“You dork! Go back to the Chess Club”: $10M Rich Todd Howard Said ‘Who’s Laughing Now’ to Everyone Who Humiliated Him for His Love for Video Games, He Started Creating Them When He Was 12

SUMMARY

• Todd Howard does not need to provide a portfolio to describe his successful career.
• Todd Howard has been writing games since he was 12 years old. He always wanted to become a video game developer.
• Todd Howard was called a dork for wanting to become a video game developer.

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Todd Howard is a video game industry legend who started his professional journey in the mid-1990s when he joined Bethesda Softworks as a producer and designer. He has ever since been a part of the same studio.

Todd Howard’s genius mind helped him climbed the ladder of success. Image Credit: Bethesda

However, when he was still a kid, his decision to become a video game developer after growing up was frowned upon, as was the norm back in the day. Kids his age would mock him for his childish and nerdy outlook towards his future jobs.

Todd Howard Rises Above The Criticism He Faced As A Kid

Todd Howard faced a lot of criticism for his decision of becoming a video game developer. Image Credit: Bethesda

Todd Howards was born in 1970 in  Macungie, Pennsylvania, United States. Howard was interested in games since a very young age and used to be a chess player as a kid. While the other children his age held ambitions about becoming world-famous footballers, his ambitions led him to write games at the mere age of 12.

Todd Howard truly is a child prodigy who knew since the very beginning that video games were his calling and video games were not just a tool for a child to toy with but rather a world full of possibilities to express oneself creatively.

In a behind-the-scenes documentary of Skyrim: Oblivion, which was the game of the year back in 2006, Todd Howard is seen expressing how, as a child, his ambitions were disregarded by his peers. He said:

I was writing games when I was you know, 12 whatever, and the other kids in the block would say, You know, I’m going to play quarterback for the cowboys, and i’ll be like, I want to make video games and everyone’s gonna play em and they were like, You dork, go back to the chess club. Who’s laughing now?

Todd Howard worked as the executive producer and director for Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. It was the first game that gave him the reputation of a genius developer with the brightest future ahead.

Todd Howard Rose To The Top Most Position In Bethesda

Howard joined the studio in 1994 and rose to the top position from there. Image Credit: Bethesda

Howard is currently the studio head of Bethesda. He is the mastermind behind many games, including the widely celebrated Skyrim, which truly enabled him to stand out from the ground and stand amongst the greatest.

He then went ahead and took the reins of the Fallout series with Fallout 3 and turned it into a classic. The game was a major hit. He redefined the way open-world games were looked at. His approach towards open-world games was focused on expanding the map, increasing the player choice, and making a rich narrative to drive the story forward.

Howard is known for his hands-on approach to game design and his role in shaping Bethesda’s iconic open-world RPG formula that blends rich narrative with the freedom given to players to explore and interact with the world in many ways. What do you think about Howard’s success? Let us know in the comments below.

Written by Anupam Lamba

Articles Published: 185

Anupam Lamba is an avid gamer and film lover. After completing his bachelors in Mass Communication he started working as a writer in the Indian film industry before his love for gaming made him venture into the lanes of Fandomwire and he started working as a gaming writer here.