In his presentation during this week's DICE Summit, he marginalized the aspects of game creation that many development studios hold near and dear: charts, installed base stats, the design document, the schedule, etc. These things mean little without self-reliance, a culture of quality and, Howard says a low "asshole" quotient.
"Your plan is not as important as your culture," he says. "When you're pitching games, there is no chart that will prove your design is good. You have to have faith in your idea that the project would be good.
"Installed base doesn't matter. If it did we should all make board games because there are a lot of tables. You've got to be fearless when you make your games."
Howard explains why Bethesda decided to resurrect the Fallout franchise with 2008's hit open-world RPG Fallout 3: "Great ideas, never, never die," he said of the post-apocalyptic PC series that relishes in its violence and dark humor. "We were in love with the first game and felt that it needed to be done again."
But, he says, ideas are not as important as the execution.
He provided general guidelines that he believes can lead to the creation of a great game. First, he says, define the experience. "Most people will define their game as awesome and cool. That's not the experience."
For Fallout 3, Bethesda revisited the Fallout games of the 1990s, absorbing the experience that those games provided. The studio took the iconic pieces of past Fallouts, updating the Pip Boy arm piece, the vault suit, and implementing the time-freezing V.A.T.S. combat system.
One key part of the Fallout experience has been the violence, and Howard wanted to make sure that was conveyed in Bethesda's game. "For the day, the original Fallout was very violent," he says. With Fallout 3's combat system, he wanted to "Make that simple activity of killing enjoyable," even if it is a repetitive process.
Finding out what a game's experience should be may even involve reading old game reviews, something Bethesda did when creating Fallout 3.
Howard also told attendees to make marketing part of the development process. When the creators and marketers work hand-in-hand, they can leverage their power to mold the expectations of gamers (i.e. consumers).
Importantly, the director stressed that "great games are made, not played." With the development of Fallout 3, in the final months, the art team isn't making art, but they're playing the game. Encountering problems as a team and fixing them before it's too late is facilitated by a culture of quality that allows for mutual respect.