Starfield Lead Designer: “Players Are Going to Lose Their Minds”

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Image: Bethesda Game Studios

If you pick up a copy of Starfield in the future and realize that Bethesda’s sci-fi RPG doesn’t come anywhere close to the hype that it had been getting before its release, one person that you might want to blame is the game’s lead designer and writer, Emil Pagliarulo.

Pagliarulo took part in a Q&A that was posted to the official Starfield site this week, one in which he suggested that the new space-faring RPG is poised to blow gamers away. “Players are going to lose their minds,” the veteran developer said after being asked what Starfield meant to him, something that prompted an exciting response that alluded to an “awe-inspiring” experience.

But what are the chances of Starfield actually being as good and mind-blowing as Pagliarulo suggests? Pretty good, actually, since this is the same guy who was responsible for writing and designing various Bethesda classics that include Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Pagliarulo is a veteran company of the company who has worked for Bethesda for nearly two decades.

One of Pagliarulo’s fondest memories is meeting actor Liam Neeson, who provided the voice for the protagonist’s father, James, in Fallout 3. Pagliarulo served as the lead designer and lead writer for that game, Bethesda’s first in the series after having acquired the classic IP from Interplay in 2007 for $5.57 million.

Image: Bethesda Game Studios

MEET EMIL PAGLIARULO – LEAD DESIGNER ON STARFIELD (Bethesda)

Saying you’re going to create the studio’s first new IP in twenty years is one thing. Actually pulling that off, that’s a different story. It’s been so awe-inspiring watching Starfield morph into this amazing game, little by little, and with us covering SO much new ground. There comes a point when you’re working on a game, and it’s just kind of a mess, especially early on, because – news flash! – that’s what game development is. But then you get to that point where systems really start to come online, and things start to work well, and gel, and you see everything forming into the vision you had when you first started on this crazy journey. When that first happened with Starfield, it really was an, “Oh. Oh wow. Yeah. This is… something really special. Players are going to lose their minds.” Now we just have to finish it!

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Tsing Mui
News poster at The FPS Review.

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