Todd Howard has led development of some of the biggest and best RPGs ever made, and it's no secret that the game industry can exact a toll on developers. But everybody needs to "touch grass" now and then, and that's why Howard finally took a break that had been decades overdue after the launch of Fallout 4.
Making RPGs like Oblivion and Skyrim means developers spend "years and years of your lives together – it's a bonding experience," as Howard tells GQ. "But I had been going really hard for a long time. I took a sabbatical after Fallout 4 for like three months. I hadn't had a break in 20 years."
Asked if he missed work during that three-month break, Howard says, "You always have a little question mark, 'How am I gonna feel coming back?' But I was so excited. The night before, I couldn't sleep. I knew we were going to be taking on new challenges with Fallout 76 and Starfield."
Titles like Fallout 76 (an online game) and Starfield (a brand-new IP) presented new challenges for Bethesda, but the "routine" of making Fallout 4 wasn't exactly a cakewalk. "If routine is working like mad dogs all the time, because we really did," Howard says. "It becomes a bit of an obsession. You get to a point in life where you spend more time in the fantasy world than with real people. So you’re like, 'Maybe I should go touch some grass.'"
Howard revealed plenty more in this interview, like the fact that Bethesda is doing play tests for The Elder Scrolls 6 and that a shadow drop is not off the table for the long-awaited RPG. Here's hoping Todd gets another day off or two by the time The Elder Scrolls 6 finally launches.
