Ex-Starfield Dev Surprised by How Much Loading the Game Launched With

ign.com:

One of the big criticisms Starfield players have with the game is the over-abundance of loading screens. When Bethesda’s sci-fi epic launched last year, fans were surprised by just how often you’d trigger loading, from on-foot traversal to simply heading into city buildings. Players said Starfield’s loading broke immersion and added frustrating pauses to gameplay, and modders have worked to remove as much of it as possible over the past year.

The city of Neon was a particular focus of loading complaints. This cyberpunk-style urban area would often trigger a loading screen just for opening doors, some near to each other, which made questing annoying.

But did it have to be this way? In an interview with VideoGamer.com, developer Nate Purkeypile, who worked at Bethesda Game Studios from 2007 before leaving in 2021 to found Just Purkey Games, revealed his surprise at the sheer amount of loading the game ended up launching with, particularly in the city of Neon.

“It could have existed without those [loading zones],” Purkeypile said. “Like, some of those were not there when I had been working on it and so it was a surprise to me that there was as many as there were.”

So, why did Starfield launch with so many loading screens? Purkeypile said part of the segmentation of the game has to do with the way the Creation Engine, which Bethesda uses to make its games, works, and that has a lot to do with performance.

“A lot of it is gating stuff off for performance in Neon,” Purkeypile confirmed.

But what about New Atlantis, Starfield’s main city? It was designed with its train system in mind, but doesn’t let you sit on the train as it takes you from A to B. Instead, you get another loading screen. That decision, Purkeypile suggested, was more about having players not just sit there for the train ride.

Purkeypile was lead lighting artist and senior world artist on Starfield and left Bethesda two years before the game launched, one year before its original release date, and a month before