Bug-free release “impossible,” says Skyrim designer

The chief designer of “Skyrim” explains: Bug-free releases are simply not possible. However, he also admits that the Bethesda games could use better polish.

Bethesda Softworks has had great gaming experiences in recent years, but they didn’t really believe in releasing any of them smoothly. Bruce Nesmith, who worked as lead designer on “Skyrim,” now spoke about this problem.

According to him, bug-free launches are not possible: “Games are so big, so complex, especially Bethesda games, because you have so many working elements that try to interact with each other.” That’s why a bug-free release is impossible. There is no game on the market that is free of bugs.”

Extensive gameplay makes up for the lack of polish

Still, the developer says, “I’ll be the first to say that Bethesda Games could have a higher level of polishing.” However, recent Bethesda titles have had “such a broad and extensive range of gameplay options” that players have been missing out fine-tuning has been forgiven.

An example of this from Nesmith: “Having an NPC walk around in front of a wall for a while became acceptable because you could do 17 things with that NPC, whereas in most games you could only do two.”

In any case, most of the errors in the release are known to the Bethesda developers. Rarely does a bug arise that leaves the team wondering how it happened.

Further polishing leads to a significantly later release

Nesmith then asks if people are willing to wait another six months to get a bug-free gaming experience. Perfection still doesn’t come about. “It will only be better,” explains the developer.

That’s why a development team has to decide at some point to release it – despite the existing bugs.

This level of refinement also comes at a price.

Bruce Nesmith on disadvantage of finishing touches

Video gamer Nesmith then asked whether fans should be informed about the bugs at launch. The responsible team generally has an exact list (“700 or so”).

His response was, “It’s an interesting problem because when you’re in marketing, you’re trying to manage expectations.”

Of course, players’ expectation is a flawless gaming experience. Since this isn’t achievable, Bethesda’s marketing team also has to ask themselves how they can get as close to this expectation as possible.

How can we make these people not hate us for doing wrong and love us for doing right?

The marketing team has to deal with this question before a publication

Further news about Bethesda, Bethesda Softworks.

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