Starfield may not have appeared at The Game Awards 2022, much to the disappointment of Bethesda and Xbox fans, but BGS lead quest designer Will Shen (known for his work on Fallout 4’s Far Harbor DLC , which was acclaimed), has now appeared in official interviews via the website and YouTube.
The quest designer reflects on the creation of Starfield
In the blog post published on official Bethesda websiteShen discusses the studio’s return to its roots in old-school RPGs.
« I think for Starfield, a lot of the quest design was going back to our old-school RPG roots: lots of dialogue choices, references to player skills and background, a variety of combat activities and non-combat, and showcasing our all-new setting in a way that tells where to go for the kind of stories you want to experience. We’ve really tried to take inspiration from all of our previous titles to create quests that we’re excited regarding. »
Later in the interview, Shen talked regarding the things that excites him the most regarding Starfield quests, whether he works there personally or others work there.
« I can’t wait for people to play the main quest and meet all the members of Constellation, the key story faction. We really wanted to capture that sense of shared adventure and optimism that was part of early space exploration, since the moon landing and the Apollo missions.
I have a few favorites in the main quest, but there are a lot of spoilers. I love the start of the Ryujin Industries quest. The quest designer in charge of this story did a great job of turning a seemingly ordinary activity (a job interview) into a memorable one. »
Shen also participated to the latest episode of Bethesda’s “Constellation Questions” video series. Shen talked in detail regarding a few Starfield systems, like the improved random encounter system.
Will : It’s very exciting. This time we have entire planets to populate. We actually have new technology that allows us to take entire locations that we’ve built and place them on planets. Now you can say that you go to an outpost and find that there is a whole group of people who have a particular problem, whereas before it might be someone who met on the road. Now that’s a whole place that can be set up. And maybe there they have a problem like, “One of our members has been kidnapped. He was kidnapped by pirates. We think they’re over there.” The player is actually placed in a completely different location with that person inside and enemies around. So it’s a dynamically placed settlement that takes you into a dynamically placed dungeon as you walk around the planet.
Jess : It’s incredible. So basically anytime on a planet you can have a random encounter anywhere?
Will : Yes exactly. And I think we’re only scratching the surface of what this technology can do.
Other quite interesting points covered such as factions
One of the many questions Starfield fans have regarding the game, the role of Earth and its solar system, was also addressed. BGS’s Lead Quest Designer has indicated that players will indeed be sent back to the Solar System (which the game’s characters refer to as Old Neighborhood), specifically Mars, by the Constellation faction. On the red planet, they will have the opportunity to explore one of the very first settlements created by humanity when it left Earth: Cydonia. The video also gives a brief overview of the city, which appears to be mostly located underground.
Regarding factions, Will Shen said that Starfield would allow players to cycle through all faction lines independently of each other, just like in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and unlike Fallout 4, which automatically excluded players from certain factions once they had joined others.
The reason Shen gives is that the stories will be more personal this time around, and players won’t necessarily find themselves leading all of the factions, which will make it less of a problem to keep stories consistent with each other.
Finally, Starfield’s lead quest designer said that companions will provide many opinions and viewpoints on the various quests players undertake. In some cases, the developers have also added an option for the player character to allow companions to speak on their behalf, with potentially unintended consequences as a result. Companions will also become part of the player’s spaceship crew.
Originally slated to launch on November 11, 2022, the 11th anniversary of Skyrim’s release, Starfield has been pushed back to the first half of 2023, next to Arkane’s Redfall. We haven’t heard an update on release dates for either game, but you can check them all out. previous information regarding Starfield in our dedicated article.
