 --> 01:07:02,059
that can go wherever it wants, how's that work?
1554
01:07:02,059 --> 01:07:04,449
How's it work within the game world for the player?
1555
01:07:04,449 --> 01:07:06,059
And then once it's within your space,
1556
01:07:06,059 --> 01:07:07,000
how do you actually fight it?
1557
01:07:07,000 --> 01:07:07,833
- [Interviewer] Right.
1558
01:07:07,833 --> 01:07:09,313
- So fighting in the air if you're shooting spells at it,
1559
01:07:09,313 --> 01:07:10,890
when it's on the ground.
1560
01:07:10,889 --> 01:07:12,609
So I remember we basically had a strike team
1561
01:07:12,610 --> 01:07:13,900
and it was one of those things where the whole game,
1562
01:07:13,900 --> 01:07:16,039
from beginning to end, we were working on dragons.
1563
01:07:16,039 --> 01:07:18,559
Just sort of, can we do this,
1564
01:07:18,559 --> 01:07:20,009
and then once we got to a point where, yes,
1565
01:07:20,010 --> 01:07:21,090
we can make this work, and then,
1566
01:07:21,090 --> 01:07:23,940
okay, what do we do, what don't we do?
1567
01:07:23,940 --> 01:07:26,110
Like the quest wouldn't work, where's the dragon?
1568
01:07:26,110 --> 01:07:28,410
It's over here, there's a bunch of sheep it just killed.
1569
01:07:28,409 --> 01:07:31,029
That's when we go back and debug it and where's the dragon?
1570
01:07:31,030 --> 01:07:32,340
'Cause it uses a radiant AI
1571
01:07:32,340 --> 01:07:34,800
so it would go off on its own and do its own thing.
1572
01:07:34,800 --> 01:07:35,870
- [Danny] Skyrim was a massive
1573
01:07:35,869 --> 01:07:37,630
commercial and critical success.
1574
01:07:37,630 --> 01:07:40,480
It become one of the most modded games of all time,
1575
01:07:40,480 --> 01:07:43,429
spawned a huge community of both young and old
1576
01:07:43,429 --> 01:07:44,549
and has since been released
1577
01:07:44,550 --> 01:07:47,640
on practically every console known to man.
1578
01:07:47,639 --> 01:07:49,670
Something the team laughs about themselves,
1579
01:07:49,670 --> 01:07:52,740
referring to Skyrim as the game that will never die.
1580
01:07:52,739 --> 01:07:54,750
But the success the game enjoyed
1581
01:07:54,750 --> 01:07:56,750
was a surprise to most of them.
1582
01:07:56,750 --> 01:07:59,155
- I would've never guessed that game would be as popular
1583
01:07:59,155 --> 01:08:00,809
and do as well as it did.
1584
01:08:00,809 --> 01:08:02,739
We knew it was a fun game, we knew it was awesome,
1585
01:08:02,739 --> 01:08:05,416
like I knew playing it, you know, at six months I'm like,
1586
01:08:05,416 --> 01:08:06,496
"I think we have something here
1587
01:08:06,496 --> 01:08:07,817
"but I don't wanna say it out loud
1588
01:08:07,817 --> 01:08:08,769
"because I don't wanna jinx it."
1589
01:08:08,769 --> 01:08:12,556
And yeah and that would've been, for the designers,
1590
01:08:12,556 --> 01:08:15,099
that would've been their third game now,
1591
01:08:15,099 --> 01:08:17,789
so that's practically unheard of in the industry,
1592
01:08:17,789 --> 01:08:21,250
for a team to be together for that long at that point.
1593
01:08:21,250 --> 01:08:23,050
We started with Morrowind and then Oblivion
1594
01:08:23,050 --> 01:08:25,292
and then Fallout 3, now we're gonna do it for a fourth time.
1595
01:08:25,292 --> 01:08:27,230
And it's one of the advantages that we have
1596
01:08:27,229 --> 01:08:29,989
because of our history and all the games
1597
01:08:29,989 --> 01:08:32,609
that we've worked on, we can track,
1598
01:08:32,609 --> 01:08:34,989
how're we doing now compared to
1599
01:08:34,989 --> 01:08:37,609
where we were on this project with Fallout 4?
1600
01:08:37,609 --> 01:08:39,170
How do we compare versus Skyrim?
1601
01:08:39,170 --> 01:08:41,289
How do we compare versus all the other ones?
1602
01:08:41,289 --> 01:08:42,680
And that's sort of another advantage
1603
01:08:42,680 --> 01:08:44,350
that we have in the industry
1604
01:08:44,350 --> 01:08:47,570
that we have all these games and experiences.
1605
01:08:47,569 --> 01:08:49,670
I call them playbooks, like, we have the Skyrim Playbook,
1606
01:08:49,670 --> 01:08:50,989
how did we solve this problem in Skyrim?
1607
01:08:50,989 --> 01:08:53,396
How did we solve this problem in Fallout 4?
1608
01:08:53,396 --> 01:08:55,869
Like, we need a new game mechanic,
1609
01:08:55,869 --> 01:08:58,439
okay great, we have 15 years worth, pick one,
1610
01:08:58,439 --> 01:09:00,039
like which one do you wanna try?
1611
01:09:01,270 --> 01:09:04,020
(peaceful music)
1612
01:09:10,206 --> 01:09:11,663
- The first thing is for us is figure out
1613
01:09:11,662 --> 01:09:13,739
where the hell is this game set?
