Meet Dane Olds, Lead Weapons Artist on Starfield at Bethesda Game Studios

Meet Dane Olds!

Lead weapons artist on Starfield and veteran game developer here at Bethesda Game Studios. If you’ve played The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (T Shivering Isles), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, or even Fallout 4, you’ve probably encountered Dane’s work along the way. This month we’re highlighting Dane and his long-time contributions which help to shape the worlds we love to get lost in.

Feel free to give a little intro for those who may not know you, and take us through what a normal day look like for you?

Hi! I’m Dane Olds and I’m Lead Weapon Artist on Starfield. My job is to lead our team of artists making all the weapons and weapon mods for Starfield. These days I mostly work from home so a typical day for me starts out by checking in on Slack and catching up with what everyone has been up to. From there I’ll either start helping people with what they need to get things done or start in on my own work. That could be anything from making art, working closely with other departments like Design, Animation, and Effects, or providing feedback and direction to other artists on the team.

How did you find your way into the lead weapons artist role?

My dad brought home a used NES when I was five and it changed my life. I knew right away that I wanted to make video games and it opened my eyes to the medium. My mind was blown the first time I saw DOOM running on a PC in 1993. There was something about how that perspective put you in the world and how the weapons connected you to that world that really fascinated me. I wanted to play every new game I could to see all the cool new weapons that people were coming up with. In the late 90’s I played my first Elder Scrolls game when a friend of mine got Daggerfall. The vast open world was a new paradigm for me as well as the mouse-controlled weapons.

I learned everything I could about how video games were made and by the time Morrowind came out I was ready to try my hand at modding. The very first piece of game art I ever made was an axe for Morrowind. When I finally got it in the game it was the size of a telephone pole, but I was hooked. I wanted to make weapons for video games. I ended up going to the Savannah College of Art and Design and got my degree in game development and got my first job as an intern at Bethesda Game Studios shortly after I graduated.

**How long have you been with Bethesda? And what advice do you give someone who wants to be in this industry? **

I started out in June of 2006, so I’ve been with Bethesda Game Studios for a little over 16 years now. My biggest advice for someone out there who loves video games and wants to become a game developer is to make it the whole point of your life. If you want to do this, you have to gear absolutely everything toward it. Make it your purpose for being. Learn everything you can about what it takes to make a game, what the different development jobs are, and find the one that speaks to you. From there go after it harder than you’ve ever gone after anything. Learn everything you can about that discipline and learn how to be a part of a team. Find other people that want to do it too, learn from them, and help them learn. If you work hard enough, connect with the right people, and get a little lucky you’ll find your way into the industry one way or the other. Whether that is working with a big developer like Bethesda Game Studios or starting your own endeavor as an Indie, if you make it your purpose and stay true to it, you’ll make it.

What was your first project at Bethesda?

The first project I worked on was the Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion. Back then we used path-grid tech for our AI navigation, and I did all the path grids for the entire outdoor area of Shivering Isles. I also did some landscaping and made my first professional game art. This is also where I created my first weapon as a dev - the Fork of Horripilation!

Do you have a favorite project you’ve worked on?

That’s a tough call! It’s hard to pick just one. Fallout 3 was my first big AAA game so that’s very special to me. Skyrim was an amazing experience because I got to help define the look and feel of the Dwemer art in the game as well as getting to make all of the steel weapons and many artifacts like the Mace of Molag Bal. Oh! It also features one of the few creatures I’ve gotten to make – the mudcrab.

I really feel like I came to be the developer I am today though working on Fallout 4. On that title Todd (Howard) came to me one day and told me he had this crazy idea to make all our weapons moddable and that he wanted it to change the way they looked and played. So, I started in on the pipe weapon set and the rest is history. It was a lot of fun figuring out how to make that system work and I learned a ton working on that game.

Starfield has been a great experience too. Getting to help define the look and feel of a brand-new IP is really something special!

What aspects of your job do you enjoy the most?

You know, I’ve been making video games for sixteen years now and I still can’t believe that I get to wake up and do this every day. The part of my job that I love the most is when a few of us put our heads together and come up with something cooler than any one of us would have come up with on our own and bring it into reality. I really love collaborating with my colleagues.

More specifically in regard to the studio, my favorite thing about Bethesda Game Studio is the people that work here. The Studio IS the people. What we create is the product of all of us working together and bringing who we are to the creative process. I love the unique worlds that we create and the experiences that you can have there. Bethesda Game Studios is really something special.

Do you have a favorite game or game(s) that really inspire?

My favorite game of all time hands-down is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It’s a masterpiece. I’m also a HUGE fan of Fromsoft’s Souls series of games my favorite of which is either Bloodborne or Elden Ring. As far as works that inspire me, I’d have to point to the weapon work done by my colleagues at id, Machinegames, and Arkane. They make some of the best guns in the biz and I’m always inspired by what they do.

