Starfield developer Bethesda Game Studios has been sharing interviews with some of its developers for quite some time on the official website. Last Friday, it was Zachary Wilson's turn.
Wilson, who previously worked on games like Frontlines: Fuel of War, Homefront, and Battlefield: Hardline, has been with Bethesda Game Studios for seven years. He's a Senior Level Designer on Starfield. When asked about some of its favorite things in the game, he mentioned there will be epic combat encounters with legendary ships, as well as chance meetings with derelict ships lost in the vastness of space.
There are a couple that I really like but that I want to keep under wraps until after the game releases so that they can be a surprise to players. One that I’ve always loved features a hapless tour guide leading a bunch of excited townies out for a space tour and are very excited to meet a “real captain”. We also have Legendary Ship encounters – these are huge, high level enemy ships that will dramatically outclass the player through the early part of the game that you have to build up to being able to destroy.
I also really like our derelict ships – we built a bunch of handcrafted derelict ships that focus on the tragedies and perils of space travel that the player can explore and discover the stories behind. The best part about these is we solicited stories from people outside the design team for their contributions, so folks who don’t normally get to contribute content to the game were able to put their unique stamp on the game. One of our designers that came from the modding scene, Kris Takahashi, also built several really exciting ship encounters.
Starfield is now just three days away from its early access debut when the first new IP created by Bethesda Game Studios in over 25 years will be playable to owners of the Premium Edition. The official launch date is however set for September 6th on PC and Xbox Series S|X, though as always with Microsoft exclusives, it will be available on Game Pass from day one and, therefore, also playable via cloud for Ultimate subscribers.
Sometime after release, the developers will also release the official mod tools, though there's no concrete date yet.