In a recent interview with PCGamer, Nate Purkeypile gave many of us an inside look at Bethesda’s upcoming RPG, Starfield. Nate has been in development for 17 years, including 14 years at Bethesda, developing games such as Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76.
Now, Nate is the founder of Just Purkey Games and spends his time on smaller projects. While he can’t share much about Starfield for fairly obvious reasons, Nate does have some interesting things to say about working with Bethesda on Starfield.
When asked how big Starfield really is, it’s clear that Starfield isn’t just one big game, it’s got a bigger team behind it. “Starfield is a bigger project, maybe 500 people or so, and I think [Fallout] 76 could be 200, max,” Nate said.
The sheer size of the development team behind Starfield is part of the reason Nate left Bethesda to start Just Purkey Games. The developers also pointed out the amount of effort and detail required to build a new universe as vast as Starfield.
“There are not always solved questions about how things look like, what are the shapes of the metal panels? How do they connect things together? What colors do you use? What materials do they have? How do you work in all these different fields Make a difference? So, it’s a lot harder than you ask me like, hey, make another follow-up game,” Nate explained. “You’d be surprised how many metal panels they’ve made conceptually.”
Many of us were shocked, but not surprised, when Todd Howard revealed at this year’s Xbox Bethesda showcase that Starfield would have over 1,000 planets for players to land on. While we welcome big games with vast worlds to explore and a lot to do, this announcement has many players worried that StarCraft may well be the next Cyberpunk 2077; an overly ambitious project, but ultimately did not achieve the desired effect.
Now, this is just speculation, but if you ask me, the thought of exploring even more than 100 planets seems daunting. PCGamer did ask Nate how the team created all these planets, and he shared, “I can’t really get into the technical details of it. 76’s map is almost twice as big as Skyrim, which is a lot of work for people. Do, but yeah, it’s not scaled. Even if you want to hire outsourcing, you have to hire a nation. In reality, it’s just a tiny fraction of that team that’s actually on the planet.”
In the interview that follows, it’s time to talk about The Elder Scrolls 6, the highly anticipated follow-up that will leave many of us in disgrace before it finally comes out. Nate explained that Bethesda has to set expectations for fans, “I think letting people know that’s definitely a part of that.” There’s no word that Elder Scrolls fans will have to wait a long time to receive the RPG series. New installment payment.
That’s Nate Purkeypile’s interview with PCGamer, and it’s certainly interesting to know that Starfield has a bigger team than ever before. If anything, this solves my concerns about 1000 planets, so hopefully Starfield delivers!
For more on Starfield, here are 14 things we know so far about the Xbox-exclusive Bethesda RPG, and how your Starfield score will affect your gaming experience.