1614
01:09:13,739 --> 01:09:16,222
And it wasn't Boston originally.
1615
01:09:17,404 --> 01:09:19,785
I grew up in Boston and I thought it would be great
1616
01:09:19,784 --> 01:09:21,869
but I didn't wanna be that guy,
1617
01:09:21,869 --> 01:09:23,903
I didn't wanna push for it so I'm like.
1618
01:09:25,050 --> 01:09:28,360
It was set somewhere else and I still have the design doc
1619
01:09:28,359 --> 01:09:31,319
in my desk, an original design doc.
1620
01:09:31,319 --> 01:09:33,840
And in that design doc, the one thing,
1621
01:09:33,840 --> 01:09:37,670
the one holdover is the character of Nick Valentine,
1622
01:09:37,670 --> 01:09:40,220
was conceived even way back then,
1623
01:09:40,220 --> 01:09:42,329
he was like the first character they came up with.
1624
01:09:42,329 --> 01:09:43,890
- [Danny] Emil's design doc focusing on
1625
01:09:43,890 --> 01:09:46,440
a New York-based Fallout was one idea
1626
01:09:46,439 --> 01:09:48,269
that the lead's were floating around.
1627
01:09:48,270 --> 01:09:49,950
They could place this game anywhere,
1628
01:09:49,949 --> 01:09:52,439
in fact at one stage they had asked Obsidian
1629
01:09:52,439 --> 01:09:54,479
to remove a line in New Vegas
1630
01:09:54,479 --> 01:09:57,750
about San Francisco being totally wiped off the map,
1631
01:09:57,750 --> 01:09:59,500
they wanted the Bay area to at least
1632
01:09:59,500 --> 01:10:01,789
be an option for future games.
1633
01:10:01,789 --> 01:10:04,130
The idea for Boston actually came from a lunch meeting
1634
01:10:04,130 --> 01:10:07,210
between Istvan Pely, Todd Howard, and Emil.
1635
01:10:07,210 --> 01:10:09,489
And once Beantown was given the thumbs up,
1636
01:10:09,489 --> 01:10:12,149
Emil headed home with his camera.
1637
01:10:12,149 --> 01:10:14,589
- I had a friend of mine who was MIT,
1638
01:10:14,590 --> 01:10:16,023
so the Institute is MIT, obviously, right?
1639
01:10:16,023 --> 01:10:17,560
CIT in the game.
1640
01:10:17,560 --> 01:10:19,440
But I had a friend who was an MIT cop,
1641
01:10:19,439 --> 01:10:22,956
he drove me around, have me a little tour, and he said,
1642
01:10:22,957 --> 01:10:23,957
"Hey, I don't know if you knew this,
1643
01:10:23,957 --> 01:10:26,440
"but it's an open campus," it was in the summer,
1644
01:10:26,439 --> 01:10:28,716
and he's like, "The campus is open, you can walk around,
1645
01:10:28,716 --> 01:10:30,116
"you can walk through the classrooms,
1646
01:10:30,117 --> 01:10:31,159
"you can walk through anywhere."
1647
01:10:31,159 --> 01:10:34,239
And you know the whole cryo hook with Fallout 4?
1648
01:10:34,239 --> 01:10:38,119
I was wandering on a side tunnel down this corridor at MIT,
1649
01:10:38,119 --> 01:10:42,250
there's this cryo lab with these giant cryo tanks
1650
01:10:42,250 --> 01:10:45,886
and I sent these selfies and sent them to Todd, I'm like.
1651
01:10:45,886 --> 01:10:47,439
(interviewer laughing)
1652
01:10:47,439 --> 01:10:49,939
Looked pretty funny and then I knew back then,
1653
01:10:49,939 --> 01:10:52,079
the story just started to take on a life of its own.
1654
01:10:52,079 --> 01:10:54,000
- I have friends that live there
1655
01:10:54,000 --> 01:10:55,250
so we toured around the city
1656
01:10:55,250 --> 01:10:57,199
and I was taking tons and tons of pictures,
1657
01:10:57,199 --> 01:10:59,139
which should've been a red flag to them,
1658
01:10:59,140 --> 01:11:01,817
but then the extra big red flag should've been,
1659
01:11:01,817 --> 01:11:04,199
"And then we're gonna go and check out Fenway Park."
1660
01:11:04,199 --> 01:11:05,729
That was designed to be that way from the start,
1661
01:11:05,729 --> 01:11:08,089
like that was the very first thing I worked out on Fallout 4
1662
01:11:08,090 --> 01:11:11,470
was starting out building Fenway and from the beginning
1663
01:11:11,470 --> 01:11:13,480
we knew we wanted those stadium lights
1664
01:11:13,479 --> 01:11:15,929
and we knew the player was gonna have,
1665
01:11:15,930 --> 01:11:17,750
like, their first quest pointing towards that.
1666
01:11:17,750 --> 01:11:19,399
So I always wanted this beacon
1667
01:11:19,399 --> 01:11:21,759
and I always like to build worlds in a way
1668
01:11:21,760 --> 01:11:23,159
where you have these landmarks
1669
01:11:23,159 --> 01:11:24,930
that you can help orient yourself with, too,
1670
01:11:24,930 --> 01:11:26,260
that way you don't have to, like,
1671
01:11:26,260 --> 01:11:28,739
pull up the map all the time like, where the hell am I?
1672
01:11:28,739 --> 01:11:31,840
You can just navigate using what you see.
