Life After 76: Why this Veteran Bethesda World Designer Went Solo 

Annnd Wishlisted, Thank you very much!

I'm totally getting the word out on this. Expect a spike Nate!

done!

you notice that bump in the wishlist already? XD

you seem ridiculously talented, hardworking, and intelligent. really hope this game succeeds.

whats your cat called mate

Hey dude! So thankful for your awesome contribution to some of my favorite games of all time. Your passion for worlds will be missed in games like TES 6 ( my most anticipated game) but Im so glad you're happy doing something new at the same time, this project looks super cool btw and I hope it works out very well for you. I certainly will check it out when it's ready.

Curious to see how it goes! I'll know tomorrow morning haha.@@ruolbu

Point Lookout was super fun to make. Still really proud of that one.

thats not really saying that much cinsidering the main game is ridiculously badly designed both from logical and gameplay perspective

who hurt you? @@Helperbot-2000

Who care?@@anywhere_but_here

guess his dad hurt his @nus today@@anywhere_but_here

Thanks! I've been making games for a long time and seen a lot of crunch first hand, it doesn't work. Not a fan haha.

hes done pretty much nothing other then installing some unreal plugins (redwood forrest pack) and asset packs.. im not too impressed.. the concept is complete shit. level design is a pretty useless skill without game designers.

​@@boohoo5419bruh, the comment you responded to isn't even about game design.

​@@boohoo5419 Instead of talking shit on the internet with so much hate that it doesn't get you anywhere, do yourself better then, show us something better than that.

@@boohoo5419 your name suits you.

this

There are so many diehard TES fans that will absolutely denounce you if you suggest TES6 should be developed on a different engine... yet here is one of the creators of Skyrim showing the advantages.

@@raven_glass from 2 weeks to 2 days is insane. Put those numbers on a production chart for a company of 1000 employees and you're a hero lmao

If you're starting a new game with a new style and method of gameplay, then of course a different engine can be faster once you've learned it. But start adding in those typical bethesda gameplay tropes like every item being tracked even when you leave its cell for weeks or months, stuff like that, engines like Creation have been designed for that level of granularity. I desperately want them to use something a bit more current but without ditching the way BGS's RPGs work and the levels of detail they generally have, there isn't much on the market that would fit the bill. Perhaps its time for BGS to change their style, but then, it wouldn't be the BGS we know.

@@zybch i dont care about my inventory junk being in the same spot i dropped it. i doubt it's even particularly good at that, since it's been 20 years since oblivion where there actually wasnt an engine that could do that well.

And I don't think it is just game makers that hold that sentiment. People like myself who only play games feel like they need to stop ever expanding. The scope and the team working on them need to be reeled back.

*cough* starfield

sorry but its not "the passion that those games were made with" its the passion PARTS of the games were made with, on the whole its clear the company coulødnt give less of a fuck, but some parts like the occational sidequest and parts of the maps have been lovingly made by people who give a shit and wanted to make something that is fun and makes sense. the rest is a mess of nonsensical slop without any thought behind it, completely ignoring established rules and lore at every step, including contradictions WITHIN THE SAME GAME

I keep running into you in other peoples comments sections 😂

and there's still Bethesda apologist defending the Gamebryo engine *cough* sorry the Creation engine that Bethesda has used since Morrowind.

​@Helperbot-2000 100% agreed. There's really no overall cohesion and it really feels smashed together.

Quit huffing the copium bro. The games are incoherent, cobbled together hack jobs. The engine is antiquated and the writing is an insult. Bethesda is hot garbage these days and apologists like you are the worst

Those were fun times :)

Great game :)

Haha, thanks so much, glad you like that map!

@@justpurkeygames it’s truly a beautiful and diverse map, every nook and cranny felt completely different and with purpose, and all while being a ridiculously big map. Massive props.

@@justpurkeygames I wish listed it as well!

@@justpurkeygames Please try to find work at Obsidian if you ever want to get back into it. Or Larian. Or Bioware. The maps and soundtrack were always the best parts of Bethesda games. Just wish the writing was on par...

