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Here's an interview with some of the lead developers and designers from Bethesda softworks. The interview was done by the nice guys at rpgvault.com (source) Jonric: What was your role on the Oblivion team, and in regard to your contributions to it, what stands out most in your mind, what are you most proud of, and why?
Ashley Cheng
Lead Producer
As far as my contribution to the game, the dirty secret about producers is that we don't actually do any work. :) I think it was an amazing achievement that we managed to launch the game across multiple countries simultaneously - we had literally over a dozen versions of Oblivion to ship, all at the same time! Not an easy feat, especially with a game as large as Oblivion.
Guy Carver
Lead Programmer
I am most proud of the Havok physics. Brendan Anthony and I did the majority of the work on this system and I consider it one of the most fun parts of the game.
Ahn Hopgood
Programmer
I worked on all non-combat and non-pathfinding AI plus gameplay. I am most proud of when an NPC does something the designers do not expect because they decide to "think" for themselves. Drives designers crazy. :)
Dan Teitel
Programmer
I was responsible for programming the weather and climate systems in Oblivion, and for portions of the user interface. I think my greatest source of pride, in terms of my contribution to this game, were the times during the play-testing phase when I was able to find a really egregious bug that no one else had discovered yet. Knowing the user would never see what I just saw definitely made me feel like I'd earned that day's pay.
One of the strange aspects of being a programmer is that we often measure our success more by the absence of things that are broken than by the things that work. A poorly functioning system is often more obvious to the player than a properly functioning one. Our job is to make the environment operate in a way that feels so natural to the player that they forget they aren't in a real universe.
Erik Deitrick
Programmer
I worked on interface and mini-games, and I'm very happy with how the lock picking turned out. It's fun right out of the box, and even after 200 hours of playing, even though I'm very good at it, I still have to pay attention or I start breaking picks. Plus a lock pick in German is a "dietrich".
Orin Tresnjak
Programmer
I joined the company very late in the development of Oblivion, just after E3; I did odd jobs at first, and soon ended up taking over the distant level of detail system - that's the system that allows us to store and render a simplified version of the world out to incredible distances. So that's definitely what I'm most proud of - although it's a fairly simple mechanism, it really adds a sense of scale to the game and contributes to its distinctive look. There's just something beautiful about seeing Bruma clinging to the mountainside from miles away, or seeing the spire of the Imperial City from the hills near Chorrol.
Bruce Nesmith
Designer
I was responsible for a lot of the game balance in Oblivion, both for monsters and for the economy. In virtually every game in every genre, game balance is considered to be one of the trickiest things to do well. I succeeded beyond my hopes and expectations, particularly for a game of the enormous scope and complexity of Oblivion. Emil Pagliarulo
Designer
I was primarily responsible for the Dark Brotherhood and Arena, had a lot of input in determining Oblivion's stealth system, was the primary designer for the lock picking mini-game, and wrote most of the combat dialogue. I guess for me, my greatest personal achievement has to be the Dark Brotherhood quest line. Really, for years, I'd been wanting to make a medieval or fantasy-themed assassin game. It's something I had thought a lot about and sort of put on my wish list of fantasy design projects.
I had worked on the Thief series prior to working on Elder Scrolls, and as much as I loved that series' sense of moral ambiguity, I really wanted to explore the more sinister side of stealth gameplay. What if you weren't just an anti-hero thief; what if he were a cold-blooded, remorseless killer? So, when I got the chance to write and implement Oblivion's Dark Brotherhood quest line, it was the fulfillment of my deepest, geekiest designer dream. It became my passion during Oblivion's development, and overall, I'm really happy with the way it came out and the reception it's received.
Kurt Kuhlmann
Designer
My primary responsibility was the main storyline. Most of the things that I'm proud of are not due to my own personal efforts, but of the efforts of many people on the team coming together to make something actually work. The fact that we could actually pull off the Battle of Bruma, with close to 30 NPCs and creatures slugging it out in a completely unscripted real-time battle... I'm still amazed at that. When I originally put it together, I kept waiting for someone to tell me, "Kurt, sorry, but you're going to have to scale it back. Are you crazy? We can't put that many actors on the screen at once." That never happened, and we ended up with the Battle of Bruma in all its crazy glory. Mark Nelson
Designer
Personally, I'm most proud of the conversation system in Oblivion. I really wanted the world to seem like it is populated by living, breathing people - like an MMO without the annoying people. Any time I hear a good conversation in the streets or in a tavern, I feel like we've gotten a little closer to that vision.
