General:PC Player Magazine: The Making of Daggerfall – TED'S WORLD

PC Player Magazine: The Making of Daggerfall – TED'S WORLD
(link)
Medium/Format	Physical Magazine
Date	June 1996
Interviewee(s)	Ted Peterson
Hosted By	Powerplay

[UESP Editor's Note: This a machine translation of the original magazine interview, which was in German. All rights to the content belongs to PC Player Magazine.]

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The hopes of the role-playing community rest on the shoulders of Ted Peterson. For two years, the chief designer of Bethesda Softworks and his team have been working on the fantasy world of "Daggerfall."

Better than any blind date: You're standing in broad morning light in Rockville, Maryland: a good half-hour train ride north of Washington, D.C. Someone from Bethesda Softworks is supposed to pick you up so you can take a look at the product details of the new role-playing game "Daggerfall."

A lone SUV chugs along; a note with the inviting inscription "Heinrich Lenhardt?" is stuck to the side window. Behind the wheel is none other than Ted Peterson, designer of "Arena," "Terminator Future Shock," and "Daggerfall." I'm astonished: "You're picking me up personally? Shouldn't you be chained to the computer to finish Daggerfall?' Ted grins: 'Oh, that's okay. We're in beta testing now; most of the design work is already done. Oh, and don't be surprised by the weird noise.' - 'Noise?' - 'Yeah, that's the rear window wiper. I borrowed the car from our boss and I don't know how to turn the damn thing off in the back...'

Ted Peterson (27) is busy creating a new world. Its prelude was "The Elder Scrolls: Arena," one of the best fantasy programs in recent PC history. 3D graphics, real-time combat, and a wealth of character detail and missions were impressive. The sequel, Daggerfall, is set to be even better. The 3D world no longer appears so angular and artificial; it features inclines, curves, and "real" buildings that you can enter. Peterson's main goal is to counter the trend toward diluting role-playing games: "There have been a lot of programs in this genre recently with action sequences and adventure puzzles where the character stats have been oversimplified." Surely this man doesn't mean "Stonekeep" and "Druid Circle"? Together with Bruce Nesmith, he is responsible for the design of Daggerfall; Julian Lefay is in charge of programming, assisted by Hal Bouma. Bethesda's 3D expert Kaare Siesing is responsible for the graphics system. The Dane also wrote the 3D engine for "Terminator Future Shock" and "X-Car" (see box). In addition to the "Spellmaker" (a kind of spell-building kit) familiar from "Arena," Daggerfall's gameplay refinements include character generation. The player can choose from 18 classes or take the DIY route and invent a new profession. In addition to the usual smorgasbord of talents, the reputation our character enjoys in the Daggerfall world within individual lobbies is also important. The editor allows you to set starting values. Over the course of the game, our actions affect this profile: For example, someone who constantly steals from nobles can count on appreciation and friendliness in the underworld. P.S.: Communication with members of the higher ranks may be somewhat more difficult.

Daggerfall is one of those legendary games whose release date has been repeatedly postponed. The game should actually be out soon, having already been in beta testing. Ted waves it off dismissively: "Oh no, that'll take a few months. The game might be released in August." Daggerfall has a lot of calculations going on in the background regarding the actions of the individual groups in the game, which makes debugging very time-consuming. If you play through it with one character, you've only seen about a quarter of what the world contains. And of course, we don't want to release anything as buggy as the first version of Arena."

There are two different principles for the controls. First, the familiar Arena-style operation: The mouse pointer transforms into a directional arrow on the screen. With a mouse click, the player moves forward, backs away, or turns. However, they always look straight ahead unless they use the keyboard. Ted says: "Many testers complained; they preferred direct controls like we had in the last Terminator game." It takes some getting used to, but it's good: every mouse movement directly controls the character's "head." Very useful for quickly looking up or down, for example. A religious war immediately broke out at Bethesda. Ted swears by the old controls, but programmer Julian Lefay is a fan of the Terminator model. The result: Daggerfall lets the player choose between the two control systems.

The 3D graphics will be more detailed than its predecessor. In addition to new monsters, nice weather gimmicks like snowdrifts or fog are a feast for the eyes. But how great is Daggerfall's hardware capability? He shows on his PC: "Hey, I'm currently playing it on a 486 with 5C MHz and it's bearable. On a Pentium, it's obviously quite a bit slower... but our programmers always get the new, faster machines. I'm "just" the game designer and have to practically beg when I need technical help: Oh please, dear programmers, can you put more RAM in my machine?..." Due to speed limits, Daggerfall doesn't support Super VGA: "The VGA graphics are pretty good. With SVGA, we'd have such a slow 3D system that it would be unplayable on most computers. Also, we started development at a time when Super VGA wasn't a big deal" (a teasing interjection from the programming room: "Were there even computers when we started Daggerfall?").

What did Ted Peterson actually do before becoming "Chief Designer" at Bethesda? "Oh, I waited tables." Excuse me? "I finished my English Literature degree and then didn't have a steady job. So I worked as a waiter... and, by the way, I was a pretty bad waiter. Anyway, one day I read a tiny ad in the Washington Post: "Company seeks experienced SF/Fantasy writer." Well, some of my short stories had been published, so I sent in an application. I didn't know who was behind the ad and actually just replied in passing: "Dear mailbox, enclosed are my references. I'm a perfectly normal guy, except I grow a third eye and butterfly wings during a full moon." A short time later, I got the job."

Given his literary roots, Ted had a lot of fun with a book about the game. Talks with publishers about Daggerfall novels are underway. Meanwhile, he reads historical works and is also fond of the classics: "You can find a lot of Hamlet inspiration in the story of Daggerfall."

What software does the game designer personally appreciate? "LucasArts has published some brilliant adventures; I really liked Sam & Max. In terms of role-playing games, I like the Wizardry and Ultima series, especially Ultima Underworld. I also love Realms of Arkana, which is the English version of the German role-playing series The Black Eye."

A final look into the future: How intensively is Bethesda already considering a third Elder Scrolls role-playing game? Ted grins broadly: "Hmm, we're already tinkering with a few working titles. Besides, there are some ideas in the Daggerfall story that could be developed further."