Something for the fans of The Elder Scrolls.
I never played Arena, and I happened upon a copy of Daggerfall from a guy in my platoon. Not knowing what to expect, it blew me away, from the amazing chargen to the massive world it was not like any game I've played. Looking back at it now I would not manage to sit down and play it again, 320x240p gfx has something to do with it and the procgen world and gameplay don't hold up that well. Extremly ambitious, and buggy, it was internally set up to support multiplayer. Interesting considering how many fans didn't consider ESO to be a real TES game, and true TES games are single player only. If Julian had stayed on and Todd Howard never joined the company, TES might've been a different beast today, a Star Citizen of RPGs. Elite and Star Citizen gets mentioned in the interview as well.
From the AMA he did on reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/Daggerfall/comments/7b4vh4/ask_me_anything_im_julian_jensen_programmer/
"I wouldn't say that the early Elder Scrolls games measure up in any aspect to modern games, except in ambition, perhaps. Honestly, I occasionally pay attention to Star Citizen and the enormous ambition of that game and I think to myself, yep, that's basically Daggerfall. Of course, we didn't have anything near the budget that they do, but expectations were lower, as well.
Procedural generation is another thing I talk about in the interview (I think). Procedural generation is really the only way to go for truly large worlds. And that's fine, if you don't look at it as a way to get lots of free variation (which you do, of course) but as an important part of the meat of your world. Treat with that level of respect and invest effort and, more importantly, thought into it and you can achieve wonderful things. You must direct the randomness to produce what you want, what you would have created, had you an army of graphic artists."
[video=youtube_share;IGLGi5RK8V8]https://youtu.be/IGLGi5RK8V8[/video]
Here's a list of the topics if you don't want to listen through it all, video is over 3 hours.
2:24 - What was your role in creating the Elder Scrolls?
13:28 - How’d you get into programming?
22:06 - Elder Scrolls tabletop origins
31:18 - Arena’s influences
40:41 - Do you still talk to the original Elder Scrolls team?
49:33 - How could Daggerfall be improved with modern technology/experience?
53:47 - Improving procedural generation
1:11:34 - What could have been done if Daggerfall got another 6-12 months?
1:29:09 - PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
1:41:39 - Why do modern devs play it safe and not innovate?
1:43:51 - Tabula Rasa
1:46:07 - Favorite game to work on
1:48:45 - Were there any big plans for the Elder Scrolls after Battlespire?
1:51:53 - Machiavelli’s prudent archers
1:55:22 - Star Citizen
1:58:39 - Elite and Elite: Dangerous
2:00:49 - The Morrowind that never was
2:05:28 - The Witcher 3
2:07:31 - Elder Scrolls: Redguard
2:18:42 - Why did you leave Bethesda?
2:22:43 - What are you up to now?
2:32:06 - Do you agree with post-2000s Bethesda’s direction?
2:34:05 - What makes Daggerfall so special and immersive?
2:37:48 - Daggerfall fan remakes
2:44:59 - Do you still play music?
2:47:34 - Eric Heberling, composer for Daggerfall
2:49:16 - What games do you play now?
2:51:24 - Mods and paid mods
2:57:18 - Anything to say to fans/modders remaking your games?
2:58:41 - Naming the gods of Tamriel
2:59:39 - Was there any secret arc or plan for the story?
3:05:38 - Work on Skullgirls
I never played Arena, and I happened upon a copy of Daggerfall from a guy in my platoon. Not knowing what to expect, it blew me away, from the amazing chargen to the massive world it was not like any game I've played. Looking back at it now I would not manage to sit down and play it again, 320x240p gfx has something to do with it and the procgen world and gameplay don't hold up that well. Extremly ambitious, and buggy, it was internally set up to support multiplayer. Interesting considering how many fans didn't consider ESO to be a real TES game, and true TES games are single player only. If Julian had stayed on and Todd Howard never joined the company, TES might've been a different beast today, a Star Citizen of RPGs. Elite and Star Citizen gets mentioned in the interview as well.
From the AMA he did on reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/Daggerfall/comments/7b4vh4/ask_me_anything_im_julian_jensen_programmer/
"I wouldn't say that the early Elder Scrolls games measure up in any aspect to modern games, except in ambition, perhaps. Honestly, I occasionally pay attention to Star Citizen and the enormous ambition of that game and I think to myself, yep, that's basically Daggerfall. Of course, we didn't have anything near the budget that they do, but expectations were lower, as well.
Procedural generation is another thing I talk about in the interview (I think). Procedural generation is really the only way to go for truly large worlds. And that's fine, if you don't look at it as a way to get lots of free variation (which you do, of course) but as an important part of the meat of your world. Treat with that level of respect and invest effort and, more importantly, thought into it and you can achieve wonderful things. You must direct the randomness to produce what you want, what you would have created, had you an army of graphic artists."
[video=youtube_share;IGLGi5RK8V8]https://youtu.be/IGLGi5RK8V8[/video]
Here's a list of the topics if you don't want to listen through it all, video is over 3 hours.
2:24 - What was your role in creating the Elder Scrolls?
13:28 - How’d you get into programming?
22:06 - Elder Scrolls tabletop origins
31:18 - Arena’s influences
40:41 - Do you still talk to the original Elder Scrolls team?
49:33 - How could Daggerfall be improved with modern technology/experience?
53:47 - Improving procedural generation
1:11:34 - What could have been done if Daggerfall got another 6-12 months?
1:29:09 - PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
1:41:39 - Why do modern devs play it safe and not innovate?
1:43:51 - Tabula Rasa
1:46:07 - Favorite game to work on
1:48:45 - Were there any big plans for the Elder Scrolls after Battlespire?
1:51:53 - Machiavelli’s prudent archers
1:55:22 - Star Citizen
1:58:39 - Elite and Elite: Dangerous
2:00:49 - The Morrowind that never was
2:05:28 - The Witcher 3
2:07:31 - Elder Scrolls: Redguard
2:18:42 - Why did you leave Bethesda?
2:22:43 - What are you up to now?
2:32:06 - Do you agree with post-2000s Bethesda’s direction?
2:34:05 - What makes Daggerfall so special and immersive?
2:37:48 - Daggerfall fan remakes
2:44:59 - Do you still play music?
2:47:34 - Eric Heberling, composer for Daggerfall
2:49:16 - What games do you play now?
2:51:24 - Mods and paid mods
2:57:18 - Anything to say to fans/modders remaking your games?
2:58:41 - Naming the gods of Tamriel
2:59:39 - Was there any secret arc or plan for the story?
3:05:38 - Work on Skullgirls
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