Skyrim wasn't built in a day.
While Bethesda's high fantasy roleplaying game continues to grow in popularity years
after its initial release, this game didn't spring from nowhere.
The road to creating one of the best loved pieces of fiction in recent history was challenging
and full of set-backs and delays.
No video game of this size and scope is the work of just one person.
Developers, programmers, artists and other creators all work together to produce interactive
artwork, and there are a million stories to be told about the creation of Skyrim.
This is one such story – the journey of a man who dreamed of working with his heroes,
and who ended up becoming a gaming icon in his own right.
This is the story of how Todd Howard first fell in love with Betheda's Elder Scrolls
series, and of how he ultimately brought it to a far wider audience of fans.
This is the tale of the journey that paved the way for Skyrim, and it begins with a humble
little boy who above all, loved magic and storytelling.
As a child, Todd Howard was, it was safe to say, a bit of a nerd.
He loved math and science and computers and technology, at a time when it wasn't particularly
cool or fashionable to embrace education.
He also loved roleplaying and magic and fantasy, embracing all the weird and wonderful stories
that were set in faraway lands of wizards, goblins, princesses and monsters.
These two great loves converged when Todd explored the incredible world of computer
gaming.
When he was young, Todd begged and begged his parents to get him an Apple 2 computer,
claiming that its computational power would help him in his studies.
In reality, this desktop computer was a gateway into a world of high fantasy adventure, as
Todd fell in love with games like Wizardry and Ultima 3.
These games felt like huge, immersive worlds, and Todd got lost in them for hours as his
imagination ran wild.
In truth, though, Todd also had another reason for desiring a computer.
He didn't just want to play computer games; he wanted to design his own.
The Apple 2 gave him the equipment he needed to try his hand at programming, and he worked
hard to build games of his own creation that emulated the experiences he had playing fantasy
titles from professional studios.
Todd's desire to create games continued throughout his young life, but he wasn't
entirely sure how he might find a career in this hobby of his.
He was smart and driven, and as such, got a chance to study at The College of William
and Mary in Virginia.
He ended up focusing on studying finance, not because he was particularly interested
in the field, but because it seemed like this was the quickest, easiest, simplest way to
get through college.
Todd had an affinity for numbers, and the math required for finance courses came naturally
to him.
This meant that he had plenty of time for what he really wanted to do with his time:
play computer games.
Whenever he wasn't in lectures, Todd could be found in the university's computer lab.
He wasn't working on assignments; instead, he'd start the day by installing Wing Commander
onto one of the computers, and then would play for as long as he could.
Tearing himself away from the game was always disappointing, and the moment he could, he'd
return to play again.
He always hoped that someone else wouldn't be inconveniently trying to write an essay
on the computer he'd been using.
If so, he'd have to install Wing Commander on a different computer, and as that took
a lot of time, it would eat into his precious gaming window.
Todd adored roleplaying games more than any other genre, but he didn't limit himself
to only playing these games.
The roleplaying scene was fairly small at the time, and there existed a huge variety
of other kinds of games that Todd also played as much as he could.
Todd played sports games and racing games with enthusiasm – as long as it was a digital
gaming experience, he could find joy from it.
This willingness to try anything led him to Wayne Gretzky Hockey, a game that didn't
seem like a big deal, but that would end up changing Todd's life.
The game was a bit outdated by the time Todd was in college, but he loved it nonetheless,
and was intrigued by the studio that made it, a tiny company by the name of Bethesda
Softworks.
Bethesda wasn't exactly a huge developer.
The studio had made a bunch of tiny yet noteworthy games, that kept it afloat, but it was hardly
one of the big names in the industry.
It was known simply as a studio that made sports titles for EA, but otherwise, it was
fairly invisible.
Nevertheless, Todd felt a strange affinity for Bethesda.
As he pored over the game's box art, he noticed the company's address – it turned
out that Bethesda was located in Maryland, which was conveniently located along Todd's
journey home from college.
The cogs in Todd's head began to turn.
Rumor had it that Bethesda was working on a fantasy role-playing game, and Todd couldn't
help but imagine how much fun it would be to get to work on such a project.
The studio was geographically convenient, had made a game that he loved, and was supposedly
working on something that he'd wanted to make his entire life.
The solution seemed obvious: the next time he was going either to or from college, he
needed to stop in and ask for a job.
So that's exactly what Todd did.
He turned up outside the company's building one day, knocked on the door, and invited
himself in.
Seeing the studio in all its glory was like walking into Todd's personal idea of paradise
– albeit a very dark, claustrophobic one.
Bethesda's developers worked out of the basement of their building, and the lights
were perpetually turned down low, with rows of computer monitors bathing the surroundings
in an eerie glow.
It was almost like a cave from a fantasy game, with invaluable treasure dotted around the
room in the form of artwork, production notes, and game demos.
Thrilled with his discovery, Todd made the case for why the company should hire him.
He was geographically convenient, he was studying at college, and he loved games so much that
it hurt.
Unsurprisingly, this line of argument was unsuccessful.
Todd was told that perhaps he ought to try again once he'd graduated, but that, for
the moment, he ought to focus on his schooling.
