There's a Todd Howard Interview on PC Gamer discussing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the next installment in Bethesda's RPG series. He discusses the game in both general and specific terms, and offers a funny bug report: "Let’s see… something that was good lately – but this was a bug – lately we realised that chickens were reporting crimes. I found that very funny. That was just last week: 'Why are we getting caught?' 'Oh, the chickens are reporting the crimes!'" On a related topic, Completely Blue Sky- The Concept of Skyrim on The Elder Scrolls Website offers the first developer's diary for the imminent release. This is provided as an audio podcast, and here's a bit of the accompanying text:

And from the first moments on the project, it was obvious that Skyrim would require not just a unique spin on fantasy, but on The Elder Scrolls series as a whole.

An Elf Walks Into a Biker Bar

“It was a reaction to what Oblivion was as a game,” said lead artist Matt Carofano. “Oblivion was a very classic medieval setting, and we felt some of that was a bit generic. We wanted to do something that showed a lot more of the culture of the people who lived there.”

“Skyrim was all about creating a world that seemed believable.”

Finding the perfect tone for the rugged-yet-fantastical province of Skyrim was a challenge initially. Though Skyrim’s Nords share some similarities to real-world Vikings, the likeness is superficial – the Nords have their own distinct cultural history that needed to be detailed from the ground up.

“It was completely blue sky,” relates Adamowicz. “Todd said, ‘Sit down and draw a bunch of cool, weird [stuff], and we’ll look at it and decide what’s worthwhile and what’s really stupid.’”

Early on, the artists were given freedom to explore radical concepts, with the team leaders only stepping in to provide a general direction.