Todd Howard was too busy. Former Bethesda employee points out Starfield's main issue

Todd Howard's overwhelming responsibilities meant that Starfield was in a "releasable" state, but not one that was satisfactory for the creators (and players).

Kurt Kuhlmann, in an interview with PC Gamer, lamented not only the lost opportunity to personally work on another Bethesda RPG. During the conversation, the co-creator of Skyrim also pointed out the main issue with Starfield—a title that wasn't a disaster but also didn't make a golden mark in the chronicles of RPG games.

Incoherent cosmos

Kuhlmann made it clear: "The main problem with Starfield is that it is not a fully cohesive game." The designer reminisces about how a much younger Skyrim was created in what he calls "simpler" times, touching again on what we mentioned in the previous article – the direct influence the project lead had on its development.

Later, however, as Bethesda expanded significantly, team leaders tended to oversee the work of others rather than create individual elements of the project themselves. Setting aside Kuhlmann's own dissatisfaction (who admits that his view on this approach is subjective), it slowed down the work on the game. Especially since, as we've mentioned before, Todd Howard was constantly being pulled away by different teams, not just the ones working on Starfield. This sometimes caused their work to stall, either because they were waiting for him to solve a problem that came up due to his absence or because they needed his help.

This obviously complicated the work, but it also simply prolonged the development. Starfield was in development for a long time—since around 2015-2016—before launching in September 2023 (a total of about 8 years). Kuhlmann, who left Bethesda that same year, doesn't think the game was released too early. However, he admits that at launch, it was just in a "releasable" state, not its "best" form.

Too new RPG

Keep in mind that Starfield was probably Bethesda's most ambitious project, which meant they had to come up with a bunch of new and innovative solutions from scratch. I think nothing takes more time or causes more problems for game developers than completely new systems (well, maybe except for doors).

As Kuhlmann put it, Starfield was "completely new" in 50%, meaning Bethesda often couldn't rely on tried-and-true ideas. These ideas, around which the rest of the game focuses, include planets and spaceships. If these core systems keep changing and no one knows how they'll end up working, how are creators supposed to adapt their tasks or even the storyline to them?

Furthermore, the scale of the project required further team expansion, which in turn led to new organizational challenges to maintain a cohesive vision for the game. As a result, dealing with more people was a bit of a mess, and they were probably trying to figure things out by trial and error.

Add to that the pressure from the not-so-great reception of Fallout 76, and it's easy to see why Kuhlmann calls Starfield a "solid" game, but not one of Bethesda's all-time best. This was the title players hoped for after the grand announcements and the long-lasting success of Skyrim.

The creator admits to liking many elements of the title. The individual parts, which are pretty good on their own, just didn't come together as smoothly as they did in Bethesda's earlier RPGs. At least it wasn't a source of embarrassment for the studio—or at least that's Kuhlmann's opinion.

1. Starfield Review: A Stellar Masterpiece
2. Starfield - game guide

Starfield

September 6, 2023

Rate It!

• Overview
• Guide
• Maps
• Review

• Bethesda
• gamedev behind-the-scenes
• RPG games