Undeterred, Todd went back to school, finished up his education, got his degree, and returned
to Bethesda.
He'd fulfilled their requirements, and was ready for full time employment.
Surely, they should hire him now?
Again, he was sent away.
The small company didn't need him right now, especially considering his lack of experience.
Being rejected a second time stung.
All Todd wanted to do was create games for Bethesda.
This intense desire only grew as the studio finally released their long-awaited roleplaying
game, The Elder Scrolls: Arena, and it turned out to be everything that Todd hoped it could
be.
Unable to work for his heroes, Todd instead found another, even smaller studio in Virginia,
and got a job there instead.
Compared with this studio, even Bethesda was a big deal, but Todd was happy.
He was making games for a living, and that was what he wanted.
That said, he wasn't giving up on his Bethesda dreams just yet.
He would go to conventions and gaming expos, and would always gravitate towards the Bethesda
booth.
There, he would spend his time admiring their games, talking with the company employees
that were present, and desperately trying to convince them to hire him.
Eventually, Todd's persistence paid off, and he finally achieved his goal, joining
the team at Bethesda to work on a game based on the Terminator movie franchise.
After that, to Todd's immense pleasure, he was assigned to work on Daggerfall, the
second game in the Elder Scrolls series.
While Todd had finally landed his dream job, there was a lot of work ahead of him.
The future of the franchise was far from certain, and looming clouds on the horizon were about
to dramatically change Bethesda forever, as they threatened to swallow the tiny studio
whole.
Todd's role in Daggerfall was fairly minor, but with a company this small, he had plenty
of opportunities to experience, or at least witness, all aspects of the video game creation
process.
Daggerfall was designed to build upon what had been achieved in Arena, but with a more
complex skill system that let each player craft a more unique character that developed
new abilities based on their own personal playstyle.
The game's release proved a success, albeit an imperfect one – plenty of players found
Daggerfall to be difficult to play, as its code didn't run all that well on a lot of
different kinds of computer hardware.
Todd's hard work was rewarded, as he was given the opportunity to handle the reins
of Redguard, an expansion pack for Daggerfall.
Eagerly, Todd did everything he could to make the expansion a success, but enthusiasm alone
wasn't enough to guarantee a best-seller.
Bethesda's small studio had been struggling with finances for a while.
Unlike many games companies, it was funded privately, meaning that there wasn't much
room for error, and even though the first two Elder Scrolls games had found a niche
audience, they didn't have enough widespread appeal to save the company.
Eventually, Bethesda was forced to file for bankruptcy, and while the company was able
to be restructured so that it could continue work, it didn't look like things would be
able to continue forever.
For his part, Todd got stuck in, doing everything he could to make the next few Elder Scrolls
games the best they could be.
Morrowind built on what had been achieved with Daggerfall, creating a large open world
that, Todd hoped, felt more alive and believable than anything that had come before.
Todd searched internet forums daily, looking to gain a better understanding of what fans
were looking for.
He would read every opinion he could get his hands on, in order to see what the community
wanted from each new instalment of the series.
This led to the creation of Oblivion, the fourth Elder Scrolls game, with its huge,
sprawling world, greater gameplay choices, and complex artificial intelligence that attempted
to simulate the lives of countless computer characters.
The game was far from perfect, but it was the biggest, most complex thing that Todd
and his team had created up to that point.
Todd expected this new title to go out to the same small audience that had loved his
other games.
As such, he went online to perform his regular checks of the state of the fanbase – only
to be completely blown away by all the discussion that was going on.
Oblivion had exploded in popularity, seemingly overnight.
Something had clicked within the public consciousness, and suddenly, this niche game series was a
big deal in a way that Todd had never seen before.
Perhaps it was connected to the growing popularity of fantasy adventure following the release
of the Lord of the Rings films, or maybe Todd had underestimated the advantage of releasing
Oblivion so soon after the launch of the Xbox 360.
For whatever reason, though, the Elders Scrolls series was finally getting a lot more attention.
A huge audience were showing the games the kind of love that Todd had always felt towards
fantasy roleplaying adventures.
Even as Bethesda began to gear up for their next release – a revival of the beloved
Fallouts series – Todd was already thinking up ideas for the next Elder Scrolls title.
This new game would need to be even bigger and grander than Oblivion.
It would need to take all the lessons that Todd and his team had learned thus far, and
build something wonderful from the framework that already existed.
And so, Todd steeled himself, as he took a deep breath, and prepared to lead Bethesda
in the creation of Skyrim.
… The moral of Todd's story is that persistence
pays off.
It's not always easy to keep trying in the face of rejection and failure.
When you hit a roadblock that stops you from reaching your dreams, it can feel like you
may never actually get where you're trying to go.
If Todd had thrown in the towel when he was first rejected by Bethesda, he'd never have
achieved his dream of working for the company.
Similarly, it was necessary for him to endure years of obscurity before his games gained
the popularity that they now enjoy.
When you face trials or challenges, don't let them stand in the way of you getting what
you want out of life.
Keep pushing forward, and eventually you'll be satisfied with your progress.
Sometimes it takes years of work, but that only makes it all the more fulfilling when
you finally achieve your dreams.
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