Bethesda Veteran Reveals How He Would Have Designed Starfield Differently
A former Bethesda developer who worked on Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76 has outlined how he would have designed Starfield had he been in charge of the game — and it sounds very different.
Nate Purkeypile, a former Bethesda developer with a background in Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76, has shared his thoughts on how he would have approached Starfield's design differently. The lead lighting artist and senior world artist on the game expressed his concerns about the studio's decision to include 1,000 planets in the game.
Purkeypile warned internally that only 10% of these planets would feature life, with the rest serving different purposes such as barren landscapes for resource collection or cities with settlements for story progression. Despite the procedural nature of the game, Purkeypile believed that Bethesda should have crafted a smaller number of planets with unique layouts, rather than relying on repetitive content across thousands of worlds.
He compared the situation to Mass Effect 1, where procedural planets led to repeated dungeons, resulting in an unsatisfying experience. Purkeypile also noted that while the major cities in Starfield were impressive, the rest of the environment felt incoherent and lacking, as if the team ran out of time to flesh out the world beyond these locations.
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