Erik J. Caponi
Designer
Previously, I've worked on The Matrix Online, as well as on a few projects that never saw the light of day. I came in pretty late on the project; just as things were moving from their temporary forms to the final versions that you see in the game now. I'd have to say that the thing that I'm the most proud of was actually one of my first assignments upon joining the team - refining the Radiant AI schedules for all of the NPCs in the world. I looked through each of our cities and sought out ways to make the residents seem alive and bustling. I tried to reinforce the character of each NPC with actions that they would spend their days doing. The few lines of dialogue that even the background NPCs had still contained unique character and I did my best to work with that. A few of my favorites are Astia Inventius in Anvil who spends her days on the docks painting, the Arena addict in the Imperial City who always manages to not be watching a fight when his wife comes looking for him, and the hunter in Chorrol who spends his days practicing because, well, he's just not very good. I came to Bethesda as a fan of the Elder Scrolls and I was particularly excited about Radiant AI and the possibilities that it could open up. Even before I began here, I had read a lot about Oblivion and was just as interested as any hardcore fan in what was up the sleeves of the developers here. The chance to work directly with them was the opportunity of a lifetime for me. Joel Burgess
Level Designer
My title means that I had a hand in many of the 200-plus dungeons scattered across Cyrodiil. Most of the ones I worked on are random romps without quests attached. This gave me a lot of freedom to create interest through atmosphere and gameplay. I'm proud of several of these, but I won't mention them specifically here; half the fun is stumbling across these in the wilderness. Michael Ryan
Level Designer and Dungeon Builder
I designed the dungeons for the main quest and the Mage's Guild, along with several dozen random dungeons scattered throughout the landscape. As proud as I am of my dungeon work, however, I think I'm most proud of the collaborative work I did with some of the designers to get the Highwaymen and especially the Orc Adventurers into the game. The ghost pirate cave also. I'm definitely pleased with my ghost pirate cave. Jonah Lobe
Character ArtistHaving joined the team a mere three months ago, I went straight to play-testing since the art development was in its final stages already. I got a chance to work here during the final months of Oblivion's creation, and although the hours were obscenely long for everyone, I was deeply impressed by the positive, helpful atmosphere that dominated the office. It was immediately apparent that, although Bethesda Softworks has grown considerably in the last few years, it's still very much a cohesive team where imagination and creativity are encouraged (although technical considerations can, from time to time, temper overly ambitious ideas). Matt Ouzounian
QA (Quality Assurance / Quite Awesome)
I would have to say that the thing I am most proud of, while working on Oblivion, would be working together with Brendan Anthony to track down and solve a notorious scaling issue. Essentially, characters, both NPC and PC alike, would suddenly expand or grow to immense proportions. The bug had been around for a long time, and no one had been able to track down or even reproduce it; it seemed to pop up randomly and without reason. No one believed that we could solve the issue, but over the course of about two days, Brendan and I managed to resolve the issue. As for what stands out most in my mind, it would have to be the development team here at Bethesda. I've yet to meet everyone properly, but even in the depths of crunch time, the team was friendly - or at the very least cordial - and receptive. As you can see, a number of team members were also very receptive when we asked for the opportunity to present their opinions and insights on various topics related to the widely praised RPG they helped create, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Indeed, they agreed to answer enough questions for us to present an entire week of features on Bethsoft's title. We thank all 15 participants for that, and invite you to return tomorrow for the next segment in our series. -- Richard Aihoshi - 'Jonric'
Kurt Kuhlmann
Designer
My primary responsibility was the main storyline. Most of the things that I'm proud of are not due to my own personal efforts, but of the efforts of many people on the team coming together to make something actually work. The fact that we could actually pull off the Battle of Bruma, with close to 30 NPCs and creatures slugging it out in a completely unscripted real-time battle... I'm still amazed at that. When I originally put it together, I kept waiting for someone to tell me, "Kurt, sorry, but you're going to have to scale it back. Are you crazy? We can't put that many actors on the screen at once." That never happened, and we ended up with the Battle of Bruma in all its crazy glory. Mark Nelson
Designer
Personally, I'm most proud of the conversation system in Oblivion. I really wanted the world to seem like it is populated by living, breathing people - like an MMO without the annoying people. Any time I hear a good conversation in the streets or in a tavern, I feel like we've gotten a little closer to that vision.
