Starfield lead designer and writer Emil Pagliarulo said that the game covers "a lot of new ground" for the studio and that "gamers are going to lose their minds".
Pagliarulo discussed the development team's progress on Starfield in a recently published blog post on the official Bethesda site. The lead designer suggests that the game is doing well in the interview, saying that while early in development there can be times when a game is "just a mess", eventually "you get to that point where the systems really kick in." to connect". and things start to work out well, and solidify, and you see everything transform into the vision you had when you started this crazy journey.
The Starfield team, Pagliarulo reveals, has reached this point. "When that first happened with Starfield," he says, "it was really like, 'Oh, oh, wow. Yeah. That's... something really special. Players will lose their minds." Adds Pagliarulo, "It was so impressive to see Starfield transform into this amazing game, little by little, and with us covering SO much new ground."
With the game in full production, Pagliarulo says he spends most of his time "meeting with designers to help guide their work, or constantly testing the game to measure our progress and see what might need to be adjusted." This playtesting is essential, he says, to "experiencing Starfield as a gamer would, through every stage of development." According to Pagliarulo, the development team is "brutally honest" with themselves "about what's fun and what's not, what works and what doesn't."
As for the games he seeks inspiration for while working on Starfield, Pagliarulo says he plays games from "all different genres," but cites Thief as an "all-time" personal favorite.
"I really like to play games that make me shake my head, like, 'Wow. I know how they did that, and that's a crazy feat,'" he says. Men have been like that with me. Or cyberpunk. Dude, to create a giant open environment like Night City? This is not an easy task. seriously awesome.
The Starfield release date is getting closer, with the game scheduled for November 11 this year. When Starfield launches, it will be playable on PC and Xbox Series X, with a day one release on Xbox Game Pass.
Analysis: Detailing the new terrain
As Starfield is Bethesda's first new IP in twenty-five years, it's no surprise that the development team is trying to push it further and cover "new ground".
As for what this "new terrain" might entail, perhaps we can check out Bethesda's recently posted behind-the-scenes "Made for Wanderers" video for some clues. Pagliarulo himself is in the video, along with game director Todd Howard, lead quest designer Will Shen, and lead artist Istvan Pely.
In that chat, Todd Howard talks about the team's desire to "go back and do things we haven't done," mentioning "old hardcore RPGs" as part of that, and "redoing them in a new way."
In addition to covering entirely new ground in Starfield, this behind-the-scenes discussion suggests improving upon the old terrain, with mentions of a "persuasion minigame" for interacting with in-game characters, which takes inspiration from the old Oblivion. conversation system.
After a long period of silence, Bethesda has been talking a lot more about Starfield lately, energizing the game and raising player anticipation. The next step looks like you should see more of the game itself. In an AMA on Reddit, Todd Howard previously highlighted summer as a key time to show Starfield, so we could start to see how things fit together in a few months.