What are you working on next that you’re excited for everyone to see?

I can’t wait for people to get their hands on Starfield! We’ve put so much energy into this title and have made something special.

Do you have any fun stories from working on Bethesda Game Studios games?

One night around the holidays I was working late. I wasn’t aware of anyone else at the office, and I heard a knock on the glass near my cubicle. I got up to look and see who it was, and it was Shinji Mikami looking for Todd. It’s not every day a game dev legend pops up outside of your cubicle when you’re working late!

Another favorite memory of mine would be when a lot of us flew out to go to E3 2011. That year Skyrim was on the side of the Figueroa hotel in LA and it was hard to believe that that was OUR game up on the side of that building. We also had an elder scroll replica in our booth that year and it was modelled after the sculpt that I did for the game. It was my first time going to E3 and it was just a really special trip.

Are you approaching the game you’re currently working on any different than in past games you’ve worked on? (New tools? New tech? New tricks?)

Yes! Every new project has unique challenges and requires us to look at our workflow and figure out what will be the best tool for the job. On Starfield for instance I knew that I’d be doing a lot of precision hard surface work (creating man-made objects like weapons, ships, buildings). On previous projects, Zbrush had been my primary 3D software, but I switched to MOI3D for Starfield because I wanted finer control over my surfaces and transitions. MOI works with nurbs as opposed to Zbrush’s Polygons. You could think of it in terms of switching from raster graphics to vectors for 2D. For my projection needs I started using Marmoset Toolbag 4. It’s skew fixing is invaluable for hard surface work. I even spent a little time using Marvelous Designer to create some cloth bits for the Crimson Fleet weapons.

Age Required

What types of stories grab you when you play games?

Stories that grab me tend to be interpersonal or (weirdly) contextual ones. I love seeing characters' relationships and personalities develop over the course of a game. I also love stumbling upon stories that are told through the environment or how an item might be used. I also really like stories that leave a lot to the imagination and let you fill in the gaps.

Are there general themes you like to explore (or even revisit) when crafting for Bethesda Game Studios worlds?

While not exactly a theme, when I’m creating an item for a game, I’m always thinking about the context in which it would be used and who created it. That information helps me figure out the look and feel of the object and ultimately helps inform the game’s world and setting. When I was starting to figure out the type of decoration that would be used on the steel weapons in Skyrim I thought about who the Nords were and how they would have created the designs in their blades. I extrapolated from Norse and Celtic knot-work but went more abstract with it. I incorporated negative space as a feature in the design and was very happy that I came out with something that felt like it was uniquely made by Skyrim’s Nords.

In Starfield when creating the Combatech weapons we wanted to make items that were optimized for space travel. That meant trying to reduce weight as much as possible and making things as compact as possible so they could fit aboard the cramped confines of a spaceship. As a result, our Combatech weapons are created from light-weight metal alloys and polymer and are mostly bullpup designs.

Was there something specific you wanted to include in your current project?

Early on I had a fun Idea for electromagnetically propelled weapons for Starfield. I pitched it to Istvan and Emil and they liked the idea. The result was the Kore Mag weapons in Starfield. If you watch the gameplay reveal trailer closely you can even spot one.

What’s your favorite aspect of the game you’re currently working on so far?

I really love the Freestar Collective in Starfield. I just love that space-western atmosphere. I can’t get enough. I had a lot of fun working on some of the designs for the Laredo weapons that are commonly found in Freestar space as well.
As for my absolute favorite weapon in Starfield, that’s such a tough choice! The Bridger rocket launcher was a lot of fun to make, and I enjoyed working on it with Ilya and Istvan. Another one of my favorites would be the Mag Pulse. It's one of our new magnetically driven weapons that features a grid of 25 barrels. Each barrel has its own aiming laser which is incredibly cool. When you use it in the game, you'll see a grid of lasers projected onto objects in the world which tells you exactly where your shots will land. We haven't done anything like it before. I have so many other weapons I love though too. The Razorback is a six-shot revolver that uses exotic 7.5mm White hot rounds that I use when I want to be a space cowboy. The AA99 feels so beefy and cool... It's hard to pick a single favorite, so I'll just leave it there. I can’t wait to share all of them with you!

Age Required

Have you had any special opportunities to try something new with your current project?

Yep! This is my first time acting as a lead on a project so that has been a whole new experience for me. I’ve also gotten to learn lots of new software and help work out some new things for our weapons pipeline.

Thank you so much to Dane for taking the time to answer our questions. Check out more from our team here at Bethesda Game Studios. If you want to work alongside Dane or anyone else at Bethesda Game Studios, visit our careers page and apply today!