Stellar Blade players determined to use the action RPG's NSFW 'skin suit' or die trying are challenging themselves to beat the demo's boss without taking any damage, despite the game director's advice to remain clothed.
20.03.2024 - 21:43 / gamesradar.com / Will Shen / Jordan Gerblick
Starfield's action-packed ending came together in a last-minute scramble after the developers realized that the RPG was lacking a satisfying finale.
As you might be expecting, there will be some Starfield story spoilers just below, so proceed with caution if you haven't finished the game yet.
Starfield's ending is a dizzying dimension-hopping final battle that zips you around to locations from earlier in the game, and it follows several pretty epic space battles in and around the planet Masada 3, but originally it wasn't quite as exciting or even definitive.
Speaking at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco recently (thanks, PC Gamer) as part of a larger talk reflecting on challenges and lessons from Bethesda's latest lengthy dev cycle, Starfield lead quest designer Will Shen, who's since left Bethesda, said the ending was conceived out of "necessity and urgency" after the entire game reached a playable state and the lead developers noticed it was lacking something.
"We were finally at a state in the project where we could play through the whole [game]. And it became very clear that we were missing the large final location that was going to tie the story together and have a satisfying action-filled payoff," Shen said. "I was both implementing the main quest and leading the quest design team, so I had absolutely no time. The entire quest design team was already overbooked."
If you're wondering exactly how an operation as complex and sophisticated as Bethesda Game Studios could essentially forget to add a proper ending until the last minute, well, according to Shen and former Fallout 76 lead level designer Daryl Brigner, who's also no longer at Bethesda, the sheer size of the 500-strong development team is partly to blame.
"It's more difficult than ever to know who does what, who you're supposed to report to," Brigner said, with Shen adding that a large, spread-out team can sometimes lead to a "silo effect" in which "every department is scrambling for resources and saying 'no' to collaboration requests." According to Shen, this had the "inadvertent consequence of favoring the department" over the game itself.
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
"Every request now has to go through all the producers because we needed to check all of the contingent work," Shen said. "Asking for something as simple as a chair wasn't so simple. Do you need animations for it? Do you need sound effects for it? How much does that add to the schedule, can it not fit because one of those teams does not have the time?"
Ultimately, Shen went to Starfield lead level designer Steve Cornett as a "panic button," and Cornett came up with the idea that players would hop dimensions and revisit
Stellar Blade players determined to use the action RPG's NSFW 'skin suit' or die trying are challenging themselves to beat the demo's boss without taking any damage, despite the game director's advice to remain clothed.
Sweet mother of Joel, Helldivers 2's Automatons have returned in force after being temporarily vanquished, and that means the new Major Order is to sort them out - again.
One veteran Bethesda designer really, really likes Dragon's Dogma 2 - in fact, he says that it's the only way that he can get the same feeling his RPGs give to everyone else.
The teams behind The Elder Scrolls 6 and The Elder Scrolls Online work as "equal partners" and share lore responsibilities.
Over three years after a disastrous launch, Cyberpunk 2077's developer is now "finally happy" with the state of the RPG.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Vincent Valentine actor Matthew Mercer has revealed the role was sprung on him as a last-minute surprise because Square Enix knew how much he wanted the part.
If you've been keeping up with the latest Dragon's Dogma 2 discourse, chances are, you've already heard of Dragonsplague. The contagious in-game illness, which can spread from Pawn to Pawn between players' games, has become a major talking point solely due to how severe its consequences can be if left unchecked.
Dragon's Dogma 2 players aren't impressed by the enemy variety in the RPG and feel let down by the promises its developer made before release.
Final Fantasy 14 is getting a Final Fantasy 16 questline, but more importantly, why is Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida referring to himself as a different person?
Don't back down, double down. The Helldivers 2 propaganda machine is spinning up once again after the horrible flying Terminid bugs debuted in the game, something its creative director dismissed as "propaganda from bug sympathizers" when players first reported it.
During a talk at the Game Developers Conference 2024 in San Francisco, Starfield lead quest designer Will Shen discussed the title’s ending, explaining that it was created out of “necessity and urgency.”
's lead quest designer has explained why the ending was so underwhelming for many. Prior to its launch, Bethesda marketed the game as being an epic space adventure, spanning over 1000 planets, and while it was extremely well received by critics at launch, its popularity soon seemed to dwindle with players, with complaints that many planets seemed empty and ultimately, there wasn't as much to do as they wanted.