@@justpurkeygames real talk at least 50% of my gameplay when I was still playing 76 (pre-wastelanders) was just wandering around the map, going "whoa this looks sick" and digging in holes for little easter eggs or secrets or whatever I could find. Oh, and of course, jumping in ridiculous ways all over whatever I could find to get higher and higher to see more stuff at once. it was great :)

Really? That's awesome. Glad you liked the talk!

Thanks for this recommendation. :>

Shoutouts to GDC talks that are online and easily viewed by people wanting to get into game design. I LOVE those vids.

They would never hire someone with the attitude of “I’m here because I love your games and they are declining in quality.” As soon as that became clear to your interviewer, you shot your self in the foot.

@@daniel16578 No fool. I didn't go into the interview saying that. Why the hell would anyone say that? I said that to myself in retrospective. The whole reason why I got to a second round interview in the first place is because I had the skill set to back it up. I simply didn't get the job because I've never worked at a large company like that before.

​@@REVOLVERE😂😂😂😂, your game suck, let me fix it. as if anybody would say that in an interview.

I recently interviewed for a position with them, also getting to the second round and not getting the job for the same reason. Sucks.

@@MrInternetMan so why would they give you a second interview if the reason you didn’t get hired is due to lack of experience in the industry? Wouldn’t they already know this from your resume? Why even have the interviews?

Thanks, glad you're looking forward to the game!

There is bigger problems than the map with Bethesda games, Nate had no say in that or experience in those. Bethesda games have been progressive more and more shit since fallout 3.

Sad to see people like him left the company but people like Emil still there, anyways I hope his game goes well, I get to play looks really interesting.

​@@RaNc0R he didn't work on morrowind which is equal or better to skyrim and fallout 3, fallout 3's map is kinda just shit in general. Emil can write but not large quests or be in charge, he somehow through experience managed to just weasel his way into positions he can't and shouldn't be in.

@@deadlock_problem true. I don’t wanna hate on Emil just for hate. But I feel like he is failing upwards while lot of big talents leaving Bethesda. Sometimes I wonder the reason they left because there’s no opportunity for them to move up. By looking at the state of Starfield I have no big hopes for elder scrolls vi, hopefully I’m wrong.

@@RaNc0R elders scrolls game have gotten far more casualized since morrowind. Emils is probably a big reason but a lot of older talent left and they left a long time ago. Just go back and play the classics they have much deeper mechanics and are more free. If you haven't play morrowind and if you can tolerate it daggerfall. Bethesda is likely never going to make anything as immersive, intelligent or just comfy as those games.

Thanks so much, I put a lot of thought into it and had a great art team

Thanks!

I loved exploring the central portion of the map so much. The mountains were gorgeous with the cliffs and vistas. That with the ambient music made for a very relaxing feeling.

Definitely something I’m thinking about. It would be a great fit with all the UI stuff in world already

@@justpurkeygames No HUD is the standard for VR games, so you've already got that working in your favor. You talked about not wanting to have a mini-map and used the map in _Firewatch_ as a point of reference. This style of diegetic map is pretty common in VR games, so it seems to work well with the medium. I've also read that UE5 has built-in VR functionality. Some modders have added VR modes to UR5 games that didn't have them, by editing some engine settings. It seems like getting things at least running in VR mode is mostly straight-foward it seems. Have you played any archery VR games? If you haven't, even the archery mini-game in "The Lab" will give you an idea of how satisfying bows are in VR.

Thanks for all the kind words and glad you liked 76's map!

