Starfield Team Is Over Twice as Big as Fallout 76’s, according to Ex-Bethesda Dev

[Tsing]

There are over twice as many people working on Starfield than Fallout 76, according to Nate Purkeypile, founder of Just Purkey Games and ex-Bethesda dev, who was recently interviewed by PCGamesN and gave insight as to how big the team behind Bethesda's upcoming sci-fi RPG might really be.

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[Grimlakin]

That means little. You can churn out a lot of 'content' with a lot of people. What's more important is a team of leaders and more specifically creatives driving the content creators. Inspire them with fun and interesting content to create. Get their ideas integrated where it makes sense. THEN you'll have some really amazing results.

 

[Ditchinit]

Wasn't Fallout 76 supposedly the red-headed stepchild project that developers were voluntold, rather than volunteered, to work on, and many left the studio because of that?

 

[Zarathustra]

I know very little about Starfield, but I just googled it a little bit, and I like what I see.

- It is apparently Bethesdas first new IP in 25 years

I'm all for new stuff rather than reboots remakes and sequels.

- Space exploration is cool.

I enjoyed the Outer Worlds and wish there were more games like it. I just wish it were more gritty and realistic, and less goofy. It's been described as "Skyrim in Space" which could be fun. I tried playing Skyrim, but it really wasn't for me, but this could be.

- Single Player

I'm all for this. Not everything needs to be free to play, online, multiplayer and supported by lootboxes and microtransactions.

- Users can choose either first or third person perspectives.

As long as it is well done, this is pretty much the holy grail. Everyone gets what they want. The Fallout series worked in this regard, so I am hopeful they can make this work as well.

 

[Zarathustra]

Wasn't Fallout 76 supposedly the red-headed stepchild project that developers were voluntold, rather than volunteered, to work on, and many left the studio because of that?

I mean, they are jobs after all. Your boss tells you what to work on, and in exchange you get a paycheck.

That's usually how jobs work.

It is rare to find anyone who wants to give you money to just do what you think is fun and pursue your interests.

 

[Brian_B]

I mean, they are jobs after all. Your boss tells you what to work on, and in exchange you get a paycheck.

Well,

There's doing what you're told, and you get paid adequately for what you are being asked to do... and then there's Take This Job and Shove It.

 

[MadMummy76]

Well,

There's doing what you're told, and you get paid adequately for what you are being asked to do... and then there's Take This Job and Shove It.

I think game developers have become the whiniest bunch as of the past 5 years. I don't know if it's due to atrition and filling the holes with diversity hires or what, but it is getting very tiresome.

It's always take this job and shove it, I mean it's not like you get to re-negotiate your salary for each project you work on. Unless you are an independent contractor. But they ree-ed at that too saying making devs contractors instead of employees is exploitative.

I think they are paid decently, I mean Naughty Dog even made people from the VFX industry switch over to work on their games, and last I heard VFX artist were extremely well paid.

The fact that these soy entities try to paint game development as some sort of sweat shop type slave labor, when it is one of the coziest and well paid jobs in the world makes me angry AF.

 

[Brian_B]

I think game developers have become the whiniest bunch as of the past 5 years. I don't know if it's due to atrition and filling the holes with diversity hires or what, but it is getting very tiresome.

It's always take this job and shove it, I mean it's not like you get to re-negotiate your salary for each project you work on. Unless you are an independent contractor. But they ree-ed at that too saying making devs contractors instead of employees is exploitative.

I think they are paid decently, I mean Naughty Dog even made people from the VFX industry switch over to work on their games, and last I heard VFX artist were extremely well paid.

The fact that these soy entities try to paint game development as some sort of sweat shop type slave labor, when it is one of the coziest and well paid jobs in the world makes me angry AF.

I do not disagree with this.

 

[Grimlakin]

I do not disagree with this.

I mean.... I see his point.

1. They are creating entertainment. OR software for some task. (Task software is WAY easier in most cases it's when you get into MANY tasks that it gets complicated.)
2. They are behind a desk working their minds.. And lets be fair hands.
3. They are not subject to environmental risks as part of the job.
4. They are not subject to demanding physical tasks. (I'll say crunch is demanding but that is a peak condition not a standard condition.)
5. They are not exposed to adverse elements (Even bob who never showers isn't considered adverse conditions.)

I mean overall their job IS cushy. They could be digging ditches, Mining for Uranium, changing lightbulbs on radio towers... or any number of dangerous jobs out there. Heck there is a whole series called Dirty Jobs... maybe you've heard of. I would say ANY one of those on average is far higher risk and more demanding than being a programmer.

So yea... if you work in IT or Programming or with computers to do your job and get paid... You have a cushy job. Sorry.

 

[Burticus]

More monkeys banging out code does not equal better product. Especially coming from Beth.

 

[Zarathustra]

I think game developers have become the whiniest bunch as of the past 5 years. I don't know if it's due to atrition and filling the holes with diversity hires or what, but it is getting very tiresome.

It's always take this job and shove it, I mean it's not like you get to re-negotiate your salary for each project you work on. Unless you are an independent contractor. But they ree-ed at that too saying making devs contractors instead of employees is exploitative.