1673
01:11:31,840 --> 01:11:33,610
- My childhood bedroom is in the game,
1674
01:11:33,609 --> 01:11:35,239
my high school's in the game.
1675
01:11:35,239 --> 01:11:38,039
A raider boss named Bosco, he has a bear.
1676
01:11:38,039 --> 01:11:41,149
So it was the Don Bosco Bear was my mascot
1677
01:11:41,149 --> 01:11:43,809
back in high school, so goofy stuff like that, yeah.
1678
01:11:43,810 --> 01:11:47,124
Fenway Park, well, I mean, you know, Diamond City.
1679
01:11:47,123 --> 01:11:50,109
We knew that there were the big things that we had to have.
1680
01:11:50,109 --> 01:11:52,210
You have this quest to get paint for the wall
1681
01:11:52,210 --> 01:11:54,988
and you can repaint the wall blue or yellow,
1682
01:11:54,988 --> 01:11:57,532
which is the most sacrilegious thing you could possibly do,
1683
01:11:57,532 --> 01:11:58,770
I was like, we gotta do this.
1684
01:11:58,770 --> 01:11:59,603
It was great.
1685
01:11:59,603 --> 01:12:02,609
Boston Common and the public garden,
1686
01:12:02,609 --> 01:12:05,089
the swan boats are big and that's why we have Swan,
1687
01:12:05,090 --> 01:12:06,842
the supermutant behemoth.
1688
01:12:07,739 --> 01:12:09,319
The Old North Church, we knew that
1689
01:12:09,319 --> 01:12:12,069
that had to be a significant place.
1690
01:12:12,069 --> 01:12:15,590
The Old Statehouse which is where Goodneighbor is.
1691
01:12:15,590 --> 01:12:19,350
The name Goodneighbor comes from Holly Goodneighbor,
1692
01:12:19,350 --> 01:12:22,920
who was one of the last burlesque dancers in Boston,
1693
01:12:22,920 --> 01:12:26,869
so Goodneighbor is in an area that was once Scollay Square,
1694
01:12:26,869 --> 01:12:29,229
which was the original red light district of Boston.
1695
01:12:29,229 --> 01:12:31,589
- 2011 I think there was the earliest version
1696
01:12:31,590 --> 01:12:33,789
of that drawing out, how we wanted
1697
01:12:33,789 --> 01:12:35,920
the market laid out and stuff.
1698
01:12:35,920 --> 01:12:37,390
I actually laid that out myself
1699
01:12:37,390 --> 01:12:39,039
and one of the things I wanted was
1700
01:12:39,039 --> 01:12:41,470
I knew players were gonna be going there all the time,
1701
01:12:41,470 --> 01:12:43,270
'cause you're always selling things in games
1702
01:12:43,270 --> 01:12:45,490
and sometimes people will lay out a city
1703
01:12:45,489 --> 01:12:47,670
and it's like, the clothing shop is over there,
1704
01:12:47,670 --> 01:12:49,470
the weapon shop is over there.
1705
01:12:49,470 --> 01:12:51,650
I was like, that is super annoying
1706
01:12:51,649 --> 01:12:55,989
and takes 30 hours of additional time in your game,
1707
01:12:55,989 --> 01:12:57,769
just like running back and forth between those shops.
1708
01:12:57,770 --> 01:12:59,600
So I was like, let's take all the shops,
1709
01:12:59,600 --> 01:13:01,730
and we put them right here in the middle
1710
01:13:01,729 --> 01:13:04,779
so you can just buy and sell everything right there.
1711
01:13:04,779 --> 01:13:08,069
- Fallout 4 I think, for us, was the first time
1712
01:13:08,069 --> 01:13:13,069
we really handled a giant city in a much better way.
1713
01:13:13,170 --> 01:13:15,750
Technically and artistically, it was really hard
1714
01:13:15,750 --> 01:13:19,659
to jam everything we wanted to into a city,
1715
01:13:19,659 --> 01:13:21,300
make sure you didn't get lost,
1716
01:13:21,300 --> 01:13:24,210
and make sure it ran well and it was fun.
1717
01:13:24,210 --> 01:13:27,289
That was quite a lot of work went into figuring out
1718
01:13:27,289 --> 01:13:30,479
how to build the downtown city of Boston.
1719
01:13:30,479 --> 01:13:32,229
We had like key colors that popped out
1720
01:13:32,229 --> 01:13:33,769
where there was like a certain color of rust
1721
01:13:33,770 --> 01:13:35,710
and a certain red and a certain blue
1722
01:13:35,710 --> 01:13:38,189
that you'll see used on everything.
1723
01:13:38,189 --> 01:13:39,189
Like, the high-tech buildings
1724
01:13:39,189 --> 01:13:41,399
will have the same blue as the cars,
1725
01:13:41,399 --> 01:13:43,409
those were very conscious choices that we had.
1726
01:13:43,409 --> 01:13:46,119
We just wanted these accent colors,
1727
01:13:46,119 --> 01:13:49,119
so you'd have, you would know where important things are,
1728
01:13:49,119 --> 01:13:51,210
so you'd have sort of the background of the terrain
1729
01:13:51,210 --> 01:13:53,010
and ruined stuff is a certain color
1730
01:13:53,010 --> 01:13:54,860
but then you'd get these pops of color
1731
01:13:54,859 --> 01:13:57,059
to make it feel a little bit more alive
1732
01:13:57,060 --> 01:13:58,980
while still being trashed and crappy.
