Todd Howard, design director on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, has said that Bethesda’s “number one focus” while working on the hotly-anticipated RPG was to improve the way NPCs interact.
Chatting to the folks at Gamasutra, Howard said he feels the team has always handled environments pretty well, though admitted they still find crafting NPCs a bit of a struggle.
"The big things for us are still – and we still struggle with – the NPCs, the interaction, and how they act," said Howard.
"That’s because the game is so dynamic, we don’t want to script them, so weirdness can ensue sometimes. So we came out of Oblivion thinking, hey, how do we get more believable characters on the screen who are reacting to you?”
"I always thought we did environments well, and we want to keep doing it well. But I’d say the characters and how they perform on the screen was probably our number one [focus]."
Elsewhere, Howard said that the sprawling, open-ended nature of The Elder Scrolls series has meant that sacrifices have to be made in certain areas – such as “a well-paced story,” for example.
"There’s going to be some [weirdness], like the player did X, Y and Z that we didn’t expect, and now he’s attacking the town, sleeping in this guy’s bed, he killed his wife…
"We sort of learn each time how people play these games and experience them. So we get better each time, but we do at the end of the day sacrifice, say, a well-paced story. It’s almost impossible for us to do. We’d rather let you go do whatever you want. So that’s a sacrifice that we’re willing to make."
Lastly, Howard seemed pretty relaxed concerning the abundance of online videos depicting numerous game bugs that players have unearthed over the years.
"You know what though? Those things are there, and it’s fair that people call us out for them, we’ve got no problem with that," he said.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is due out on November 11, 2011.