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Todd Howard (born 1969 or 1970) is an American video game designer, director, and producer. He serves as director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios, where he has led the development of the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls series.

Early life

Todd Howard was born in Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania. He has an elder brother, Jeff. He developed an interest in computers, particularly video games, at a very young age. He considers Wizardry and Ultima III: Exodus to be inspirations for his future games. He is a 1989 graduate of Emmaus High School in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. In 1993, he graduated from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, with a major in finance/business, despite his desire to create video games, later saying that "it seemed like the easiest path to get through college".

After obtaining Wayne Gretzky Hockey, during the Holiday break of his senior year in college, Howard visited the offices of the game's developer, Bethesda Softworks, which he passed by daily on his commute to and from school. As he asked for a job at the company, he was rejected and told that he needed to finish school as a prerequisite. After completing school, he went back to Bethesda for a job but was rejected again. Following his graduation, Howard was rejected again by Bethesda Softworks due to a lack of job opportunities at the time. Instead, he started working for a smaller game company in Yorktown, Virginia, which enabled him to visit several conventions like the Consumer Electronics Show, where continued approaching Bethesda Softworks to request being hired.

Career

Bethesda Softworks

Howard was eventually recruited by Bethesda Softworks in 1994, originally as a producer. His first game development credit for Bethesda Softworks was as producer and designer of The Terminator: Future Shock and Skynet, followed by design on The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, which was released in 1996. He was the project leader and designer of The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, released in 1998. Howard was the project leader and designer of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and for the expansions that followed. He led the creation of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion as its executive producer. After this, he was the game director and executive producer of Fallout 3. He said Bethesda's philosophy for The Elder Scrolls games was to allow people to "live another life, in another world".

He returned to The Elder Scrolls series to lead the development as the creative director of its fifth installment, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which was released in November 2011. Howard directed Fallout 4, which was announced with its first official trailer on June 3, 2015, and released in November. Howard was also the director of Fallout 76, a multiplayer installment in the series that attracted some criticism upon its release in November 2018.

Speaker

Howard is a frequent speaker at industry events, conferences, and in magazine interviews. His games have been featured in Newsweek, CNN, USA Today, and The Today Show.

He spoke to developers at the 2009 D.I.C.E. Summit, sharing his three rules of game development:

• 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."

Howard returned as a keynote speaker at the 2012 D.I.C.E. Summit. He said developers should ignore demographics and installed base, and follow their passions, saying that "if install base really mattered, we'd all make board games, because there are a lot of tables".

Works

Awards and recognition

Howard was the 16th recipient of a Game Developers Conference Lifetime Achievement Award. Magazine GamePro named him "Top 20 Most Influential People in Gaming over the Last 20 Years". Howard also received the D.I.C.E. Award for "Best Game Director" in 2012 and 2016. In 2014, he was awarded the Lara of Honor, a lifetime achievement award from Germany. He was finally inducted in the Hall of Fame of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences in 2017. IGN listed Howard 70th in a ranking of "The Top 100 Game Creators of All Time".

References

1. ^ Callahan, Marion (October 28, 2008). "THE BROTHERS HOWARD **Valley natives have action-packed careers with fairy tale endings". The Morning Call. Archived from the original on July 25, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
2. ^ Hanson, Ben (January 13, 2011). "Road To Skyrim: The Todd Howard Interview". Game Informer. Archived from the original on March 13, 2014. Retrieved March 12, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
3. Takashi, Dean (July 4, 2018). "Skyrim director Todd Howard: Why triple-A games are better when you don't play it safe". VentureBeat. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
4. Kane, Alex (March 27, 2019). "Morrowind: An oral history". Polygon. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
5. "Oblivion to Feature Soundtrack by Jeremy Soule". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. October 21, 2005. Archived from the original on April 11, 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
6. Remo, Chris (October 13, 2008). "Falling Into Fallout 3: Director Todd Howard Talks Scope And Evolution". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on May 8, 2015. Retrieved June 15, 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
7. Gamespot Staff (August 2, 2007). "Fallout 3 Q&A – E3 Thoughts and More". GameSpot. Archived from the original on December 19, 2014. Retrieved June 15, 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
8. Howard, Todd. "The RPG for the Next Generation". The Elder Scrolls Codex. Archived from the original on January 24, 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
9. Senior, Tom (March 11, 2011). "Bethesda's Todd Howard: "Oblivion sacrificed what made Morrowind special"". PCGamer. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
10. Hussain, Tamoor (June 3, 2015). "Fallout 4 Officially Confirmed for PC, Xbox One, PS4". GameSpot. Archived from the original on June 17, 2015. Retrieved June 18, 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
11. Avard, Alex (June 3, 2019). "Todd Howard admits criticism of Fallout 76 was "well deserved"". GamesRadar+. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
12. Whalen, Andrew (June 13, 2019). "Todd Howard Says 'Starfield' Is a Realistic Extrapolation of Today's Cutting-Edge Space Exploration Technology". Newsweek. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
13. Frum, Larry (November 10, 2011). "Review: 'The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim' brings fantasy world to life". CNN. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
14. Molina, Brett (June 15, 2015). "'Fallout 4' launching Nov. 10". USA Today. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
15. Benedetti, Winda (November 11, 2011). "Five tips for getting the most out of 'Skyrim'". Today. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
16. Totilo, Stephen (February 20, 2009). "DICE 2009: The Following Colorful Wisdom Is From Todd Howard". MTV. Archived from the original on October 21, 2013. Retrieved March 12, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
17. Mihoerck, Dan (February 8, 2012). "Todd Howard D.I.C.E. 2012 Opening Keynote Address". GameSpot. Archived from the original on November 8, 2016. Retrieved March 12, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
18. Remo, Chris (February 20, 2009). "DICE 09: Bethesda's Howard On Supreme Playability". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on October 22, 2013. Retrieved March 12, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
19. ^ "Todd Howard to Be Inducted Into the Aias Hall of Fame at the 20th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards Ceremony". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. December 14, 2016.
20. "Top 100 Game Creators – Todd Howard". IGN. Archived from the original on October 17, 2013. Retrieved April 16, 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

• Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame
• American video game designers
• American video game directors
• American video game producers
• College of William & Mary alumni
• Emmaus High School alumni
• Fallout series developers
• Living people
• People from Pennsylvania
• The Elder Scrolls
• ZeniMax Media