1733
01:13:58,979 --> 01:14:00,639
Color and lighting have a lot of similarities, too,
1734
01:14:00,640 --> 01:14:03,289
where I think of it as, like, mothing the player.
1735
01:14:03,289 --> 01:14:05,949
They see something and go towards it.
1736
01:14:05,949 --> 01:14:08,119
Yeah, that was intentional, we really wanted to say,
1737
01:14:08,119 --> 01:14:10,829
here are these bright colors and when I see that,
1738
01:14:10,829 --> 01:14:14,000
I know I'm gonna go find something that's interesting,
1739
01:14:14,000 --> 01:14:17,000
that's gonna lead me through this dead wasteland
1740
01:14:17,000 --> 01:14:19,939
that we're in and just be kind of a guide for the player.
1741
01:14:19,939 --> 01:14:22,189
- [Danny] The location for a Bethesda role-playing game
1742
01:14:22,189 --> 01:14:25,879
is always a point of interest, but in the case of Fallout 4
1743
01:14:25,880 --> 01:14:28,279
many of us had heard that it was set in Boston,
1744
01:14:28,279 --> 01:14:30,399
years before the game was released.
1745
01:14:30,399 --> 01:14:33,359
In December of 2013, a Kotaku article
1746
01:14:33,359 --> 01:14:35,269
revealed the location to be Boston,
1747
01:14:35,270 --> 01:14:37,050
referencing a voiceover script
1748
01:14:37,050 --> 01:14:38,980
that had been leaked to their news desk.
1749
01:14:38,979 --> 01:14:40,829
Communications between the studio
1750
01:14:40,829 --> 01:14:43,420
and the outlet have been frosty ever since,
1751
01:14:43,420 --> 01:14:46,199
but I wanted to know how the studio reacted
1752
01:14:46,199 --> 01:14:48,198
when they first saw the report.
1753
01:14:48,198 --> 01:14:52,809
- There were some small ones but nothing really bad,
1754
01:14:52,810 --> 01:14:57,283
there were some VO script leaks, that wasn't pleasant.
1755
01:14:59,770 --> 01:15:02,147
You know, I was, separate story really,
1756
01:15:02,146 --> 01:15:04,329
but literally the first time I saw those documents
1757
01:15:04,329 --> 01:15:06,359
was when they were emailed to me
1758
01:15:06,359 --> 01:15:08,452
from somebody outside the company.
1759
01:15:09,422 --> 01:15:13,429
And then you're like, what is this?
1760
01:15:13,430 --> 01:15:14,680
Where's this coming from?
1761
01:15:16,069 --> 01:15:17,299
But you know what?
1762
01:15:17,300 --> 01:15:20,342
I think you gotta let that kinda, you know,
1763
01:15:21,960 --> 01:15:23,539
roll off the shoulders pretty quickly,
1764
01:15:23,539 --> 01:15:26,189
like, we have enough to do to worry about that stuff
1765
01:15:26,189 --> 01:15:28,859
and there's so much going on
1766
01:15:28,859 --> 01:15:31,079
that the fact that more doesn't leak,
1767
01:15:31,079 --> 01:15:33,250
like in general, not just us but other people,
1768
01:15:33,250 --> 01:15:34,729
is kind of surprising.
1769
01:15:34,729 --> 01:15:37,989
- That was pretty, it was surprising,
1770
01:15:37,989 --> 01:15:40,139
and obviously we tried to track it down
1771
01:15:40,140 --> 01:15:41,590
and figure out what happened.
1772
01:15:42,619 --> 01:15:45,309
And that was, you know what, and that also kind of told us,
1773
01:15:45,310 --> 01:15:49,470
like, if you're gonna obfuscate stuff related to Fallout,
1774
01:15:49,470 --> 01:15:51,240
you really have to hide it,
1775
01:15:51,239 --> 01:15:55,519
you can't simply just give it a codename and call it a day.
1776
01:15:55,520 --> 01:15:56,610
Like, if you look at the thing
1777
01:15:56,609 --> 01:15:58,609
you're like, oh, this is a Fallout game.
1778
01:16:00,739 --> 01:16:03,149
- [Danny] Bethesda Game Studios continue to grow,
1779
01:16:03,149 --> 01:16:04,969
expanding departments with a focus
1780
01:16:04,970 --> 01:16:07,949
on improving the general production quality of the games.
1781
01:16:07,949 --> 01:16:09,250
Technical artists were hired
1782
01:16:09,250 --> 01:16:11,420
to create bespoke tools for the team,
1783
01:16:11,420 --> 01:16:14,470
dedicated animators helped to create more complex rigs.
1784
01:16:14,470 --> 01:16:16,539
They added cinematic cameras to dialogue,
1785
01:16:16,539 --> 01:16:18,170
upgraded the animation system,
1786
01:16:18,170 --> 01:16:20,180
and even sharpened up the shooting.
1787
01:16:20,180 --> 01:16:22,530
- We really, I felt like what happened was,
1788
01:16:22,529 --> 01:16:23,800
with Havok Animation in particular,
1789
01:16:23,800 --> 01:16:25,579
when we integrated that into our system,
1790
01:16:25,579 --> 01:16:28,069
I think Fallout 4 was the beginning of us
1791
01:16:28,069 --> 01:16:30,109
really catching a groove with that.
1792
01:16:30,109 --> 01:16:31,219
Like, there's a certain time when you start
1793
01:16:31,220 --> 01:16:33,326
to learn a new tool when we adopted Havok,
1794
01:16:33,326 --> 01:16:35,114
there's a time when you're just trying to learn it,
1795
01:16:35,114 --> 01:16:36,679
so we did that with Skyrim.
