Former Bethesda Artist Says Having Over a Thousand Planets in Starfield Was a ‘Bad Idea

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Nathan Purkeypile, a former principal artist at Bethesda Game Studios with 14 years of experience, argues that the decision to include over one thousand explorable planets in Starfield was not the most advantageous choice for the space RPG. Purkeypile, who contributed to Fallout 3, Fallout 4, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and served as principal artist on Fallout 76, believes the game would have benefited from fewer, more distinct, and carefully crafted environments. His past work includes iconic locations like Diamond City in Fallout 4 and Little Lamplight in Fallout 3. Purkeypile was involved in Starfield’s early development, contributing to the layout of the city of Neon, before departing the project about a year into its creation.

During his time on Starfield, Purkeypile drew parallels between the game’s procedurally generated planets and the repetitive dungeons of Mass Effect 1. He observed that while Starfield offers scale, its recurring structures and sparsely populated landscapes make its galaxy feel less exciting than Bethesda’s more compact open worlds. Purkeypile suggested that Bethesda should either focus on a smaller group of handcrafted planets or commit fully to procedural generation, akin to No Man’s Sky, rather than “stitching content together with slight variations.” He pointed out that Starfield’s major cities are densely detailed but the regions just beyond their borders are largely empty. This contrasts with exploring titles like Fallout or The Elder Scrolls, where venturing off main paths often rewards players with curated spots containing environmental stories—an element Purkeypile feels is lacking in Starfield due to excessive repetition.

Purkeypile voiced his concerns about the thousand-planet goal early in Starfield’s development, even though he was not solely in charge of the decision. His perspective emphasizes that handcrafted density is more critical than raw scale for building an interesting universe. When asked in an interview with The Examined Game YouTube channel how his approach to exploration structure might differ if he had been involved in design decisions, Purkeypile was direct: “If I were leading Starfield development team, I would not have taken this path.”

Purkeypile stated that his priority as lead would have been to create a handful of planets with handcrafted layouts, concentrating efforts on making each one more unique and memorable. Indeed, Starfield’s defining characteristic is its immense scale, allowing players to land on over a thousand planets, moons, and other celestial bodies. While many of these environments are procedurally generated, specific content points receive manual input from the development team. However, Purkeypile contends this approach conflicts with the traditional strengths of Bethesda RPGs, such as Skyrim, where exploration within relatively compact worlds permitted almost every region to feature developer-planned elements. He argues that Starfield’s large number of planets has detracted from this philosophy, shifting from fewer worlds filled with distinctive locations to an immense quantity of surfaces that individually feel less significant.

Criticism also centers on content repetition. Since many environments are procedurally generated, certain locations, structures, and activities reappear during exploration, potentially diminishing the sense of discovery that characterized earlier Bethesda games. Purkeypile noted that even within the main campaign, situations arise where similar content repeats, which he believes would have been less problematic had the developer focused its efforts on a limited number of entirely handcrafted planets. Purkeypile worked as a lighting lead on Starfield before leaving Bethesda approximately two years prior to its release.

He reiterated that despite the game featuring over 1,000 explorable planets, moons, and celestial bodies, with much of the content procedurally generated but with specific points receiving manual work, he encountered repeated locations like dungeons and buildings across thousands of planets, even within the main campaign. Purkeypile stated that for a game planning thousands of planets, a full procedural generation approach, akin to No Man’s Sky, is necessary, rather than what he calls “stitching together existing chunks,” which he likens to “space quilts.” Purkeypile’s extensive work at Bethesda includes serving as a world artist on Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and as lead artist for Fallout 76 and its expansions, The Pitt and Point Lookout.

Shattered Space DLC Reveals Why Starfield’s Thousands of Planets Failed to Engage Players

Bethesda’s subsequent approach with the Shattered Space expansion DLC, which concentrated its experience in a more specific, manually crafted area rather than expanding procedural scale, suggests a potential reevaluation of the expansive planetary design. Thus, the decision to pursue such an enormous scale remains one of the most discussed aspects of Starfield. Although the over thousand planets were crucial for selling the concept of freedom and space exploration, their sheer quantity ultimately contributed to a primary criticism: the feeling that the game’s universe, while immense, is not always as engaging as its size suggests.

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