Summary
According to the game’s lead quest designer,Starfieldhit the “panic button” in order to finish its final quest in time for the June 09, 2025 launch date.Starfieldhas over 1000 planets for players to explore, but the final one in the game, Masada 3, was designed extremely last-minute during the development process.
Starfieldhas proven to be one of Bethesda’s most controversial launches to date. The game performed extremely well with critics, althoughStarfieldwasn’t quite as popular with many of its players. This has resulted in dwindling player counts for Bethesda’s latest RPG of late. Still,Starfieldhas a ton of great queststhat have that Bethesda magic, but it seems getting to that point was a race against time.
PC Gamerfirst reported on the quotes, which came fromStarfield’s lead quest designer Will Shen during a talk at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Shen, who has since left Bethesda, claimed that “it became very clear that we were missing the large final location that was going to tie the story together and have a satisfying action-filled payoff.” With not enough time to makeStarfield’s endingsatisfying, Shen looked to senior level designer Steve Cornett for help. Cornett was described by Shen as “our panic button,” with the former coming up with the dimension hopping concept. This allowedStarfieldto reuse earlier areas of the game in the ending, cutting down the time and resources needed massively.
Starfield Hit The ‘Panic Button’ To Finish The Main Quest
Shen, alongsideFallout 76’s lead quest designer Daryl Brigner, also spoke of the issues created by Bethesda’s expansion in recent years, with the team going from around 150 people forFallout 4, to over 500 for the development ofStarfield. Brigner said, “It’s more difficult than ever to know who does what, who you’re supposed to report to,” and according to Shen, “every department is scrambling for resources and saying ‘no’ to collaboration requests.” It’s interesting to think that despite these issues, the studio has still managed to release some of thebest open-world gamesof recent years.
…it became very clear that we were missing the large final location that was going to tie the story together and have a satisfying action-filled payoff.
2024 is set to be an integral year for the future ofStarfield. The first piece of DLC,Shattered Space, is expected at some point this year, and it’ll be a crucial moment for Bethesda to win back some of the fans who were not exactly pleased with the base game. In the meantime, Bethesda continues to releaseupdates forStarfield, ironing out many of the bugs currently in the game. The studio has done a great job on its post-launch support so far, and if the quality is there for the DLCs going forward, hopefullyStarfieldcan see a resurgence in popularity.
Starfield
WHERE TO PLAY
Starfield is the first new universe in 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. In this next generation role-playing game set amongst the stars, create any character you want and explore with unparalleled freedom as you embark on an epic journey to answer humanity’s greatest mystery.The year is 2330. Humanity has ventured beyond our solar system, settling new planets, and living as a spacefaring people. From humble beginnings as a space miner, you will join Constellation – the last group of space explorers seeking rare artifacts throughout the galaxy – and navigate the vast expanse of the Settled Systems in Bethesda Game Studios’ biggest and most ambitious game.