Erik J. Caponi
Designer
Previously, I've worked on The Matrix Online, as well as on a few projects that never saw the light of day. I came in pretty late on the project; just as things were moving from their temporary forms to the final versions that you see in the game now. I'd have to say that the thing that I'm the most proud of was actually one of my first assignments upon joining the team - refining the Radiant AI schedules for all of the NPCs in the world. I looked through each of our cities and sought out ways to make the residents seem alive and bustling. I tried to reinforce the character of each NPC with actions that they would spend their days doing. The few lines of dialogue that even the background NPCs had still contained unique character and I did my best to work with that. A few of my favorites are Astia Inventius in Anvil who spends her days on the docks painting, the Arena addict in the Imperial City who always manages to not be watching a fight when his wife comes looking for him, and the hunter in Chorrol who spends his days practicing because, well, he's just not very good. I came to Bethesda as a fan of the Elder Scrolls and I was particularly excited about Radiant AI and the possibilities that it could open up. Even before I began here, I had read a lot about Oblivion and was just as interested as any hardcore fan in what was up the sleeves of the developers here. The chance to work directly with them was the opportunity of a lifetime for me. Joel Burgess
Level Designer
My title means that I had a hand in many of the 200-plus dungeons scattered across Cyrodiil. Most of the ones I worked on are random romps without quests attached. This gave me a lot of freedom to create interest through atmosphere and gameplay. I'm proud of several of these, but I won't mention them specifically here; half the fun is stumbling across these in the wilderness. Michael Ryan
Level Designer and Dungeon Builder
I designed the dungeons for the main quest and the Mage's Guild, along with several dozen random dungeons scattered throughout the landscape. As proud as I am of my dungeon work, however, I think I'm most proud of the collaborative work I did with some of the designers to get the Highwaymen and especially the Orc Adventurers into the game. The ghost pirate cave also. I'm definitely pleased with my ghost pirate cave. Jonah Lobe
Character ArtistHaving joined the team a mere three months ago, I went straight to play-testing since the art development was in its final stages already. I got a chance to work here during the final months of Oblivion's creation, and although the hours were obscenely long for everyone, I was deeply impressed by the positive, helpful atmosphere that dominated the office. It was immediately apparent that, although Bethesda Softworks has grown considerably in the last few years, it's still very much a cohesive team where imagination and creativity are encouraged (although technical considerations can, from time to time, temper overly ambitious ideas). Matt Ouzounian
QA (Quality Assurance / Quite Awesome)
I would have to say that the thing I am most proud of, while working on Oblivion, would be working together with Brendan Anthony to track down and solve a notorious scaling issue. Essentially, characters, both NPC and PC alike, would suddenly expand or grow to immense proportions. The bug had been around for a long time, and no one had been able to track down or even reproduce it; it seemed to pop up randomly and without reason. No one believed that we could solve the issue, but over the course of about two days, Brendan and I managed to resolve the issue. As for what stands out most in my mind, it would have to be the development team here at Bethesda. I've yet to meet everyone properly, but even in the depths of crunch time, the team was friendly - or at the very least cordial - and receptive. As you can see, a number of team members were also very receptive when we asked for the opportunity to present their opinions and insights on various topics related to the widely praised RPG they helped create, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Indeed, they agreed to answer enough questions for us to present an entire week of features on Bethsoft's title. We thank all 15 participants for that, and invite you to return tomorrow for the next segment in our series. -- Richard Aihoshi - 'Jonric'
Kurt Kuhlmann
Designer
My primary responsibility was the main storyline. Most of the things that I'm proud of are not due to my own personal efforts, but of the efforts of many people on the team coming together to make something actually work. The fact that we could actually pull off the Battle of Bruma, with close to 30 NPCs and creatures slugging it out in a completely unscripted real-time battle... I'm still amazed at that. When I originally put it together, I kept waiting for someone to tell me, "Kurt, sorry, but you're going to have to scale it back. Are you crazy? We can't put that many actors on the screen at once." That never happened, and we ended up with the Battle of Bruma in all its crazy glory. Mark Nelson
Designer
Personally, I'm most proud of the conversation system in Oblivion. I really wanted the world to seem like it is populated by living, breathing people - like an MMO without the annoying people. Any time I hear a good conversation in the streets or in a tavern, I feel like we've gotten a little closer to that vision.
