There are many planets to explore in Starfield, but not all of them are populated and therefore seem rather empty. A former Bethesda developer believes the game would be better if there were fewer planets.
Not every planet should be “Disney World,” says Managing Director Ashley Cheng. It is even intentional that many of the planets are empty. Many fans think it makes sense that you can’t even land on some of them.
Former Bethesda developer Bruce Nesmith talks about the development of Starfield and its scope in an interview with MinnMax’s Ben Hanson, which appeared on YouTube on October 23, 2023. There were many discussions in the development studio about the size of the game and especially about the number of planets.
Of course you need a spaceship to explore. Watch the video to find out where you can get one of the best:
Starfield: This is how you get one of the best spaceships early!
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The number 100 was “practically taken out of thin air”
This was the discussion: There were many discussions in the development studio about the scope of Starfield. In the interview with Ben Hanson, former Bethesda developer Bruce Nesmith remembers it:
At one point I said, “I bet this game would be a lot better if we limited ourselves to about two dozen solar systems and focused on those.” Well, you have to know how to build a planet so people can walk around on it .
Todd [Howard] The number 100 for the number of star systems was practically plucked out of thin air. But the more we progressed, the more it became clear that all the core activity takes place in these two dozen populated systems, and the rest is open space. But people love our big games, they love these open areas to explore.
And then it came down to how we make the exploration meaningful. And again, you have to be successful on a planet. Once you have this formula, you have the formula for all the planets.
Bruce Nesmith via YouTube
Game director and executive producer Todd Howard said at the end of September that Starfield was deliberately built so that it could be filled with long-term content and played for years.
When it came to how the studio could make exploration in Starfield meaningful, they had to make difficult decisions. Nesmith says this in the interview:
I think some of the exploration elements didn’t come out as well as they could because they chose to pursue other options.
In every game studio on the planet, people know what decisions they are making. They know what won’t be in it, and they know what the players will complain about. But you have to make tough decisions.
Bruce Nesmith via YouTube
The fact that the players in Starfield feel drawn to the “option of building their own ship” makes Nesmith personally very happy because he “worked very hard on it.”
This is how Bruce Nesmith worked on Starfield: Bruce Nesmith created the astrophysical data for the planets, conducted research and selected systems. He was responsible for the design of the starships, both combat and construction.
Bruce Nesmith previously worked on numerous other Bethesda games, including Fallout 3, Fallout 4 and The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.
Recently, one of the most famous faces left Bethesda. Many know him as the development studio’s head of PR: One of Bethesda’s most important people is quitting: “After Starfield, it feels like the time is right”