Interview with Oblivion Game Producer Gavin Carter
The subject of Xbox 360 and PC game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was touched in a recent interview with Gavin Carter, producer for Bethesda softworks. If you’re looking at a career in the games industry, or just interested to see what goes on ‘behind the scenes’ of the The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion production, this interview makes a good read.
When asked about his background on gaming, Gavin Carter revealed that it all began when he interned at Bethesda Softworks five years ago. His very first projects were “basic world-building tasks for Morrowind such as laying out the interiors of buildings and creating basic dungeons“. According to him, he also did about half of the non-plotline quests in the expansion, including the quest where you bet on robot fighters and the quest where you take part in a play. Bethesda may have found something in him as they immediately hired him, right after he graduated.
Gavin Carter also answered the age old question – What do games producers actually do? According to Carter, they are there to make the game development process run smoothly, by tracking progress, creating schedules, assigning tasks to different people and bridging the gaps between graphics artists and programmers. Carter also stated that those looking to become games producers should have good project management skills as well as an understanding of how games are created, from graphics to programming.
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The subject of Xbox 360 and PC game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was touched in a recent interview with Gavin Carter, producer for Bethesda softworks. If you’re looking at a career in the games industry, or just interested to see what goes on ‘behind the scenes’ of the The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion production, this interview makes a good read.
When asked about his background on gaming, Gavin Carter revealed that it all began when he interned at Bethesda Softworks five years ago. His very first projects were “basic world-building tasks for Morrowind such as laying out the interiors of buildings and creating basic dungeons“. According to him, he also did about half of the non-plotline quests in the expansion, including the quest where you bet on robot fighters and the quest where you take part in a play. Bethesda may have found something in him as they immediately hired him, right after he graduated.
Gavin Carter also answered the age old question – What do games producers actually do? According to Carter, they are there to make the game development process run smoothly, by tracking progress, creating schedules, assigning tasks to different people and bridging the gaps between graphics artists and programmers. Carter also stated that those looking to become games producers should have good project management skills as well as an understanding of how games are created, from graphics to programming.
Now, lets get to the Oblivion part of the Interview. Carter mentioned that developing a game for multiple formats makes it more difficult, even systems as similar as the PC and Xbox 360. Art and design is virtually unaffected, but resources were split down the middle for programming, half for each format. Carter was proud of the achievements Bethesda have made with Oblivion, including selling over 1.7 Million copies worldwide. He also said that the games’ Radiant AI “was a huge success accomplishing the goal of providing a varied and unique user experience, and weÂ’ll certainly look into refining it in the future.“
When finally asked about his best moment in Oblivion production, Carter said it was the time he heard that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion had passed certification for the Xbox 360; relieved that it was finally done. For Carter, it “a great feeling to hold one of those discs and know that years and years of our hard work was finally ready to make it into the publicÂ’s hands.“
