Skyrim’s Modular Approach to Level Design
Originally presented @ Level Design in a Day, GDC 2013Co-Authored and Co-Presented w/Nate Purkeypile
Slides available here.
While many developers understand the basic concepts behind a modular system, and some have dabbled in it for a project or two, very few have made a career out of it. That’s exactly what Nate and I have done, however. Our current project will be our fifth together in the near-decade we have known and worked with each other. Every one of these projects has taken this kit-based approach, including those we worked on before joining Bethesda.
To understand our approach, it’s useful to know where we’re coming from as developers, and where Bethesda Game Studios is coming from as a whole.