Todd Howard is the executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios. He is the voice actor for Clavicus Vile in Redguard and Oblivion.
Credits
- The Elder Scrolls: Arena (1994)
- CD-ROM version tester (uncredited)[1]
- The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (1996)
- An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire (1997)
- The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard (1998)
- Base Edition (1998)
- The Redguard Companion (1998)
- The Elder Scrolls Adventures Volume R (1998)
- Development Team
- Packaging
- The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002)
- Base Edition (2002)
- The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal (2002)
- The Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon (2003)
- Game of the Year Edition (2003)
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)
- Base Edition (2006)
- Producer
- Director
- Director[2]
- Voice Cast
- Alban Corinis[2]
- Clavicus Vile (Oblivion) (uncredited)[2]
- Writer
- Additional Writing[2]
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles (2007)
- Executive Producer[1]
- Base Edition (2006)
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)
- Base Edition (2011)
- Director
- The Elder Scrolls V: Dawnguard (2012)
- Game Director[1]
- The Elder Scrolls V: Hearthfire (2012)
- Game Director[1]
- The Elder Scrolls V: Dragonborn (2012)
- Game Director[1]
- Base Edition (2011)
- The Elder Scrolls: Blades (2019)
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (2025)
- Producer
- Executive Producer[2]
- Actor
- Alban Corinis[2]
- Clavicus Vile (Oblivion) (uncredited)[2]
- Additional Crew
- Studio Head: Bethesda Game Studios[2]
- Producer
- The Elder Scrolls VI (2026 - unreleased)
Career
Howard has spent over a decade in the video game industry. Having been educated at the College of William and Mary in Virginia he joined the fledgling Bethesda game development studio in early 1994. One of Howard's first assignments was to work on the first Elder Scrolls game, Arena.
Over the years he continued to contribute to various titles, and is currently Executive Producer of The Elder Scrolls series. Howard has commented that he intends to avoid inclusion of mindless filler in any of Bethesda's games, especially Oblivion, although he admits this has happened in the past—saying that despite the fact each game is the previous one's sequel, total reinvention is the prerogative.
His major credits include being project leader and designer of Morrowind, design on Daggerfall, producer and designer of The Terminator: Future Shock and SkyNET. He was also the project leader and designer of Redguard.
Todd Howard spoke before developers at the 2009 D.I.C.E. Summit, sharing his three rules of game development:[3]
- Great games are played, not made – "You can have the greatest design document ever made, and you're going to change 90 percent of it as soon as you play the game."
- Keep it simple – "Doing something really well takes time, more time than you think it will. Simple systems acting together create complexity that players can appreciate."
- Define the experience – "Don't define your game by a list of bullet points... define it by the experience you want people to have."
He also said that developers should ignore demographics and installed base, and follow their passions, saying "if install base really mattered, we'd all make board games, because there are a lot of tables."
Quotes
- He said Bethesda's philosophy for The Elder Scrolls games was to allow people to "live another life, in another world".[1]
Trivia
- Todd's Super Tester Guy name refers to Bethesda Softworks employee Todd Howard.
- Test Todd Letter, an unused test book in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, was written by Todd Howard.
- ToddTest (Morrowind) was presumably named after Bethesda's Game Director Todd Howard.
- Clavicus Vile has been voiced by director and executive producer of Bethesda Game Studios, Todd Howard, in The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
- In an interview, Todd Howard jokingly mentioned that he would count all The Seven Thousand Steps leading up to High Hrothgar to make sure it's seven thousand, however it appears that there are actually only seven-hundred forty-eight steps.
External links
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 Credit Mentioned on Wikipedia - Todd Howard Profile
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 Credit Mentioned on IMDb - Todd Howard Profile - Credits
- ↑ DICE 2009: The Following Colorful Wisdom Is From Todd Howard