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Entertainment is an essential part of our lives and games can do things that nothing else in entertainment can. They can transport you to new worlds, they can give you the true wonder of discovery, and often the pride of accomplishing something yourself in a game, it's a wonderful moment. And in the world of entertainment, there are very few things as good as Fallout.

Todd Andrew Howard is the executive producer and game director at Bethesda Game Studios. He led the development of Fallout 3, Fallout 4, Fallout 76 and Fallout Shelter and is one of the executive producers of the upcoming Fallout TV series.

Career

Howard joined Bethesda game development in 1994. One of Howard's first assignments was to work on the first Elder Scrolls game, The Elder Scrolls: Arena by porting the game from its original floppy disk media to the new CD format. Over the years, he continued to contribute to various titles, and is currently Executive Producer of the Elder Scrolls. He also serves as Executive Producer of Fallout games developed by Bethesda Game Studios.

His major credits include being project leader and designer of Morrowind, designer on Daggerfall, and producer and designer of The Terminator: Future Shock and SkyNET. He was also the project leader and designer of The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard.

Fallout series

Fallout 3

By July 2004, Todd was involved with Fallout 3 when Bethesda announced it would be developing the title that month. In 2005, he mentioned in an interview that he intended to return Fallout to RPG prominence and do the series justice while also bringing it into the current day. He mentioned it would resemble Fallout more than Fallout 2.[1] Todd's infant son, Jake Howard, voiced the Lone Wanderer as a baby.

Fallout 4

Fallout 4 became Bethesda's primary project in 2011. Todd revealed Fallout 4 at E3 2015. Todd mentioned that its game world was the most ambitious and detailed game world the studio has made so far.

Fallout 76

According to Bruce Nesmith, Todd did not initially want a multiplayer Fallout to be made, thinking it would be a bad idea. He changed his mind due to a portion of the Fallout fanbase wanting a multiplayer game, especially after Project V13 was cancelled, which had caused disappointment.[2]

Fallout 76 was revealed at E3 2018 with Todd as its presenter. Todd mentioned the game's world would be four times the size of Fallout 4 and have sixteen times the detail.

At E3 2019, Todd opened up about the disappointment with the launch of 76, mentioning him and the team were caught off-guard by the amount of issues. He mentioned much criticism was deserved and that it should have had a longer beta test. He appreciated the continuing constructive criticism from fans to help make 76 a better game.[3]

Near the end of 2021, Todd did an AskMeAnything on Reddit. He mentioned, "We let people down and were able to learn and be better from it. We're fortunate 3 years later to have 76 be one of our most played games, and it's thanks to the 11 million players who have made it an incredible community. It's made us much better developers in the end."[4]

Fallout 5

In 2021, Todd mentioned Bethesda has considered Fallout 5 and that the studio had a one-pager on it.[5] In a June 2022 interview, Todd Howard confirmed that Fallout 5 would be Bethesda's next project after The Elder Scrolls VI.[6]

Employment history

FromToCompanyRole
1994PresentBethesda Game StudiosGame Director
Executive Producer

Credits

Fallout series

YearTitleCredited as/for
2008Fallout 3Game Director
Executive Producer
2010Fallout: New VegasSpecial Thanks
2015Fallout ShelterExecutive Producer
2015Fallout 4Game Director
Executive Producer
2018Fallout 76Executive Producer

Other work

YearTitleCredited as/for
1995PBA BowlingSpecial Thanks
1996-presentThe Elder Scrolls seriesGame Director, Executive Producer, Project Leader, Designer, Writer, Additional Writer, Quest Design, Additional Design, Special Thanks
1996SkyNETProducer/Designer
1999ProtectorExecutive Producer
2000Sea DogsSpecial Thanks
2003Pirates of the CaribbeanSpecial Thanks
2011BrinkSpecial Thanks
2014Minecraft: Playstation 4 Edition (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Pack)Music Credits
2016DoomSpecial Thanks
2023StarfieldGame Director

Notable quotes

Fallout 3

  • "When we started Fallout 3 in 2004, we obviously had big ideas of what we could do with it, and I talked to a lot of outside people, from ex-developers to press folks to fans. What made it special? What are the key things you'd want out of a new one? The opinions, and I'll put this mildly... varied. A lot. But they would all end the same, like a stern father, pausing for affect – "but do not... screw it up." Gulp. Let me write that last one down a few times."
  • "I'm going to assume that if you're reading this, you've probably read between 1 and 50 previews of Fallout 3 already (they're linked on this site). There's already too much info out there, in different forms and in conflicting ways, for me to cover or correct it all here. If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that the information never gets out 100% correctly, and you will certainly never be quoted correctly. For the record, I never compared the violence in Fallout to Jackass, I compared it to Kill Bill... big difference. I also never said "fantasy is riding a horse and killing things," but oh well. Ultimately the game speaks for itself (certainly better than I do)."
  • "Hopefully in another 10 years people will look back and say, "Nope, they didn't screw it up." Hopefully."

Fallout 4

  • "I think our fans are used to it over time, that we do like to try new things. And we'll have some successes, you know I think the shooting in Fallout 4 is really good, I think it plays really well. Obviously, the way we did some dialogue stuff, that didn't work as well. But it was I think -- I know the reasons we tried that, to make a nice interactive conversation, but [it was] less successful than other things in the game. For us, we take that feedback, and I think long term."

Fallout 76

  • "'Fallout 76' is a very different 'Fallout' game. We're very aware of that. We think a lot of people will like it, because we like it. But a lot of people probably won't. We need to balance that. This is an idea we have, and there's a lot of old 'Fallout' stuff in it, but it's a very new experience."
  • "Let's let them all collide. And it'll be messy for a little bit, but we can solve it. I'd rather do that than like, play it safe so it's boring. You can sit, though, in any design meeting and come up with a list of reasons not to do something. It's pretty easy. "Well, I'm worried about this, and I'm worried about this, and I'm worried about this." And I'm worried it's gonna be boring. Like, let's at least try it. Like, this is what we do... you know, if this is a vibe we want, let's go at it." (about 76 having online players)
  • "It starts with... a map of the world... that glows in the fucking dark!" (presenting the collector's edition during E3)
  • "As people know, we struggled. And despite its issues, we had a lot of successes. We built our own online platform from scratch. It sold really well. We had a core audience playing the game despite its problems who were telling us, "We love this. Please fix it." We joined with our community in having that communication about what would make the game better - how do we got about it? And us here learning how to get in a cadence and continue to update a game, put our heads down, do the hard work. And today, five years later, it is one of our most played games. Now a very big success for us both in terms of what it's doing for players, but also, it made us much much better developers going through a difficult process."

Behind the scenes

  • There appears to be a message saying "Todd Howard is amazing in everything his hands touch - no kidding" on the Periodic Table of Elements featured in the Fallout 4 add-on Far Harbor and Fallout 76.
  • Two phrases that Todd has said, those being "it just works" (discussing settlement mechanics in Fallout 4) and "sixteen times the detail" (while discussing the environmental draw distance of high altitudes of Fallout 76) become Internet memes associated with Todd, Fallout and Bethesda.
  • Chris Avellone spoke positively about Todd, but also mentioned people had a tendency to misinterpret him or speak on his behalf. According to Avellone, "Todd's a good guy and was always nice and respectful towards us. In fact, he would often say that we should check with him whenever anyone in his studio would say, "well, Todd said..." because chances are, he didn't."[7]

Gallery

External links

References

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