Starfield tries to usher in a realistic experience in outer space exploration in video games. Read on to find out the reasons behind their design philosophy and why its planets and moons are empty.
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Starfield Aims to Capture the Vastness and Realism of Space
Starfield seems to have disappointed a number of players with the way its planets and moons are designed. They’ve been described to be just merely an amassment of tiles that has a boundary, and not much else going on. But there is supposedly a reason for that. Bethesda had shared that they wanted players to feel small and overwhelmed by the sheer scale of space, mirroring the real-life experience of exploring space.
"The point of the vastness of space is you should feel small. It should feel overwhelming", said Bethesda’s managing director, Ashley Cheng, in a recent interview with the New York Times. Cheng pointed out that Starfield’s planets are not all supposed to be like Disney World, in the sense that there’s not always a lot of activities to do.
Bethesda's approach to Starfield's game design is centered around capturing the vastness and realism of outer space, even if that means making the 1000 planets in the game appear sparse or relatively uneventful. "When the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there. They certainly weren't bored.", said Cheng.
Bethesda game director Todd Howard shared, "All of us, I think, at some point look to the sky and say, ‘Man, I wonder what it would be like to blast off and land on the moon?’ or ‘I wonder what would be beyond that?’ or ‘What’s in that star?’ or ‘Is there life out there?’ We needed the scale (of Starfield) to have that feeling". While not every planet in the game is meant to be a bustling hub of activity, Starfield aims to evoke the excitement of landing on a previously untouched planet and the sense of being an explorer in a vast universe.
Howard also shared that Starfield wants to provide players with a genuine sense of isolation that astronauts may experience during their missions. Hence the developers’ decision to ensure that very little will happen in some cases, prompting players to “get some periods of loneliness,” Howard said.
While the realism of space exploration is the developers’ intent, it should also be noted that the game design practically begs for modders to pack the game with content. Todd Howard did go on record saying that Starfield will be a "modder’s paradise". There are so many things that Starfield could have capitalized on but decided to weigh realism over enjoyment.
Whether that was the right decision to make may depend on the person. You can read more about our thoughts on the matter in our full review of the game!
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Starfield’s 1000 Planets May Be One Giant Leap for Game Design