1796
01:16:36,680 --> 01:16:38,454
But I think when we had Fallout 4,
1797
01:16:38,453 --> 01:16:41,519
we knew it well enough where you're not fighting the tool
1798
01:16:41,520 --> 01:16:43,460
so much and you're much more in the realm
1799
01:16:43,460 --> 01:16:45,329
of creating the art, right?
1800
01:16:45,329 --> 01:16:47,277
I started on Dogmeat and I kind of did
1801
01:16:47,277 --> 01:16:48,109
the pre-production on Dogmeat
1802
01:16:48,109 --> 01:16:49,939
and then I passed it on to someone else
1803
01:16:49,939 --> 01:16:51,919
who actually did an amazing job with it.
1804
01:16:51,920 --> 01:16:54,460
And then I stayed primarily on scenes,
1805
01:16:54,460 --> 01:16:59,020
directing any actors we had for mo-cap, focusing on faces.
1806
01:16:59,020 --> 01:17:02,030
We spend so much time talking in our games
1807
01:17:02,029 --> 01:17:03,179
and it's the area where I feel
1808
01:17:03,180 --> 01:17:05,820
like we continually need to push.
1809
01:17:05,819 --> 01:17:06,759
I did a lot of the mo-cap,
1810
01:17:06,760 --> 01:17:08,600
I was also the actor for most of the mo-cop.
1811
01:17:08,600 --> 01:17:09,432
- [Interviewer] Oh really?
1812
01:17:09,432 --> 01:17:11,260
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, so, like, the salesman,
1813
01:17:11,260 --> 01:17:14,802
when he first comes in, I did all his stuff,
1814
01:17:15,890 --> 01:17:18,680
I shot the infamous cryo pod scene
1815
01:17:18,680 --> 01:17:21,512
where the guy was shooting the spouse.
1816
01:17:22,449 --> 01:17:24,599
That we did with a couple people here.
1817
01:17:24,600 --> 01:17:25,690
Yeah, we have like a mo-cap station,
1818
01:17:25,689 --> 01:17:27,266
I just go downstairs and just shoot it.
1819
01:17:27,266 --> 01:17:30,389
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just get in the suit, I play the audio,
1820
01:17:30,390 --> 01:17:34,119
and I try to perform to the people's performance,
1821
01:17:34,119 --> 01:17:35,567
or I grab somebody else and say,
1822
01:17:35,567 --> 01:17:37,920
"Hey, I need your help, let's go shoot."
1823
01:17:37,920 --> 01:17:41,632
- You know, it's funny, I grew up with a kid, Jay Giannone,
1824
01:17:42,560 --> 01:17:46,670
the last time I saw him in person, we were in a fight,
1825
01:17:46,670 --> 01:17:49,500
me and him and his friends were against me and it was like,
1826
01:17:49,500 --> 01:17:51,859
it was like this bully-nerd situation,
1827
01:17:51,859 --> 01:17:53,189
did not end in a good way.
1828
01:17:53,189 --> 01:17:56,062
And I had known that Jay throughout the years,
1829
01:17:56,063 --> 01:18:00,470
he'd gone on to be an actor and he'd been in some stuff
1830
01:18:00,470 --> 01:18:01,590
and I liked the things he'd been in,
1831
01:18:01,590 --> 01:18:03,837
so I reached out to him, I'm like, "Hey man, how's it goin'?
1832
01:18:03,837 --> 01:18:06,740
"I know you're an actor, do you wanna be in the game?"
1833
01:18:06,739 --> 01:18:11,592
So he's actually, he does a couple voices in the game.
1834
01:18:11,592 --> 01:18:14,092
(guns firing)
1835
01:18:29,600 --> 01:18:30,570
- [Danny] Before each project
1836
01:18:30,569 --> 01:18:32,739
Bethesda hosts a game jam where they invite
1837
01:18:32,739 --> 01:18:35,229
everyone in the studio to prototype something
1838
01:18:35,229 --> 01:18:37,209
for a new or existing game.
1839
01:18:37,210 --> 01:18:39,250
It can be anything, big or small.
1840
01:18:39,250 --> 01:18:40,970
For instance, one of the producers
1841
01:18:40,970 --> 01:18:44,180
learned how to animate cats during a game jam.
1842
01:18:44,180 --> 01:18:46,829
Those animations are used in Fallout 4.
1843
01:18:46,829 --> 01:18:48,640
Another game jam gem came from
1844
01:18:48,640 --> 01:18:50,520
physics programmer Mike Delaney.
1845
01:18:50,520 --> 01:18:52,470
He knocked together a system that allowed players
1846
01:18:52,470 --> 01:18:55,119
to build and furnish their own bases.
1847
01:18:55,119 --> 01:18:57,300
This system, Workshops, ended up being
1848
01:18:57,300 --> 01:18:59,759
one of the tent-pole features of Fallout 4,
1849
01:18:59,759 --> 01:19:01,409
but the truth is that it almost
1850
01:19:01,409 --> 01:19:03,619
didn't make it into the final game.
1851
01:19:03,619 --> 01:19:04,750
- The Workshop mode in Fallout
1852
01:19:04,750 --> 01:19:06,829
was on the cutting block for so long.
1853
01:19:06,829 --> 01:19:07,756
We were like, "I don't know if anyone
1854
01:19:07,756 --> 01:19:10,036
"really wants to do this, it's kind of fun though.
