Former Bethesda Developer: 'There were many meetings'. He explains why he left Starfield to start a solo project.

Nate Purkeypile is a Bethesda artist who has worked on several Bethesda games over the past decade. The developer was a world/lighting artists on Fallout 3, Fallout 4 and Skyrim. He was also the lead artist for Fallout 76. He designed many iconic locations, such as Diamond City, Little Lamplight and Paradise Falls.

Purkeypile worked on Starfield, too, as a lead lighting artist and a senior world artist. But he left Bethesda to start his own studio, Just Purkey Games, because he is now essentially working alone. His first game, The Axis Unseen is looking great, a heavy-metal bowhunting horror that plays like you made an entire game out of Skyrim’s stealth archer gameplay.

Purkeypile, a Reddit user, posted a trailer of The Axis Unseen (embedded here) and talked about why he had left Bethesda. He also explained why he had left during the development phase of Starfield.

Purkeypile said, "I know that a lot people have opinions about Starfield. They think it's too big and should have been smaller." "I agree with much of that, and while I loved working at Bethesda when we had 65-110 people working on Fallout 3 or Skyrim, I liked it less as it grew."

Purkeypile said that Bethesda's developer count during Starfield development had increased dramatically since the days of Skyrim and Fallout. "Starfield had about 500 people and four different companies involved, including BGS, BGS Austin BGS Dallas BGS Montreal, and that doesn't include outsourcing.

He said, "This was just not my style." "There were so much meetings, and it wasn't how I liked to design games."

It's not the first time that we've heard how Bethesda has grown over the years and caused problems for some of its employees. Bethesda’s size can make it difficult to coordinate with other developers or even know your boss, as former Bethesda employees Will Shen (Starfield’s lead quest designer) & Daryl Brigner(Fallout 76’s lead level designer) told us earlier this year.

Brigner, speaking at GDC 2024 in March, said that it was "more difficult than ever" to know who is responsible for what and who you are supposed to report to. Shen agreed and said that "every department scrambles for resources and says 'no,' to collaboration requests." Even minor requests are complicated: "Asking something as simple as chair wasn't simple." Do you need animations? Do you need sound effects? "How much time does this add to the schedule? Can it not fit because of one of the teams not having the time?"

Purkeypile left Bethesda 2021, in the middle of Starfield's production. "I've always loved indie gaming and I thought, if I don't do it now I might never," he said. He created The Axis Unseen using Unreal 5. It is a world "not procedural but 100% hand-built". The map is 5x as large as Skyrim. I tried smaller maps and they didn't work.

Ted has recently played a demo of the game and is very excited for it. The Axis Unseen is a world filled with cryptic sandstone skeletons and giant statues that lurch out of the earth. Try the demo on Steam and watch the trailer below.