#181 - Will Shen Interview(Designer On Skyrim, Fallout 4, 76 & Starfield)

Will Shen was a designer at Bethesda for over 20+ years and his story is amazing as he started off as an intern on Fallout 3 and became lead designer on Starfield. #starfield #fallout4 #bethesdagamestudios

SOCIAL MEDIA

X - @WillShen101

BLUESKY - @willshen101.bsky.social

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TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intro

00:30 - Will’s Internship At Bethesda Was A Trial By Fire

02:08 - Who Interviewed Will Both Times

02:56 - Will’s Relationship With Todd Howard

09:20 - Emil Telling Will His Quest In Skyrim Was The Worst Quest In The Game/Redoing Skyrims Design

11:44 - The Most Important Aspect Of An Intro & Tutorial

13:30 - Bioshock Is An Example Of A Good Intro

14:35 - In Leadership You Don’t Have Any Control

16:30 - Bethesda Delegates Voice Acting To An External Company

18:09 - Learning To Let Go From Being In Control Of Voice Acting/Guidance

20:18 - Including Multiple Accents In Starfield

22:30 - Maori Tattoo Controversy/Ballooning Of Bethesda Staff

30:15 - How Will Would Become More Productive With A Bureaucratic System

32:30 - Why Will Left Bethesda

35:03 - Elder Scrolls VI/GTA VI Discussion

37:30 - More Money = More Problems

40:45 - Games Are Too Long Nowadays

49:03 - Q+A - Has Bethesda Experimented With Other Game Genres

51:34 - Settling On The Number Of Planets In Starfield/Procedural Content System

55:16 - Q+A - Who Has Replaced Kurt Kuhlmann As Lore Master Of The Elder Scrolls

58:52 - Q+A - Balancing The Main Quest & Side Quests

1:01:50 - Production Pipeline/Curveballs

1:05:15 - Where To Follow Will Shen