1855
01:19:10,037 --> 01:19:11,990
"Well, I guess we'll just kind keep it in there."
1856
01:19:11,989 --> 01:19:14,750
It was always kind of, it just refused to die
1857
01:19:14,750 --> 01:19:16,500
because we just weren't sure, like,
1858
01:19:16,500 --> 01:19:18,470
does anyone even care about this, you know?
1859
01:19:18,470 --> 01:19:20,070
And it turned out to be huge,
1860
01:19:20,069 --> 01:19:22,699
like there's a contingent of fans who hate it
1861
01:19:22,699 --> 01:19:23,880
and there's a contingent of fans,
1862
01:19:23,880 --> 01:19:25,510
hardcore fans, who absolutely adore it.
1863
01:19:25,510 --> 01:19:26,909
- Workshops was the easiest thing for us to cut
1864
01:19:26,909 --> 01:19:28,389
because we were always so afraid of it.
1865
01:19:28,390 --> 01:19:30,380
Not, afraid's the wrong word.
1866
01:19:30,380 --> 01:19:32,680
It was ancillary to the rest of the game.
1867
01:19:32,680 --> 01:19:35,760
It was a side thing, so we kept it there
1868
01:19:35,760 --> 01:19:38,320
because it was such an ambitious endeavor,
1869
01:19:38,319 --> 01:19:40,399
like it became part of the quests towards the end,
1870
01:19:40,399 --> 01:19:41,909
certain quests you had to do.
1871
01:19:41,909 --> 01:19:45,000
But we could've easily, had we known and invested more time,
1872
01:19:45,000 --> 01:19:47,439
it could've been a big part of the main quest,
1873
01:19:47,439 --> 01:19:48,929
rebuild a town or something.
1874
01:19:48,930 --> 01:19:51,280
One of physics programmers, Mike Delaney, sat there
1875
01:19:51,279 --> 01:19:53,166
and was like, "I did this thing and we can trip lights
1876
01:19:53,167 --> 01:19:55,327
"and turn lights on and move the objects around,"
1877
01:19:55,327 --> 01:19:56,726
and then Todd saw that and was like,
1878
01:19:56,726 --> 01:19:59,250
"Well, you get to do that for the rest of the project."
1879
01:19:59,250 --> 01:20:01,947
Well, some parts of the rest of the project.
1880
01:20:01,947 --> 01:20:04,029
And it built and built and built.
1881
01:20:04,029 --> 01:20:05,319
- [Danny] One of the conspiracy theories
1882
01:20:05,319 --> 01:20:08,099
that fans of BGS games love to talk about
1883
01:20:08,100 --> 01:20:12,050
is the idea that these games all exists in one universe.
1884
01:20:12,050 --> 01:20:14,810
The way in which the studio creates these games in series
1885
01:20:14,810 --> 01:20:17,840
means that there are always elements of Elder Scrolls games
1886
01:20:17,840 --> 01:20:20,920
being brought into the Fallout games and vice versa.
1887
01:20:20,920 --> 01:20:23,430
But one of the most exciting crossovers ever,
1888
01:20:23,430 --> 01:20:26,030
was actually left on the cutting room floor.
1889
01:20:26,029 --> 01:20:28,619
It involved the town of Salem, Massachusetts
1890
01:20:28,619 --> 01:20:30,930
and a bunch of magic kids.
1891
01:20:30,930 --> 01:20:33,110
- In the real world, there's a city of Salem,
1892
01:20:33,109 --> 01:20:34,460
there's another town of Danvers,
1893
01:20:34,460 --> 01:20:36,470
and there was a rivalry between those two towns with,
1894
01:20:36,470 --> 01:20:38,159
like, the high school teams with,
1895
01:20:38,159 --> 01:20:40,989
like, the Danvers soccer team and the Salem soccer team.
1896
01:20:40,989 --> 01:20:43,269
So we decided, let's do a little bit of a rivalry
1897
01:20:43,270 --> 01:20:45,250
between Danvers and Salem in the game.
1898
01:20:45,250 --> 01:20:47,449
We were like, okay, what is the theme of Salem?
1899
01:20:47,449 --> 01:20:48,409
It's witches.
1900
01:20:48,409 --> 01:20:51,050
All right, and so what if we have
1901
01:20:51,050 --> 01:20:54,409
people with mutations that have weird powers?
1902
01:20:54,409 --> 01:20:57,300
They're kind of X-Men-ish but they're caused by radiation,
1903
01:20:57,300 --> 01:20:59,829
but they're viewed as witches by the people of Danvers.
1904
01:20:59,829 --> 01:21:01,939
So there's this sort of, like,
1905
01:21:01,939 --> 01:21:04,979
they're being persecuted somehow,
1906
01:21:04,979 --> 01:21:06,509
we'll get that witch theme.
1907
01:21:06,510 --> 01:21:10,170
We were using the Skyrim code base,
1908
01:21:10,170 --> 01:21:11,890
which had magic built in.
1909
01:21:11,890 --> 01:21:15,180
So we had, all right, fireballs and telekinesis or whatever.
1910
01:21:15,180 --> 01:21:16,800
Well, you know, eventually as we got deeper
1911
01:21:16,800 --> 01:21:20,170
into Fallout 4's development, that code got ripped out,
1912
01:21:20,170 --> 01:21:21,989
and so we were like,
1913
01:21:21,989 --> 01:21:23,409
we don't have this magic stuff anywhere,
1914
01:21:23,409 --> 01:21:26,149
there are no more fireballs, you can't, oh great.
