#342 – Todd Howard: Skyrim, Elder Scrolls 6, Fallout, and Starfield
Lex Fridman Podcast
Lex Fridman
4.7 • 13.6K Ratings
🗓️ 29 November 2022
⏱️ 170 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Todd Howard is a legendary video game designer at Bethesda Game Studios. He led the development of the Elder Scrolls series and the Fallout series, and an upcoming game Starfield. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Bethesda: https://bethesda.net
Bethesda Game Studios: https://bethesdagamestudios.com
Creation Club: https://creationclub.bethesda.net
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(05:53) – Simulation
(07:49) – NPCs
(16:40) – Daggerfall and Arena
(24:53) – Bethesda
(33:18) – Video game graphics
(39:37) – The essence of a video game
(44:25) – Redguard
(49:25) – Creating open worlds
(57:04) – Superintelligent NPCs
(1:01:58) – Starfield
(1:21:40) – The Elder Scrolls 6
(1:41:01) – Fallout
(1:48:09) – Character creation
(1:53:11) – Quests & items
(2:06:57) – Xbox
(2:12:22) – Greatest game of all time
(2:22:38) – Day in the life
(2:30:32) – Advice for young people
(2:34:00) – Fallout TV show
(2:38:32) – Indiana Jones game
(2:44:44) – Meaning of life
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following is a conversation with Todd Howard, one of the greatest video game designers of all time. |
| 0:05.5 | He has led the development of the Fallout series and the Elder Scrolls series, including |
| 0:11.6 | Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, and the Future Elder Scrolls 6, and a totally |
| 0:19.2 | new world in an upcoming game called Starfield. |
| 0:23.2 | Many of these have won Game of the Year awards and have been some of the most celebrated |
| 0:27.7 | and impactful games ever made. |
| 0:30.3 | To me, Skyrim is quite possibly the greatest game ever. |
| 0:38.0 | And now a quick few second mention of each sponsor. |
| 0:40.7 | Check them out in the description, it's the best way to support this podcast. |
| 0:44.3 | We got Shopify for e-commerce, H-Leap for napping, inside tracker for biomododoring, and |
| 0:51.0 | element for salty greatness, choose wise in my friends. |
| 0:55.0 | Now onto the full ad reads, never any ads in the middle, I hate those. |
| 0:59.3 | I tried to make this interesting, but if you skipped them, please still check out the |
| 1:02.2 | sponsors I enjoy their stuff, maybe you will too. |
| 1:05.7 | This show is brought to you by Shopify, a platform designed for anyone to sell, anywhere, |
| 1:12.0 | anything, whatever they enjoy making, whatever they enjoy selling, it makes it easy to reach |
| 1:16.6 | a huge audience. |
| 1:18.3 | The whole thing looks super sexy, it's a great looking online store, and it allows you |
| 1:23.6 | to take your idea, convert it into a product, and hopefully spread joy to other people who |
| 1:29.4 | want to buy that product. |
| 1:31.2 | And it gives you tools to do day to day management of that selling of the product. |
| 1:37.2 | I've been asked a bunch of times to do merch, man, there's so much cool stuff, because I'm |
... |
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