Bethesda Veteran Reveals How He Would Have Designed Starfield Differently
Nate Purkeypile, a veteran Bethesda Game Studios artist who spent 14 years at the studio working on major titles including Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76, has shared his perspective on Starfield’s design in a recent interview. As the lead lighting artist and senior world artist on Starfield, Purkeypile was involved in the game’s development before departing both the project and the studio over two years before its release.
In an interview with The Examined Game, Purkeypile revealed that he had internally warned against one of Starfield’s defining design decisions: the inclusion of more than 1,000 planets. He stated he would have taken a fundamentally different approach, saying “I would have done a handful of planets with bespoke layouts” instead. According to Purkeypile, the expansive planetary scope was “not a good idea,” suggesting that a more focused approach with hand-crafted content would have been superior.
Since leaving Bethesda in 2021, Purkeypile founded the indie studio Just Purkey Games, which released titles including The Axis Unseen in 2024 and Deedlee Doo! Carkour! in 2025. His comments offer a rare insider perspective on the design philosophy behind one of the year’s most ambitious—and critically divisive—games.