1915
01:21:26,149 --> 01:21:30,049
So, long story short, that quest had gone through,
1916
01:21:30,050 --> 01:21:33,430
I wanna say, four or five variations
1917
01:21:33,430 --> 01:21:35,392
and four or five designers
1918
01:21:35,391 --> 01:21:38,016
and it was this close to getting cut.
1919
01:21:38,016 --> 01:21:42,090
And one of the issues was because our world is compressed,
1920
01:21:42,090 --> 01:21:45,976
right, Danvers ended up being right next to Salem
1921
01:21:45,976 --> 01:21:48,809
and it was so close we ended up combining the two.
1922
01:21:48,810 --> 01:21:50,670
And so there were no two towns
1923
01:21:50,670 --> 01:21:52,520
that could compete against each other,
1924
01:21:52,520 --> 01:21:54,150
so we had to like, what do we do?
1925
01:21:54,149 --> 01:21:57,519
We know we have this museum and then Liam Collins,
1926
01:21:57,520 --> 01:21:59,210
one of our designers, he was like, I think,
1927
01:21:59,210 --> 01:22:01,180
one of our newest quest designers at the time,
1928
01:22:01,180 --> 01:22:03,008
he was given this quest and was like,
1929
01:22:03,007 --> 01:22:05,489
we gotta do something with it, I don't wanna lose it,
1930
01:22:05,489 --> 01:22:07,880
I want there to be a quest there, what can we do?
1931
01:22:07,880 --> 01:22:10,289
And we worked together and it's a very,
1932
01:22:10,289 --> 01:22:12,239
it's one of the coolest quests in the game
1933
01:22:12,239 --> 01:22:15,609
and it's such a cool, it has a totally different vibe.
1934
01:22:15,609 --> 01:22:16,929
It's basically like, what do you do
1935
01:22:16,930 --> 01:22:18,970
if you have a deathclaw that's trapped in a building?
1936
01:22:18,970 --> 01:22:20,140
And trying to escape from it
1937
01:22:20,140 --> 01:22:22,440
and doing some really cool scripted sequences
1938
01:22:22,439 --> 01:22:25,399
and, like, we know we can trim it,
1939
01:22:25,399 --> 01:22:27,170
are we gonna trim it out of existence,
1940
01:22:27,170 --> 01:22:28,940
is it still gonna be fun?
1941
01:22:28,939 --> 01:22:31,413
And it is, we just had to change the nature of it.
1942
01:22:31,413 --> 01:22:32,664
(deathclaw growling)
1943
01:22:32,664 --> 01:22:35,082
(gun firing)
1944
01:22:37,408 --> 01:22:39,741
(whooshing)
1945
01:22:42,014 --> 01:22:44,619
(deathclaw roaring)
1946
01:22:44,619 --> 01:22:47,050
- [Danny] If the team was simplifying quests in some areas,
1947
01:22:47,050 --> 01:22:49,300
they were making them far more complex in others.
1948
01:22:49,300 --> 01:22:51,829
Fallout 3 didn't have faction quests,
1949
01:22:51,829 --> 01:22:53,649
the team decided to scrub them out
1950
01:22:53,649 --> 01:22:56,239
to make time for other systems that needed building.
1951
01:22:56,239 --> 01:22:58,800
The system had been re-introduced in Fallout: New Vegas
1952
01:22:58,800 --> 01:23:02,369
with faction alliances having some impact over the end game.
1953
01:23:02,369 --> 01:23:05,010
So when it came for BGS to start Fallout 4,
1954
01:23:05,010 --> 01:23:06,369
they decided to make factions
1955
01:23:06,369 --> 01:23:10,010
an integral part of the entire Fallout experience.
1956
01:23:10,010 --> 01:23:13,239
- In Fallout 4, there was a design decision
1957
01:23:13,239 --> 01:23:17,001
to make all the factions interwoven into the main story.
1958
01:23:17,002 --> 01:23:19,170
We did not do that in previous games
1959
01:23:19,170 --> 01:23:21,180
and it kept things simpler, but you often felt like,
1960
01:23:21,180 --> 01:23:23,460
hey, I played the Mages Guild in Skyrim
1961
01:23:23,460 --> 01:23:24,920
and they didn't particularly care
1962
01:23:24,920 --> 01:23:28,090
that dragons were attacking the whole world.
1963
01:23:28,090 --> 01:23:31,569
But in this game, all the stories kind of combined
1964
01:23:31,569 --> 01:23:33,849
around this Synth threat, it made things
1965
01:23:33,850 --> 01:23:36,320
vastly, vastly more complicated.
1966
01:23:36,319 --> 01:23:38,769
- Oh my God, I joined the Railroad but I wanna kill Synths
1967
01:23:38,770 --> 01:23:39,970
but then I do this over here
1968
01:23:39,970 --> 01:23:41,400
but then I join the Brotherhood of Steel
1969
01:23:41,399 --> 01:23:42,748
and I have Danse as a companion
1970
01:23:42,748 --> 01:23:45,079
but then I also wanna have Strong,
1971
01:23:45,079 --> 01:23:47,600
and, uh, it's mind-boggling.
1972
01:23:47,600 --> 01:23:49,750
- And it worked out really well in that
1973
01:23:49,750 --> 01:23:52,489
each faction got their own group of people to work on things
1974
01:23:52,489 --> 01:23:55,869
so they got ownership of it and got to kind of run with it.
