Former lead designer at Bethesda Game Studios continues to give interviews and share memories of working on various projects. In a recent conversation with Insider Gaming, Bruce Nesmith mentioned a peculiar player behavior that surprised the creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
The TES franchise is built on the concept of freedom, and in Skyrim, the developers managed to implement it very successfully. After the introductory segment with the escape, players find themselves in front of a huge open world, and as practice showed, many could not resist the temptation to drop everything and explore various locations.
Bruce Nesmith explained that when working on Skyrim, one of the key tasks was to give players a “true sense of freedom.” The developers studied statistics and found that after the starting dungeon, players did not go to Riverwood, as the authors expected, but went to explore the world:
It was truly amazing. About 30% of players did that. We had to make sure the game continued to work normally for these people too. Not many projects can give a player a true sense of freedom.
To ensure this freedom, the creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim had to put in a lot of effort, as quests and the surrounding world had to adapt to different player actions:
There were many situations where we realized: if one event happens, everything should develop in a certain way, and if another happens, a different path must be chosen [...] and so on. A huge amount of work was required so that under any circumstances, quests and the environment could adapt differently to the player's actions.
Currently, Bethesda Game Studios is developing a full-fledged new installment of The Elder Scrolls VI franchise, and several Fallout games are also in the works. The developers have not yet announced a release date or window.