Bethesda is known for pioneering the idea of 'Radiant' NPCs, i.e. characters that had interactions with the world around them separate from their interactions with players. Skyrim, Starfield and Fallout 4 are all known for this type of NPC behaviour.
Bruce Nesmith, formerly a design director at Bethesda, recently told PC Gamer in an interview how NPC behaviour in Skyrim was originally formulated. Believe it or not, radiant AI is an example of a rare real-life 'napkin story'. Someone conceptualising a good idea on a napkin is relatively common in media, but less so in real life.
"The Radiant AI system was developed from a napkin drawing that Todd [Howard] gave us," Nesmith explained.
Nesmith worked for over two decades at Bethesda across two stints with the company, earning credits on Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout 76 and Fallout 4.
"It's actually a napkin story," Nesmith continued. "You don't hear many of those in real life, but this is a real one." He explains that Howard drew the game's protagonist in the middle of the napkin, and then began drawing icons with arrows connecting the hero to concepts like monsters, houses and so on.
"And [Howard] said......