I think they are paid decently, I mean Naughty Dog even made people from the VFX industry switch over to work on their games, and last I heard VFX artist were extremely well paid.

The fact that these soy entities try to paint game development as some sort of sweat shop type slave labor, when it is one of the coziest and well paid jobs in the world makes me angry AF.

I do not disagree with this.

I mean.... I see his point.

1. They are creating entertainment. OR software for some task. (Task software is WAY easier in most cases it's when you get into MANY tasks that it gets complicated.)
2. They are behind a desk working their minds.. And lets be fair hands.
3. They are not subject to environmental risks as part of the job.
4. They are not subject to demanding physical tasks. (I'll say crunch is demanding but that is a peak condition not a standard condition.)
5. They are not exposed to adverse elements (Even bob who never showers isn't considered adverse conditions.)

I mean overall their job IS cushy. They could be digging ditches, Mining for Uranium, changing lightbulbs on radio towers... or any number of dangerous jobs out there. Heck there is a whole series called Dirty Jobs... maybe you've heard of. I would say ANY one of those on average is far higher risk and more demanding than being a programmer.

So yea... if you work in IT or Programming or with computers to do your job and get paid... You have a cushy job. Sorry.

Mostly agreed.

I'd suggest that some of the overtime requirements in the industry are insane though.

I work in product development, and i know all about putting in extra hours occasionally around deadlines and don't have a problem with it, but even in the worst crying times I've never worked more than a 12 hour day, and if I had to I'd probably have a problem with that.

Some of the stories I've heard of employees essentially sleeping in the office for months before launch are insane and should be completely unacceptable to anyone. It doesn't really matter what your work is, if you don't get a break from it, it is going to grind you down, and overtime is supposed to be temporary. Sure, I'll put in unpaid extra hours before the deadline, but then I expect paid extra hours off when things slow down. Averaging things out long term I shouldn't be spending more than 40 hours a week in the office. That's what I'm paid for. If the business didn't hire enough people, that's on them.

That and office work is essentially the "standard job" these days, with some 80% of American jobs being "desk jobs". It's the norm. Just because more extreme work exists doesn't mean that office work is cushy. It's those more extreme jobs that are the outlier.

 

[Tempest]

Interesting. It is supposed to be released in early 2023, and is being developed with the "Creation Engine 2".

"Bethesda revealed in June 2021 that they were working on a new iteration of the engine simply called the Creation Engine 2, and that it would power their upcoming games Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI."
—https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_Engine

I'll be interested to see what changes have been to the engine over the years. It was a lot of fun to play around with when creating mods for Skyrim years ago. If only I could say the same about actually playing game.

5. They are not exposed to adverse elements (Even bob who never showers isn't considered adverse conditions.)

 

[MadMummy76]

Mostly agreed.

I'd suggest that some of the overtime requirements in the industry are insane though.

I work in product development, and i know all about putting in extra hours occasionally around deadlines and don't have a problem with it, but even in the worst crying times I've never worked more than a 12 hour day, and if I had to I'd probably have a problem with that.

Some of the stories I've heard of employees essentially sleeping in the office for months before launch are insane and should be completely unacceptable to anyone. It doesn't really matter what your work is, if you don't get a break from it, it is going to grind you down, and overtime is supposed to be temporary. Sure, I'll put in unpaid extra hours before the deadline, but then I expect paid extra hours off when things slow down. Averaging things out long term I shouldn't be spending more than 40 hours a week in the office. That's what I'm paid for. If the business didn't hire enough people, that's on them.

That and office work is essentially the "standard job" these days. It's the norm. Just because more extreme work exists doesn't mean that office work is cushy. It's those more extreme jobs that are the outlier.

I think the stories are exaggerated by disgruntled employees. I mean who is going to squeal to Jason Schreier, if not the disgruntled one who was reprimanded for never showing up for OT?

They try to paint a picture where overtime only exists in game development, when I know for a fact that it is much more in the VFX industry 10-15 years ago already. Yet there was no bloomberg article every few months harping about the unbearable working conditions.

Sure I agree constant overtime is not sustainable, and should not be accepted as the norm, but I highly doubt that is the case at most "problem" devs.

I think crunch should be no longer than 1-2 weeks at the end of a project, if it is more, that's a management issue.

The longest crunch I put up with was about 4 weeks, when I was young and naive, I'd probably question it if it happened today and ask why don't we hire temporary help or outsource.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

I forgot this was coming out next year. Seems like I've been hearing about it for around 3-5 years now and kind of gave up keeping track. Looking forward to when it comes out and a decent chance it'll be day 1 for me. I'm mixed on Bethesda stuff but not as annoyed as I am with Ubi&EA. I mostly enjoyed Skyrim, more so with mods, but never got into Fallout even though I did buy the last one. I know they've got multiple teams/houses that work on different projects but Doom has been what's impressed me the most. Here's hoping the wait will be worth it and it launches in a good state and is fun. I also hope that they try to push the graphical envelope a bit more because that's been a significant criticism for me with most of their projects (except Doom).