New information on Starfield paints a story of exploration and humanity’s thirst for knowledge

In a follow up interview organized by Kinda Funny Games, Bethesda Director Todd Howard elaborated on some of the information provided by Starfield Direct, particularly as it relates to the expansive nature of the planets the game will generate for the player. One of the main concerns raised, which other games of similar nature (Mass Effect, No man’s Sky) did not fully address, is the empty nature of the planets players would explore. Howard assured listeners that this would not be the case with Starfield:

"“We [Bethesda] wanted to do the planets because we like to give you a choice: Where do you want to go? First it was, could be technically pull it off, and we did….[however] there’s no way we’re going to hand craft an entire planet. What we do is handcraft individual locations [main cities and quest locations]… and then we have a suite of them that are generated or placed when you land, depending on that planet.”"

According to Howard, ten percent of planets will have life on them, while the rest will be more resource heavy. This will allow for creativity on the player’s end to explore and harvest materials from the planets in question. With so much open space, we can also expect the game to become a haven for models, who will likely add to the limitless possibilities and stories for the game to produce down the line.

Modding has always been a cornerstone of the appeal for Bethesda games, and will tie into Starfield’s theme of early space exploration quite nicely. It’s will be exciting to see how modding will carry over to Starfield. Howard noted his own excitement to see what the Starfield community comes up with, and says he expects modders to have a lot of fun with it:

"“I think Starfield is going to be kind of a modders paradise. It’s part of our DNA here. We’ve been doing it for over 20 years and our community around that [has been] classically single player. That has been our community and people are still modding our games and playing them so we’re doing a lot of it…Its important for us to not only enable that [modding] but to participate, to make it easy for them…”"

Enabling the modding community to have a foothold in Starfield will enable players to explore not only what Starfield is, but what stories and experiences Starfield realistically could be from the perspective of the community playing and enjoying the game. Modder and community input will only further the idea of exploration by broadening the scope and lens through which we can view the game, and truly make it the spacial frontier experience it is meant to be.

As we look forward to September and the game’s launch, the information released not only offers a glimpse of what the game will be, it raises expectations for the release. It’s been a long time coming, taking into account the game was initially announced back in 2018. If it can live up to this theme of boundless exploration and possibility, we may well and truly have a very special release on our hands that, like Bethesda releases before it, will become a staple in the gaming community for years to come.