“I thought we would find the answers faster”: Todd Howard was Surprised it Took Nearly 7 Years for Starfield to ‘Click’ for Him

Todd Howard and his team at Bethesda are one of the few who can have the privilege of waiting for nearly seven years before their project ‘clicks.’ That’s just the kind of reputation Howard has built over time.

His successes with the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls franchises have him carrying the hopes, dreams, and expectations of millions of players across the world on his shoulders. It looks like even a genius like him can get stumped, though, as he gets candid in an interview about Starfield‘s development.

Todd Howard Says Starfield Didn’t Feel Fun for Years

The space RPG took eight grueling years of development before it was finally released into the world. The game had a very mediocre launch, which we had a lot to say about.

When looking back at some of the things Howard and his team had to say about the development process, however, it feels a little clearer as to why that is.

In an interview with GQ Magazine just a month before the game’s launch, Howard talked about why the game took so long to come out:

I thought we would find the answers faster.

He admits that the game only “clicked” into feeling fun to play as far as lay 2022, seven years after development began. This also might be why the game was plagued with delays.

It’s the game flow. We whittle away on these lumps of clay, and make them better. But there’s a magic to that.

Judging from launch-day reviews, the magic wasn’t so clear to consumers. That’s not to say the game doesn’t have any fans, as it still has an active player base.

For all the kinks and issues it has, it seems to be gradually ironing them, but one could argue that some of these should’ve been sorted way before launch.

How the Game Was Designed From Nothing

While Starfield‘s development was ongoing, that didn’t mean everything else was at a standstill. Technology continuously developed, and that also meant the game development process had to adapt.

Some things that the team wanted to accomplish weren’t possible with the pre-existing tools it had, and much had to be programmed and designed from scratch.

What made things difficult was that progress wasn’t visual for the most part, as Howard explains:

When you’re making a lot of content, and you can’t see the work on the screen, it’s really hard.

Even simple items like trash cans needed concept art to be brought to life in-game.

Regardless of how the game’s reception is, the team behind the game had to put in countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears for players to experience what they see on screen today.

Whether the results of that hard work are good or not, is up to others to decide.

Do you think the development process for Starfield hurt the game in the end, or is the issue something else? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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