Todd Andrew Howard (born 1970) is an American video game designer, director, and producer. He serves as director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios, where he has led the development of the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls series.

Early life and education
Todd Andrew Howard was born in 1970 in Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania, to Ronald (Ron) and Priscilla Howard. His elder brother, Jeffrey Mark (Jeff) Howard, was later the director of creative affairs for Disney, where he oversaw the production of Bambi II. He developed an interest in computers, particularly video games, at a very young age. Howard considers the 1980s role-playing video games Wizardry and Ultima III: Exodus to be inspirations for his future games.

Howard attended Emmaus High School in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1989. He then attended the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he majored in business while taking computer classes for credit. He graduated from William and Mary in 1993. Howard later stated that a business major appeared as the easiest path through college.

During the holiday break of his senior year in college, Howard obtained a copy of Wayne Gretzky Hockey (1988) by Bethesda Softworks. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, he visited the offices of Bethesda Softworks, which he passed by daily on his commute to and from school. He asked for a job at the company but was rejected and told that he needed to finish school as a prerequisite. After graduating, he went back to Bethesda for a job but was rejected again due to a lack of job opportunities at the time. Instead, Howard started working for a smaller game company in Yorktown, Virginia, which enabled him to visit several conventions like the Consumer Electronics Show, where he continued approaching Bethesda to request being hired.

Career
Bethesda Softworks eventually recruited Howard in 1994 as a producer. His first game development credit for Bethesda was as the producer and designer of The Terminator: Future Shock (1995), followed by work as a designer on Skynet and The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, both released in 1996. He was project leader for the first time on The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, released in 1998.

In 2000, Howard was appointed project leader and designer for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and the expansions that followed. The game was released in 2002 and was a critical and commercial success, winning several Game of the Year awards. He then led the creation of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006) as its executive producer. After this, he served as game director and executive producer of Fallout 3, released in 2008.

Howard returned to The Elder Scrolls series to lead the development as the creative director of its fifth installment, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which was released in November 2011. He subsequently directed Fallout 4, released in November 2015, and produced Fallout 76, a multiplayer installment in the series that attracted criticism upon its release in November 2018. Howard will also serve as the executive producer of the upcoming game based on the Indiana Jones series of films, currently in development by MachineGames and Lucasfilm Games.

Opinions and recognition

Howard admitted in 2011 that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion had sacrificed what made The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind "particular", saying: "With Oblivion, we're dealing with the capital province, and we wanted to get back to the more classic Arena and Daggerfall feel of a fantasy world that felt more refined and welcoming. But in that, we sacrificed some of what made Morrowind special: the wonder of discovery." He said Bethesda's philosophy for The Elder Scrolls games was to allow people to "live another life, in another world".

In 2012, Howard also said he was favorable to modding in video games, claiming he did not understand why many developers do not allow it. In 2016, after the release of Fallout 4, Howard admitted that he was well aware of the criticisms received by the game, especially with regards to the dialogue system, saying: "The way we did some dialogue stuff [in Fallout 4], that didn't work as well. But I know the reasons we tried that – to make a nice interactive conversation – but [it was] less successful than some other things in the game."

Howard has been a frequent speaker at industry events and conferences. He spoke to developers at the 2009 D.I.C.E. Summit, sharing his rules of game development. He returned as a keynote speaker at the 2012 D.I.C.E. Summit. He said developers should ignore demographics and installed base, and follow their passions, saying that "if install base really mattered, we'd all make board games, because there are a lot of tables".

Howard's work has often received attention by the generalist media and press; his games have been featured in Newsweek, CNN, USA Today, and The Today Show. The high popularity of the games Howard has directed and produced has turned him, and some of his quotes, into Internet memes.

Howard was the 16th recipient of a Game Developers Conference Lifetime Achievement Award. The magazine GamePro named him among the "Top 20 Most Influential People in Gaming over the Last 20 Years". Howard also received the D.I.C.E. Award for "Best Game Director" in 2012 and 2016. In 2014, he was awarded the Lara of Honor, a lifetime achievement award from Germany. In 2013, IGN listed Howard 70th in a ranking of "The Top 100 Game Creators of All Time". He was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences in 2017. In 2020, Howard received the 2020 Develop Star award for "outstanding achievements and contribution to the industry".

During an appearance on Lex Fridman's podcast, Howard stated that he considers Tetris to be the greatest game ever created. He also stated that Ultima VII: The Black Gate is one of his personal favorites, and it had a large influence on the games he has developed.

Personal life 
Howard married his wife on July 8, 1995, at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He has a son who was born in .

Works

Uncredited

References

External links
 

Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame inductees
American video game designers
American video game directors
American video game producers
Bethesda Softworks employees
College of William & Mary alumni
Date of birth missing (living people)
Microsoft employees
The Elder Scrolls
Emmaus High School alumni
Fallout (series) developers
Game Developers Conference Lifetime Achievement Award recipients
Living people
People from Pennsylvania
Year of birth uncertain
1970 births
토드 하워드(Todd Howard)는 미국의 비디오게임 디자이너, 감독, 프로듀서다. 현재 베데스다 게임 스튜디오에서 감독과 총괄 프로듀서에 주업하고 있으며, 이곳에서 《폴아웃》과 《엘더 스크롤》 시리즈의 개발을 추동했다.