Honestly the no hud philosophy feels a little like a crutch to me. I'm not a fan of it. A bad hud will definitely feel like a leash yanking you around and taking you out of the experience. A good hud is just keeping you immersed because it solves the central problem: you are playing a video game and you are viewing that world through a screen. For instance: You can't feel the weight of the items in your bag in real life. With a good hud, you just pop open your bag interface and in a heartbeat you see what's in there. With a bad hud, you have to go through one or two menu options to open your inventory. Or figuring out what's in there isn't intuitive because it's hard to read or it's sharing space with your character sheet. You can't feel the weight of ammo leaving your gun because it's not actually in your hand in real life. With a good hud, you just glance at your ammo count vs how much you can use to reload. With a bad hud, you have to do whatever nonsense math the devs decided was necessary in order to understand how much ammo you have. You aren't actually standing in the world and don't have a sense of place. With a good hud, you have a map that can give you a general idea of your location that works with the game's overall ethos as to how detailed your sense of place should be, whether it's a high tech gps or a hand-drawn map you keep in your pocket. Open it up, check your location, put it away. Maybe a waypoint marker for special occasions or if you place one on your map just to help you get a sense of place, the way you would if you held the map in your hands and toyed with it for a moment. With a bad hud, it just yanks you along the entire way with a giant arrow to tell you where to go. ...Look, there's a lot of ways to do a hud. The idea that no hud is always best hud is flawed as hell.

@@NetherStray No, no HUD is always best but it does not clash with what you are saying. The thing is to integrate the hud in a way that it is only shown when you need it. The key is that the screen should be completely clear at all times except when you need to look at something like your map. And when you do so the map should be within the actual gameworld and not a fake artificial screen. Look at games like Dead Space that do this very well. Also games like Last of Us and Red Dead Redemption 2 does HUD very well in that you can have the screen completely clean and then get all the info you need for a few seconds by pressing a button

I like to actually play games and for that you need a HUD to give you information. Just watch movies instead if you want to be "immersed" in the world.

@@Trakesh You need it if you are completely braindead and don't want to figure anything out on your own. Just follow that floating magic arrow around while drool streams from the side of your mouth.

@@Daniel-fi9qi lol i can tell you really dont play videogames

Glad you like it!

I already mostly have that fixed haha. I don't have that many shaders, and there's fancy ways to get around it. But I also just shoved all the stuff under the intro screen when you start the game. So if it hitches, it just hitches when you start the game. Easy fallback lol. Problem solved. Indie style.

If only Bethesda would have taken this advice with Starfield, it would have turned out so much better.

@@JAIMEGARCIA-gw9re oh look, making sure to comment under SF comments or even comments that have nothing to do with them. Are you a bot?

@@xBINARYGODx I was sorta hinting that lol. I like SF but truthfully I dont think theyve topped skyrim

Tim Cain recently talked about this, and it's not what you would expect... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8rhgaSkmY_s.html

A creative company, no. Hollywood suffers from the same nonsense.

@@flouserschird I know what you're trying to say, but please name me a company that doesn't "create" something.

On the other hand, when you consider the train wreck that is Valve's company culture around game development, you start to think "someone around here needs to be in charge." Flat hierarchies are at best an illusion and at worst a recipe for anarchy.

@@SimuLord Valve operates on a worker coop model? That would be news to me.

Thanks!

Thanks! Glad you liked it and think that style worked!

@@justpurkeygames Keep up the good work! I'm excited to see the final product!

He is happy he can slap some quick untextured scults onto a map and copy pasta blueprints and have it mostly work. Doesn't change the game is barely a game. I'm sure the walking sim will be nice too look at for like 30 mins.

@@deadlock_problem Still, it's just one person going at it, not aiming at AAA. Multimillion companies have done worse than untextured sculpts, like lowpoly models and sluggish texture popping, while charging full price.

@@That-Ai okay and there are a million better indie games. This is just unreal engine + his art + copy pasta code

@@deadlock_problem "okay and there are a million better indie games" Sure, and? "This is just unreal engine + his art + copy pasta code" Yeah, that's how most indie games work.

@@That-Ai That's actually not how most indie games that are half decent quality are made. I could list out like 50 high quality games made in the last 4 years if you don't know what they look like. I can list out like 200 good games in the last few years.

The “HUD” is just in world on the hands and bow. Instead of floating ui icons

I guess it will also help with install size. Having 4k resolutions in your fancy new game is the stuff that takes insance amount of disc space. Maybe it even helps with loading times since you don't have to move all that information into memory. Then again I have no clue how fast the nanite system is and how it compares.

@@ruolbu Yeah it saves a TON of vram and storage space. That stuff adds up so fast.

Thanks! Glad you like what I’m trying to do with this :)