Even if you haven’t played The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you probably still would have seen the iconic “You’re finally awake” intro with a cart in some meme. Though the scene is fondly remembered, a former developer at Bethesda Game Studios has now detailed how the scene interfered with the team during its creation. In a Twitter thread, Nate Purkeypile said the team would struggle for a long time to find the problem that caused the car to suddenly lose control. Purkeypile had to watch the video hundreds of times to find it.
He said the problem was that it’s not just any cart on rails. That cart was real in terms of Skyrim’s engine. “Well, one time, when I was riding that cart again, the cart started shaking violently and suddenly WHOOSH! The cart takes off like a rocket. Like LOTS up there,” he said.
So I have a story about the Skyrim Intro and how difficult game development is.
That intro is famous now, but back then it was just that one thing we had to keep working on forever. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen that cart driven. Easily hundreds. (wire) pic.twitter.com/D0E0oZ5uX8
— Nate Purkeypile (@NPurkeypile) August 17, 2021
Maybe the road was too bumpy. Maybe there was just a physics bug. Maybe someone accidentally placed a rock too close to the road. The cart had a path it wanted to follow, but that doesn’t mean it was a path it COULD follow. Big difference. 🙂
— Nate Purkeypile (@NPurkeypile) August 17, 2021
For a long time no one knew why this happened. Finally, they found out that there was a bug – a virtual one – in the game and not in the software that made life difficult for developers.
So it turned out that there was another bug where the bee in the game could not be picked up. So then some drinks couldn’t be made. That bug has been fixed. Only the kind of collision on the bee didn’t let him be picked up just like that. It also caused it to run into things.
— Nate Purkeypile (@NPurkeypile) August 17, 2021
The problem with this digital bee was that it was an “immovable force of nature”. So if the cart and the intersect, the cart would be thrown off the road.
That means it was by an unwavering force of nature should it ever cross the path of the cart. The cart wanted to drive across the road. The bee wouldn’t move. So the cart goes!
— Nate Purkeypile (@NPurkeypile) August 17, 2021
“So game development is difficult. Every time you fix one thing, you might break another. This is especially true for open world games,” said Purkeypile, who is now working on a solo indie game.
So game development is difficult. Every time you fix one thing, you might break another. This is especially true for open world games. But that interplay of all systems makes them all super interesting.
— Nate Purkeypile (@NPurkeypile) August 17, 2021
Many users shared their views on the bee problem. A user (@diet_ice) wanted to know if there were any “Fallout stories”, referencing another iconic Bethesda game series, Fallout.
Thank you for this! Would never have known! You should definitely tell more stories about the making of the games! Any fallout stories?
— AÅR (@diet_ice) August 17, 2021
Another user (@SteveAnything) said that Purkeypile’s story was a perfect explanation for why developers started putting the bugs in jars, suggesting that real bugs always distract them from the real thing.
now that’s a perfect explanation for why the developers started putting the bugs in jars.
— Steve’ll Say Anything Podcast (@SteveAnything) August 18, 2021
A third user (@chavakno_) paid tribute to the ‘powerful bee’.
Does this just sound hilarious????
I bet it was frustrating, but still, such a powerful bee ????— Chavakno (@chavakno_) August 17, 2021
Here are a few more interesting comments:
This answers the question: what happens when an unstoppable force encounters an immovable object? Answer: the power goes UP.
— Conor Miller (@ckd_miller) August 17, 2021
…How did you fix that beeping. No, seriously… I’m interested.
— DivineBlood (@DivineBloodBook) August 17, 2021
So what you’re saying in this case is that the bug that caused this was a real bug? Awesome lol
— Claire (Valnar) ???? (@ValnarDragoness) August 17, 2021
However, Purkeypile has not revealed how the bug has been fixed.
