Todd Howard Quotes

I would say I'm a storyteller first, but game making is very wrapped up in how I think of story. If I were to have a story idea, and I decided to write a novel with it instead, I'd have to very consciously de-couple it from gamedom - for example, deliberately add in things that could not be represented in a game scene.

Games are getting more interesting. I mean, when we talk about books, they can be anything from a summer blockbuster to 'War and Peace' - well, games are the same. I think the creative side is catching up with the technology.

The video game market is huge, and the ability to tell stories, and tell different kinds of stories in the gaming space is quickly evolving and changing for the better.

Every time you try to create an experience with a character who doesn't use a gun, doesn't drive a car, doesn't jump off platforms, doesn't solve puzzles, you are taking a risk.

You can even express movies and poetry using video games. For those reasons, I've decided to create stories through video games.

I don't want to criticize any other designers, but I have to say that many of the people involved in this industry - directors and producers - are trying to make their games more like movies. They are longing to make movies rather than making videogames.

I've never actually participated in role-playing games myself, except on one occasion when a coworker of mine came to my house and introduced my two brothers and me to a single game of 'Dungeons & Dragons.'

Turns out, what I love doing is making games. Not hyping games or trying to sell a lot of copies. I just want to experiment and develop and think and tinker and tweak.

I always try and come up with a clear theme when I'm making a videogame.

I don't know how video game narrative works.

I was the lead designer on 'Portal,' and I really enjoyed making that type of game.

I started playing video games, and in 1978 I discovered Dungeons & Dragons and started game-mastering and writing my own adventures and creating my own worlds.

On my long list of hates about RPGs, one of them was, I always felt it was an unnecessary chore to make you care about a world when, in fact, what most players care about is their own personal experience.

I absolutely knew that I wanted to play role-playing games when I saw a friend of mine playing 'Bard's Tale 2' on his Commodore 64.

Stories in which the player doesn't inhabit the main character are difficult for games to handle.

There's a misunderstanding that I've always tried to address straight on when this question comes up, which is that a 'Half-Life' story can somehow exist outside of a game. It can't. The story is created through the process of trying to figure out how to best use the features of the engine within the interesting set of constraints it poses.

I'm not the expert on the great gameplay. I come in for the character design, monsters, atmosphere. I'm not the technician.

I don't even make multiplayer games much, so dealing with multiple characters is something new for me - or, rather, something I've had to recall from my days as a roleplaying adventure designer where the party was everything!

All video games are games, obviously. They're designed. They're digital. They have rules; they give an audience some type of vicarious experience.

Only a geek would say this, but my first true love was a game called 'Wizardry'; that was the game that hooked me forever.

It's weird that, in a way, by writing about video games, I get to develop them, too.

The goal for us to do with Squanchtendo is to approach all of our projects with a goal of adding interesting characters, personality, and a story to interact with in-game. Every game we make will be built from the ground up for whatever hardware it will launch on.

You don't really want to talk about 'Duke' in terms of, how many levels are there, how many guns does it have, how many monsters… It's got everything it needs in terms of that, but it's always been about the experience.

I'm in the business to make games - I love entertaining people.

I would have to say fantasy RPG and MMOs are my favorite type of games. I love 'Dark Souls II.' That game is so hard and unforgiving; if you beat that game, you have true skills.