Starfield Has Been In Development For At Least Six Years

thegamer.com:

Bethesda has been working on Starfield since at least 2016 —that's according to the studio's lead character artist, who also worked on Skyrim and Fallout 4. Maybe we'll actually see Starfield this November after all?

Starfield is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated games of 2022, and we're all hungry for Bethesda's return to its classic single-player RPG formula — with its first original IP in over 25 years and three times more dialogue than Skyrim has. The stakes are definitely high here, but it seems the studio really took its time with this one, which reportedly has been in the works for six long years by now.

Related: Starfield’s Sci-Fi Looks Surprisingly Well-Considered

Lucas Hardi, a Bethesda Game Studios veteran artist with over 20 years of experience, mentioned in his blog he has been working on Starfield since 2016. There are lots of elements he had a hand in during all this time, yet he obviously cannot share all of his contributions until the game's out. In his words, what he loves about making games is "finding ideas that make the player experience better" and "making worlds come alive with gameplay."

The artist designed the memorable spacesuit and Constellation logo as seen in the title's debut teaser trailer. Hardi also worked on the project's customizable face system, but there are few details about this at the moment. Considering Hardi has been at Bethesda for the past ten years, he probably was involved in Starfield's production from the start.

Todd Howard seemed to lean into the idea of Starfield becoming Bethesda's next ten-year game, just as Skyrim is. That is why the company treats the project as "a universe, not just a game."

Of course, making a project of such scope is not an easy or quick