FUN FACT: Kurt has been one of the top 10 most requested guests for the last 6 months! Hope you enjoy 🙂

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Intro
01:06 – How Kurt Became The Lore Master Of The Elder Scrolls
06:26 – Maintaining The Lore
07:57 – Studying History At University/Why Kurt Went To Bethesda
09:40 – Evolution Of Quest/Narrative Design At Bethesda
10:50 – Using History To Influence Lore/Tolkien’s Influence
14:50 – Changing Writing Styles For Fallout
18:34 – Using Different Words And Thesaurus For Writing Elder Scrolls/Fallout
20:24 – The Evolution Of Voice Acting At Bethesda
24:39 – Limitations On Writing At Bethesda
26:30 – How Bethesda Changed As The Team Size Grew
29:35 – Kurt’s System Designer Role On Starfield
32:25 – Why Starfield Took So Long To Make
34:30 – The Creation Kit/Things Carried Over From Elder Scrolls/Fallout To Starfield
36:15 – Problems With Fallout 76
37:00 – Elder Scrolls VI Will Be Bittersweet For Kurt
39:17 – Fallout TV Show
40:36 – Lord Of The Rings Movies
42:38 – Todd Howard/Remote Work Benefited Starfield
49:30 – Q+A – What Is Kurts Ideal Sequel To Redguard?
51:14 – Q+A – What Makes The Elder Scrolls Feel Grounded
54:53 – Q+A – Does Kurt Prefer The Psychedelic Lore Of Morrowind Over The European Style Of Oblivion
57:58 – Closing Comments/TES:VII/Morrowind Remake

Great interview! Given how much money is spent on AAA games these days, it feels like BGS should now start paying top tier (proven) writers to come up with the main stories & work alongside the quest designers to make the missions & dialogue more impactful, memorable, & exciting.

That’s not to take away from any of the writing done to date – but imo they should now be looking to take it to next level with lots of interesting (& proven) professional writers. Particularly for new IP like Starfield.

Maybe Jonathan Nolan would like to throw his hat in the ring? 👀 or ex writers from beloved TV shows like the Expanse, Firefly, Andor, the OA, etc? Appreciate those writers may not be interested in working in games but George R.R. Martin partly wrote Elden Ring, so who knows! Maybe hire Chris Avellone, or Brian Mitsoda, or rehire Michael Kirkbride? …Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent making these games – so it seems like a worthy investment to pay for the best writers (both story & dialogue).

Ngl the idea of no dedicated writers always baffled me when it comes to making RPGs. Thanks for the interview!

As someone who as spent so much time looking into Michael kirkbride’s storytelling and style. It’s nice to get a more nuanced view of the team.

After hearing Kurt left BGS, he’s been the #1 guy I was hoping would get interviewed. Thanks for getting kurt on! Was a blast to listen to. Great Interview all around

the man the legend!

this guy is a legend! Thanks for interview

This channel is a hidden gem for BGS fans. Thanks Kiwi 🙏

Kurt Kuhlmann is an incredibly significant influence on TES’ worldbuilding. People often tribute Michael Kirkbride for the most fascinating elements of worldbuilding – not in last part due to his lengthy participation in the community – but in my opinion, Kuhlmann bouncing those ideas and grounding them in a setting is what really helped them take root. Kuhlmann’s persistent character of Hasphat Antabolis, the classically-minded Imperial amateur scholar, being there to poke at more fantastical takes by Kirkbride’s many many “sockpuppets” (not derogatory) has really helped bridge those ideas with the games that people actually get to play. It is a bit reductive to treat them as “the fun one” and “the serious one” – in many respects, the credit is shared.

Jeeezus Bethesda is sooo dated and i see it in their games. Bruh said they dont have writers which is apparent in Starfield.

These interviews are really bittersweet for me. BGS games are so connected to me and seeing all these brilliant creators talking about the “glory days” of developing the games I hold so close is both wonderful to hear, but also heartbreaking to see the loss of this talent at BGS. This was one especially great since I’m really into ES lore, so hearing from someone who was so closely tied to the series was incredible.

I really appreciate you gathering up all these ex-BGS devs and interviewing them. Even if they aren’t there anymore, it’s great to shed more light on the folks who made these industry staples. If you’re keen to keep interviewing BGS devs, some current devs would also be really interesting if they are available. Matt Carafano or Dan Lee would be great!

Thanks again for creating all these! Cheers

Thank you for this interview, as a huge TES/BGS fan I became a member of your channel for the EA to this (and because I’ve greatly enjoyed all your other interviews, of course).

About the interview itself, I certainly missed Kurt’s touch on the narrative design in Starfield, specifically in its worldbuilding – though I did greatly enjoy the more generally optimistic and “classic sci-fi” tone of that game, it was definitely a bold choice in the 2020s (though it probably didn’t help the reception, but I think that says more about where we are as humanity than the game itself – GRRM once said something about how people had lost hope about the future, and that had caused sci-fi to become less popular than it once was. Hell, even Star Trek moved away from that kind of tone, sadly).

About the systems design, ship building was of course a highlight, but I also really enjoyed the skill system and the “challenges” system in that, and the alien wildlife behaviour simulation, though I missed radiant AI on more NPCs (I should have remembered to ask about that in your “Ask your Questions” post, oh well). I think the dialogue system also improved significantly (both in implementation and in writing), especially compared to Fallout 4. Character creation, with the traits and backgrounds system, was easily Bethesda’s best since Daggerfall, at least to me.

Anyway, great interview, I hope to hear about what Kurt’s working on next soon. And I would love to see an interview with Mark Nelson, who was a designer on Morrowind, Oblivion and the Lead Designer in Shivering Isles – he goes by “BlueDev” on Twitter. Ken Rolston would be great too.