The Bethesda team that had worked on Elder Scrolls Oblivion was comprised of around 60 staff working for around 4 years on the title. At the initial point of production, the team was designing a game for next generation consoles which didn’t even exist at that point. The documentary doesn’t outline specifics in terms of timeline like the Resident Evil or Star Wars documentaries did, however it covers several key design elements.
Artwork
For the art production at points small teams would go out and source texture from various places. Sourcing was seen as an important tool and the team would often use images from the internet and books to back up the shots and information picked up from their ‘expeditions’. In addition to that, the team was left to make many different concepts that could then be picked or used by the production team. The art team also worked on some of the textures for towns and cities in Oblivion.
‘Forests’
It wasn’t positioned into any particular slot in the production team or timeline but again like with city and general design, attention was specifically allocated within production to forest and foliage design. With vast expansive forests making up a significant volume of the Elder Scrolls map, team members were assigned to acquire first hand sources of various trees, landscape shapes, rocks and general plant life.
Artificial Intelligence
The artificial intelligence was potent and meant that the non-playable characters (NPC) would continue on a routine whether or not the character was ‘there’. Furthermore creatures in dungeons could be programmed to follow paths that varied as they traversed the dungeons.
Dungeon Design
The dungeon design set up was much like a snap grid system. Sections of dungeons could be added at the end of earlier sections. The designer likened the process to working with a Lego set. On top of those elements Loot for the players to pick up, creatures and traps all had to be added.
Testing
For the quality assurance (QA) of just the demo shown at E3 it required many hours of play by the QA lead. In the lead up to this it was reported that around 100 ‘bugs’ had to be ironed out.
Animation
An area which the documentary does not cover too extensively, the animators would often go out and extensively test or experience what they were going to animate. In the case of the horse and horse riding mechanics, the lead animator would spend weeks studying horses up close and riding them to make sure that she had a firm understanding of the movements of the animal (and the rider) before manipulating her rigging.
Vocal Recording sessions
The vocal recording varied in location. Some was done at the offices, while for more celebrated voice talent (Patrick Stewart, Sean Bean, and Terrence Stamp) the location would change, with Terrence Stamp’s session taking place in London. For some of the characters, the design team would write detailed notes for the actors, as was the case with Patrick Stewart. For the choice of vocal actors, the producer was given a list by the publishers but for the most part Bethesda went with suggestions from the team.
In total the video game, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion has over
9000 objects
1000 programmed NPCs
And 50 hours recorded dialogue (which fills half of the disk space).
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