When it comes to Starfield’s massive open world, you shouldn’t be afraid of isolation in this vast universe. In fact, the loneliness you can experience as you jump from one desolate world to another is exactly what tune developer Bethesda is all about.
Instead of focusing on the horrors of space travel alone, Bethesda wanted to highlight its magnificence in star school. In a recent interview with LexFridman (opens in a new tab)Todd Howard, the game’s lead director, explained how the team at Bethesda embraced the “beautiful desolateness” of Starfield’s massive open world.
from what Official game trailer (opens in a new tab) showed us, there will be “100+ systems” with “1000+ planets” in Starfield. That means the intergalactic explorer is placed 20% larger than fallout 4 or Skyrim. While this sounds great, are there any games that are too big? Considering that Starfield is set to be a single-player game, millions of planets seems like lonesome work for just one person.
Frying the end of the bow
Loneliness isn’t the only problem developers have when creating Starfield. Such a vast universe is not easy to develop; so a decision has been made. Howard explains in the interview that “you can’t land on all the planets you see” or that the universe you explore is a “very tightly controlled small world space”.
Howard said in the interview that it was decided that the latter would probably set the “wrong tone”. Instead of focusing on limitations, the development team chose to look for ways that “we could say yes”. The best way to deal with the hassle of creating a detailed and playable open world is to focus on creating tiles one by one. By rendering these small landscape tiles offline, the development team was able to create a complex, patchwork ecosystem that could be woven into the Starfield universe.
These bricks solved the first problem of creating a reality-like universe in Starfield, but that doesn’t mean it’s smooth sailing from then on. Having a huge open world is one thing; making it appealing to players is another matter entirely.
According to Howard, Bethesda must ensure that landing on each planet will be an enjoyable experience, even if the said planet is empty with only the prospect of some resources. At the end of the day, the point of having such a large open world is that you’ll get some planets that “can be a lonely experience” for the explorer. But Howard goes on to note that there’s also “the uncanny beauty of being the only person on a planet,” and that’s exactly what you should focus on.
Deja vu?
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this tune set in a Bethesda game. If that’s the beautiful desolation you’re looking for, then the Fallout series should come to mind. The whole experience of walking through a ruined wasteland is incredibly eerie but also very beautiful. I loved walking around the abandoned towns in Fallout 4, not knowing what I would encounter and just watching the dead silence around the town in decline.
So I can’t wait to explore the vast universe that Starfield will bring when it releases in early 2023. Hopefully I’ll have that feeling again.
