Bethesda has been one of the most successful RPG makers in the gaming industry. Recently, however, the studio has been heavily criticized for its most recent entry, Starfield. The game was so controversial that even former Bethesda devs had to come out and explain what happened. However, one of the devs came to Bethesda’s Director’s defense, stating that Todd Howard’s adamant stance on wayward ideas led to masterpieces like Skyrim.
The former Bethesda dev in question is none other than Jonah Lobe, who worked as a Character Artist before quitting and moving on to other ventures. Lobe is best known in Bethesda as one of the designers for Skyrim‘s monsters, including those pesky Dragon Priests.
The former Bethesda dev recently held an interview with KIWI TALKZ, recalling how Todd Howard’s leadership was highly agreeable despite his ability to say no to overwhelming and odd ideas. Generally, Lobe had a lot of positive things to say to Todd Howard, even though the former Bethesda artist resigned during the start of Skyrim‘s success.
“Building games like Skyrim (and Fallout), they seem limitless– they seem huge, they seem impossible. But actually, to do that– to pull that off, the guy at the top also has to say no to a lot of ideas to the point where it was frustrating and annoying.
It was very clear to me that I cannot work on whatever I dreamed up of at the time… We had fundamentals to hit.
I think he [Todd] had a very strong sense what the games we were working on were and what they had to be. He [Todd] would very quickly say ‘no’ to anything that didn’t fit the paradigm.
He [Todd] had a great quote, ‘We can do anything, but we can’t do everything.’ That has stuck with me– that focus on the core experience,” claimed Jonah Lobe.
In hindsight, Skyrim and the preceding Elder Scrolls games (and hopefully the succeeding ones too) had a certain kind of style that somehow set the games apart from generic fantasies. Each province in Tamriel, after all, was uniquely flavorful with its own believable and seemingly organic cultures. Skyrim seems to have benefitted much from Todd Howard’s direction.
Todd Howard Will Eventually Have to Step Down
Still, Jonah Lobe admits that going from one game to the next is exhausting. Lobe thus commends Todd Howard’s commitment to making games as though he was born to do it.
Now, Todd Howard is in his 50s and has been helming Bethesda RPGs for over two decades.
Lobe also believes that whoever eventually takes up Todd Howard’s mantle will stumble a lot, even though it’s becoming increasingly apparent over the decades that someone else will eventually have to take over Bethesda’s main RPGs.
