Starfield features a large galaxy filled with alien life. Xbox Wire went into detail about how Bethesda created this complex ecosystem. It goes over the decisions and challenges the Bethesda Game Studios team encountered.
According to the article, one of the important things about Starfield’s alien life is that there are many of them. The creators wanted to have a significant number, more than 200 different creatures all over the game’s many planets. They wanted to make sure that you could find life on at least one planet in every solar system with multiple planets to make it feel like you’re always discovering something. They didn’t just put the creatures anywhere. They thought about what the planet is like, the places on it, and what the creatures are like.
“The original rules for planet generation were put together and used to create a massive spreadsheet of all the stars and planets in the game. Data like the distance of planets from the star, the type of atmosphere and magnetosphere, the planet’s size, the presence of water, and the biomes and traits on the planet, [all] determined the likelihood of flora and fauna being found there.”
Senior System Designer Sam Combs
The creation process for these creatures is interesting. Each alien was carefully made by artists, getting unique models and appearances. They took inspiration from real-world creatures but focused on adapting them to each planet’s environment. This led to various lifeforms, from the long-necked Cagebrains to the fierce Terrormorphs.
The developers made sure to give these creatures unique behaviors, like predators hunting for prey. They wanted to keep the game unpredictable, so not every two-legged creature would be mean, and not every four-legged one would be a plant-eater. This was all about making the game world more exciting and lively for the players.
The large number of creatures necessitated considerable effort, while their distribution across planets required careful planning to ensure logical coherence and prevent redundancy. Additionally, creating believable flying creatures posed a challenge, as the team aimed to strike a balance between distinctiveness and the inclusion of essential features such as wings, which, from a distance, could give rise to uniformity.
To me, the creatures were a good thing to see, but my main priority was avoiding them. They were like rocks or vegetation, nice to see as you run by, but not something I was particularly concerned about. It’s interesting to see the ideas the developers went over, but in the end, how many of us were really blown away by the creatures?
They were a big deal, I’m sure, but I feel like this kind of energy should have gone to the gameplay, which felt lacking.
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