Erik J. Caponi
Designer
Previously, I've worked on The Matrix Online, as well as on a few projects that never saw the light of day. I came in pretty late on the project; just as things were moving from their temporary forms to the final versions that you see in the game now. I'd have to say that the thing that I'm the most proud of was actually one of my first assignments upon joining the team - refining the Radiant AI schedules for all of the NPCs in the world. I looked through each of our cities and sought out ways to make the residents seem alive and bustling. I tried to reinforce the character of each NPC with actions that they would spend their days doing. The few lines of dialogue that even the background NPCs had still contained unique character and I did my best to work with that. A few of my favorites are Astia Inventius in Anvil who spends her days on the docks painting, the Arena addict in the Imperial City who always manages to not be watching a fight when his wife comes looking for him, and the hunter in Chorrol who spends his days practicing because, well, he's just not very good. I came to Bethesda as a fan of the Elder Scrolls and I was particularly excited about Radiant AI and the possibilities that it could open up. Even before I began here, I had read a lot about Oblivion and was just as interested as any hardcore fan in what was up the sleeves of the developers here. The chance to work directly with them was the opportunity of a lifetime for me. Joel Burgess
Level Designer
My title means that I had a hand in many of the 200-plus dungeons scattered across Cyrodiil. Most of the ones I worked on are random romps without quests attached. This gave me a lot of freedom to create interest through atmosphere and gameplay. I'm proud of several of these, but I won't mention them specifically here; half the fun is stumbling across these in the wilderness. Michael Ryan
Level Designer and Dungeon Builder
I designed the dungeons for the main quest and the Mage's Guild, along with several dozen random dungeons scattered throughout the landscape. As proud as I am of my dungeon work, however, I think I'm most proud of the collaborative work I did with some of the designers to get the Highwaymen and especially the Orc Adventurers into the game. The ghost pirate cave also. I'm definitely pleased with my ghost pirate cave. Jonah Lobe
Character ArtistHaving joined the team a mere three months ago, I went straight to play-testing since the art development was in its final stages already. I got a chance to work here during the final months of Oblivion's creation, and although the hours were obscenely long for everyone, I was deeply impressed by the positive, helpful atmosphere that dominated the office. It was immediately apparent that, although Bethesda Softworks has grown considerably in the last few years, it's still very much a cohesive team where imagination and creativity are encouraged (although technical considerations can, from time to time, temper overly ambitious ideas). Matt Ouzounian
QA (Quality Assurance / Quite Awesome)
I would have to say that the thing I am most proud of, while working on Oblivion, would be working together with Brendan Anthony to track down and solve a notorious scaling issue. Essentially, characters, both NPC and PC alike, would suddenly expand or grow to immense proportions. The bug had been around for a long time, and no one had been able to track down or even reproduce it; it seemed to pop up randomly and without reason. No one believed that we could solve the issue, but over the course of about two days, Brendan and I managed to resolve the issue. As for what stands out most in my mind, it would have to be the development team here at Bethesda. I've yet to meet everyone properly, but even in the depths of crunch time, the team was friendly - or at the very least cordial - and receptive. As you can see, a number of team members were also very receptive when we asked for the opportunity to present their opinions and insights on various topics related to the widely praised RPG they helped create, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Indeed, they agreed to answer enough questions for us to present an entire week of features on Bethsoft's title. We thank all 15 participants for that, and invite you to return tomorrow for the next segment in our series. -- Richard Aihoshi - 'Jonric'
Kurt Kuhlmann
Designer
My primary responsibility was the main storyline. Most of the things that I'm proud of are not due to my own personal efforts, but of the efforts of many people on the team coming together to make something actually work. The fact that we could actually pull off the Battle of Bruma, with close to 30 NPCs and creatures slugging it out in a completely unscripted real-time battle... I'm still amazed at that. When I originally put it together, I kept waiting for someone to tell me, "Kurt, sorry, but you're going to have to scale it back. Are you crazy? We can't put that many actors on the screen at once." That never happened, and we ended up with the Battle of Bruma in all its crazy glory.