초기 생애 
토드 하워드는 아주 어릴 적부터 컴퓨터, 그 중에서도 특히 비디오게임에 대한 관심을 키워왔었다. 그는 《위저드리》와 《울티마 III: 엑소더스》가 장차 자신의 게임에 영감을 줄 것이라고 생각했다. 1989년 펜실베니아 주 엠마우스에 있는 엠마우스 고등학교를 졸업했다. 1993년 버지니아주 윌리엄스버그에 있는 윌리엄 & 메리 대학을 졸업한다. 이곳에서, 그는 비디오 게임에 대한 열망에도 불구하고, "대학을 가장 쉽게 졸업할 수 있을 것 같아"서 공학과 재정을 전공으로 삼았다. 《웨인 그레츠키 하키》를 플레이한 연후, 하워드는 학교 통학 때마다 항상 닥뜨리던 베데스다 소프트웍스 사무실에 들러 일자리를 요구했다. 그는 거절당했으며, 학교 졸업이 우선시되어야 한다는 말을 들었다. 학교 졸업 후에도 베데스다에 들렀지만, 다시 거절되었다.

경력

베데스다 소프트웍스 
1994년, 하워드는 베데스다 소프트웍스에 입사했다. 그가 이곳에서 처음 게임 개발에 참사했던 것은, 프로듀서 겸 디자이너를 맡은 《더 터미네이터: 퓨처 쇼크》와 《스카이넷》이었다. 1996년 발매된, 《엘더스크롤 II: 대거폴》에서의 디자인 참여가 그 꼬리를 물었다. 1998년 발매된 《엘더스크롤 어드벤처: 레드가드》에서는, 프로젝트의 주모자 겸 디자이너를 맡았다. 그다음 프로젝트 《엘더스크롤 III: 모로윈드》 및 그 확장팩에서도 주모자 겸 디자이너를 역임했다. 《엘더스크롤 IV: 오블리비언》 및 그 다운로드 가능 콘텐츠의 창작에서도 추동적인 역을 수행했다. 그 이후 《폴아웃 3》의 게임 감독 겸 총괄 프로듀서를 맡았다. 그는 《엘더스크롤》 게임군의 철학에 대해, 사람들이 "다른 세계에서, 다른 삶을 살게 하는(live another life, in another world)" 것이라고 말했다. 《엘더스크롤》 시리즈로 귀환, 2011년 11월 발매된 시리즈의 다섯째 작 《엘더스크롤 V: 스카이림》의 개발을 다시 추동했다. 2015년 6월 3일 첫 공식 예고편이 공개된 《폴아웃 4》에서, 하워드는 감독을 맡았다. 이후 E3 쇼케이스에서 처음 공개 발표된 베데스다 게임 스튜디오 최초의 휴대기기용 게임 《폴아웃 셸터》에서 감독을 역임했다.

연설자 
하워드는 게임산업 내 행사에서 자주 연설자로 나서며 자주 잡지 인터뷰도 한다. 그가 참여한 게임들은 《뉴스위크》, CNN, 《USA 투데이》, 《더 투데이 쇼》에서 소개되기도 했다.

2009년 D.I.C.E. 서밋에서 개발자들 앞에 서서, 게임 개발의 세 가지 규칙을 강연했다.

 훌륭한 게임은 만들어지는 게 아니고, 플레이되는 것이다(Great games are played, not made). "아주 뛰어난 설계안을 만들 수 있어도, 어차피 게임을 플레이하는 순간 그 중 9할은 변경해야 한다(You can have the greatest design document ever made, and you're going to change 90 percent of it as soon as you play the game)."
 단순함을 유지해라(Keep it simple). "무언가 좋은 것을 만드는 데는, 당신 생각 이상으로 시간이 많이 걸린다. 단순한 시스템이 함께 동작할 때 창조되는 복잡함이야말로, 플레이어가 고개를 끄덕이게 할 수 있다(Doing something really well takes time, more time than you think it will. Simple systems acting together create complexity that players can appreciate)."
 경험을 확립해라(Define the experience). "불릿점 따위로 게임을 정의내리지 마라... 사람들에게 주고 싶은 경험으로써 정의하라(Don't define your game by a list of bullet points... define it by the experience you want people to have)."

하워드는 2012년 D.I.C.E. 서밋에서 기조연설자로 강단에 올랐다. 그는, 개발자들에게 통계와 이용자층 중과(installed base)를 무시하고, 열정을 따르라고 충고했다. "이용자층의 많고 적음이 정말 관건이었다면, 우리는 지금껏 보드 게임이나 만들었을 겁니다. 차고 넘치는 게 탁자니까요(if install base really mattered, we'd all make board games, because there are a lot of tables)."

평가 
2009년 《게임프로》지의 지난 20년간 "가장 영향력 있는 게임 내 인물 20인"에 꼽혔으며, 《IGN》 선정 "역대 최고의 게임 개발자 100인"에도 이름이 올라갔다.

하워드는 아카데미 오브 인터랙티브 아트 & 사이언스에 의해 "최고의 게임 감독"으로 뽑혔다. 2014년 독일의 게임에 대한 평생공로상인 명예 라라상(Lara of Honor)을 수상했다. 올해의 게임 시상식에서 네 번(《엘더스크롤 IV: 오블리비언》, 《폴아웃 3》, 《엘더스크롤 V: 스카이림》, 《폴아웃 4》) 거푸 우승한 굴지의 개발자이기도 하다.

각주

외부 링크 
 

1971년 출생
살아있는 사람
미국의 게임 디자이너
펜실베이니아주 출신