1975
01:23:55,869 --> 01:23:56,949
So even though the Brotherhood of Steel
1976
01:23:56,949 --> 01:24:01,250
is a little bit evil, I particularly enjoyed that.
1977
01:24:01,250 --> 01:24:02,082
- From my perspective,
1978
01:24:02,082 --> 01:24:03,939
Fallout 4 is our most accomplished title to date,
1979
01:24:03,939 --> 01:24:07,629
like that game was playable far earlier
1980
01:24:07,630 --> 01:24:09,222
than any other game we've had.
1981
01:24:10,329 --> 01:24:11,960
We were playtesting it far earlier,
1982
01:24:11,960 --> 01:24:16,119
we had all our processes and tools and technology
1983
01:24:17,550 --> 01:24:19,592
and it was pretty rock solid.
1984
01:24:22,932 --> 01:24:25,515
(gentle music)
1985
01:24:35,319 --> 01:24:36,179
- [Interviewer] What are some of the things
1986
01:24:36,180 --> 01:24:37,329
that you're most proud of?
1987
01:24:37,329 --> 01:24:42,000
- I think there's a comradery and there's a shared history
1988
01:24:42,000 --> 01:24:45,000
that when you go to that meeting and you see that up there,
1989
01:24:45,000 --> 01:24:47,779
there's a sense of pride, that, like I can go through a list
1990
01:24:47,779 --> 01:24:49,550
of like, yeah, I worked with that guy for 20 years,
1991
01:24:49,550 --> 01:24:50,387
and this person for 18 years,
1992
01:24:50,386 --> 01:24:52,447
and 16 years, and enough of us.
1993
01:24:52,447 --> 01:24:55,029
These are the games we would run out to buy,
1994
01:24:55,029 --> 01:24:56,849
like, we really enjoy the games.
1995
01:24:56,850 --> 01:24:59,720
More so, we enjoy doing it with each other
1996
01:24:59,720 --> 01:25:04,159
and if we didn't we wouldn't still all be here doing it.
1997
01:25:04,159 --> 01:25:06,332
I think, like, it's a lot of work.
1998
01:25:07,460 --> 01:25:08,913
I spend more time,
1999
01:25:10,460 --> 01:25:14,220
I've spent more time with the Elder Scrolls and Fallout,
2000
01:25:14,220 --> 01:25:17,220
or even just Elder Scrolls, than anything in my entire life.
2001
01:25:18,060 --> 01:25:19,270
Like, anything.
2002
01:25:19,270 --> 01:25:20,293
My family.
2003
01:25:22,090 --> 01:25:24,170
Like, if you count up the hours.
2004
01:25:24,170 --> 01:25:29,170
And that has to mean something to everybody or we won't,
2005
01:25:29,760 --> 01:25:32,780
we'll do below average work
2006
01:25:32,779 --> 01:25:35,152
or people will move on or it's just a job.
2007
01:25:37,409 --> 01:25:42,139
But there's a certain, there's a certain vibe in the studio
2008
01:25:42,140 --> 01:25:44,670
that I think a lot of us get the sense of,
2009
01:25:44,670 --> 01:25:45,609
I don't know if you're coming in,
2010
01:25:45,609 --> 01:25:46,769
I don't know if you do or don't,
2011
01:25:46,770 --> 01:25:48,524
you're spending limited time.
2012
01:25:48,524 --> 01:25:50,410
It's sort of that thing like, you can do something,
2013
01:25:50,409 --> 01:25:52,206
but if you do it with other people,
2014
01:25:52,207 --> 01:25:55,079
it's just far more meaningful, right?
2015
01:25:55,079 --> 01:25:57,510
It's like, we're always trying to do too much or, like,
2016
01:25:57,510 --> 01:26:00,070
have we bitten off more than we can chew?
2017
01:26:00,069 --> 01:26:01,000
Of course!
2018
01:26:01,000 --> 01:26:02,027
Like, that's who we are,
2019
01:26:02,027 --> 01:26:04,289
and we won't always get all the way there,
2020
01:26:04,289 --> 01:26:06,979
but I'd rather shoot for it
2021
01:26:06,979 --> 01:26:10,182
and then see where we end up then be safe.
2022
01:26:15,100 --> 01:26:16,750
- Thank you for joining us on our journey
2023
01:26:16,750 --> 01:26:19,279
through the history of Bethesda Game Studios.
2024
01:26:19,279 --> 01:26:21,939
And now that we've suitably indulged our nostalgia,
2025
01:26:21,939 --> 01:26:25,179
it's time to look forward towards and exciting future.
2026
01:26:25,180 --> 01:26:26,390
In our next documentary,
2027
01:26:26,390 --> 01:26:29,150
we talk to the people working on Bethesda's future
2028
01:26:29,149 --> 01:26:31,909
as we explore the design of Fallout 76,
2029
01:26:31,909 --> 01:26:33,930
and give you an exclusive window
2030
01:26:33,930 --> 01:26:36,070
into the studios lofty plans.
2031
01:26:36,069 --> 01:26:38,960
- So we'll catch up after Bethesda's E3 showcase
2032
01:26:38,960 --> 01:26:41,489
for an exciting behind-the-scenes deep dive
2033
01:26:41,489 --> 01:26:44,430
into the new games this studio has been working on.
2034
01:26:44,430 --> 01:26:45,680
Enjoy the show!
2035
01:26:55,884 --> 01:26:58,634
(wind whistling)
2036
01:28:32,537 --> 01:28:34,787
(clicking)
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