Mark Nelson
Designer
Personally, I'm most proud of the conversation system in Oblivion. I really wanted the world to seem like it is populated by living, breathing people - like an MMO without the annoying people. Any time I hear a good conversation in the streets or in a tavern, I feel like we've gotten a little closer to that vision.
Erik J. Caponi
Designer
Previously, I've worked on The Matrix Online, as well as on a few projects that never saw the light of day. I came in pretty late on the project; just as things were moving from their temporary forms to the final versions that you see in the game now. I'd have to say that the thing that I'm the most proud of was actually one of my first assignments upon joining the team - refining the Radiant AI schedules for all of the NPCs in the world.
I looked through each of our cities and sought out ways to make the residents seem alive and bustling. I tried to reinforce the character of each NPC with actions that they would spend their days doing. The few lines of dialogue that even the background NPCs had still contained unique character and I did my best to work with that. A few of my favorites are Astia Inventius in Anvil who spends her days on the docks painting, the Arena addict in the Imperial City who always manages to not be watching a fight when his wife comes looking for him, and the hunter in Chorrol who spends his days practicing because, well, he's just not very good.
I came to Bethesda as a fan of the Elder Scrolls and I was particularly excited about Radiant AI and the possibilities that it could open up. Even before I began here, I had read a lot about Oblivion and was just as interested as any hardcore fan in what was up the sleeves of the developers here. The chance to work directly with them was the opportunity of a lifetime for me.
Joel Burgess
Level Designer
My title means that I had a hand in many of the 200-plus dungeons scattered across Cyrodiil. Most of the ones I worked on are random romps without quests attached. This gave me a lot of freedom to create interest through atmosphere and gameplay. I'm proud of several of these, but I won't mention them specifically here; half the fun is stumbling across these in the wilderness.
Michael Ryan
Level Designer and Dungeon Builder
I designed the dungeons for the main quest and the Mage's Guild, along with several dozen random dungeons scattered throughout the landscape. As proud as I am of my dungeon work, however, I think I'm most proud of the collaborative work I did with some of the designers to get the Highwaymen and especially the Orc Adventurers into the game. The ghost pirate cave also. I'm definitely pleased with my ghost pirate cave. Jonah Lobe
Character ArtistHaving joined the team a mere three months ago, I went straight to play-testing since the art development was in its final stages already. I got a chance to work here during the final months of Oblivion's creation, and although the hours were obscenely long for everyone, I was deeply impressed by the positive, helpful atmosphere that dominated the office. It was immediately apparent that, although Bethesda Softworks has grown considerably in the last few years, it's still very much a cohesive team where imagination and creativity are encouraged (although technical considerations can, from time to time, temper overly ambitious ideas). Matt Ouzounian
QA (Quality Assurance / Quite Awesome)
I would have to say that the thing I am most proud of, while working on Oblivion, would be working together with Brendan Anthony to track down and solve a notorious scaling issue. Essentially, characters, both NPC and PC alike, would suddenly expand or grow to immense proportions. The bug had been around for a long time, and no one had been able to track down or even reproduce it; it seemed to pop up randomly and without reason. No one believed that we could solve the issue, but over the course of about two days, Brendan and I managed to resolve the issue. As for what stands out most in my mind, it would have to be the development team here at Bethesda. I've yet to meet everyone properly, but even in the depths of crunch time, the team was friendly - or at the very least cordial - and receptive. As you can see, a number of team members were also very receptive when we asked for the opportunity to present their opinions and insights on various topics related to the widely praised RPG they helped create, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Indeed, they agreed to answer enough questions for us to present an entire week of features on Bethsoft's title. We thank all 15 participants for that, and invite you to return tomorrow for the next segment in our series. -- Richard Aihoshi - 'Jonric'
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