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Shattering expectations (Gamescom) - Starfield: Shattered Space Interview with Bethesda
We speak with creative producer Tim Lamb to learn more about the first major expansion for Bethesda's grand cosmic RPG, and the variety of features and new content it will be bringing to the table.
Audio transcription
"Hi and welcome back to Gamereactor's coverage of Gamescom 2024.
We have seen a lot of interesting games, but I can say without a doubt that the game we are about to speak about now is one of the most interesting games.
It's an expansion for Starfield, the first expansion for the game, and it's called Shattered Space."
"I'm here with executive lead producer Tim Lamb, who is a creative producer on the title, and he's going to fill us in on what the game is about.
So yeah, could you maybe start by briefly introducing the premise of this expansion?
So in Shattered Space, you discover a derelict star station, and there is a series of events where you end up at Va'Ruun's home city on their home world."
"So you're in Dazra. I don't want to give away too many details there, but it's a landmass the size of a landed area that you would think of in traditional Starfield terms, except that entire area has been handcrafted.
So Dazra City is part of that, and there's all of the dungeons and all the experiences you have.
You don't need to leave. Everything can be done on foot. So the scale of it is more of an on-foot scale as opposed to a galactic scale."
"But there's been a catastrophic event that happens there, and the player arrives in Dazra City shortly after that.
And then there's some political infighting between the minor houses of the House Va'Ruun, and the player gets to come in and navigate that as they look to uncover the mystery of what happened with the House Va'Ruun people in their home world.
Yeah, and you mentioned the whole planet can be explored on foot, but there's also another option. You've recently introduced a new vehicle, and I was wondering, have you designed the planet with this vehicle in mind?
I would say it's almost the inverse. We had to design the vehicle with what we'd already done that we were very happy with and successful at exploring planets on foot."
"The vehicle had to work to that same standard. There's narrow places, there's high altitudes. We had to make the vehicle do that.
And by adhering to the rules that we had already laid out, you can do it either way. You can definitely take the vehicle to the Va'Ruun planet, you can drive around, it works there, but so does walking around on foot.
So besides all the quests, all the dialogue, all the intrigue, what kind of challenges will you face as a player on this planet?
We've added some new adversaries for the player. You probably saw some of that in the presentation. The vortex horrors that can teleport in as an ambush and startle you. Also, they're kind of terrifying."
"Then we have the enemies that are more in your face. They force you to handle a situation differently because they're putting an in-your-face time attack pressure on you. So you have to make your decisions quickly.
So the main game of Starfield definitely had its kind of horror moment, its dark moment, but the main theme was discovery and light among all the darkness.
But this expansion is much darker, much more claustrophobic in a sort of way. What inspired you to go in this direction?
You said it, where we think about discovery and optimism in the base game of Starfield. It's a jet-setting adventure where you move all around the galaxy and things happen on the galactic scale."
"In Shattered Space, with that bespoke handcrafted area, I think of it as more of an on-foot scale or on-wheels scale now. So it's more focused in that way.
We had a lot of opportunities. The team was very excited about exploring this mystery of House Varun. I think players who have played probably encountered the Varun to some degree, but they were mysterious.
So it was like, what does it mean to be Varun? What is it about those people? It gave us opportunities the team was excited about exploring."
"We wanted to try and do that shift in tone as well, not bright optimism anymore. I don't want to say horror, but it is a darker, spookier theme, tone, color, music, all the way through.
It really captures that and distills it down. It's darker, definitely, in tone.
Starfield got a great reception, but obviously when making a game of this galactic proportions, there will always be some criticisms. Have you drawn in some of those criticisms you have received in designing this expansion?
I love Starfield. Unapologetically, I love Starfield. I think the team was really happy. We playtested a lot. We iterated a lot. We were really happy with what released."
"We couldn't be more proud of Starfield. I think that internally, the team, we're our own harshest critics. We think about things that we want to do, but we also listen to the community.
I don't think those things can be compared independently. They're both information that we have. We weren't trying to respond or answer to a criticism. These were things that excited us, and those are things that we wanted to pursue.
It's a big galaxy, but one of the things that made the main game great was that you had these interesting companions you can take on your journey. Will they also play a part in this new expansion?
I think there's two questions there. I don't want to spoil Andresia's story like people may have encountered her. There's a story that she has that is certainly a consideration visiting her home world."
"Depending on how players have done that, it's a consideration. There are also new companions, depending on decisions that you make, that are hireable from the expansion that you can bring on as crew.
Does the new expansion introduce new kind of abilities or new kind of weapons, or do you mostly have the same tools as in the main game?
We haven't touched the base power system or adjusted the skill tree that we shipped, but there are new tools in that. There's new weapons, there's new gear, there's new items. I'm trying to think of my message. New craftable grenades."
"We kind of touch a little bit of everything, so hopefully there's something there for all different play styles.
In terms of if it's been many months since you played Starfell, or you want to jump into the game right now, how long will it take you to arrive at this new content?
We didn't want to adjust the initial onboarding of the player. We have a lot of complex game systems that we teach you, but very early on, shortly after the early mission in the game, Shattered Space opens up and is available."
"My recommendation would be to take your existing save and go. I want to say it's slightly challenging. It holds that sort of horror and vibe. New players that go in early at low level, it would be more challenging.
Can you perhaps tell a little bit about the thoughts that went behind the visual design of the expansion with these very overworldly environments and these kind of darker tones?
I think we wanted to, in that mood shift from bright and optimistic, we wanted something that looked more alien. I think there's new flora, fauna, the way the light shines, all of those things contribute to that overall more alien aesthetic."
"I don't know if it's possible for you to say this at this point, but how big an expansion are we looking at both? You described it as a handcrafted planet size, but how long will it take to play through the game or the expansion?
I think all players play our games differently. We try and support that as much as possible. It's one of the things I love about our games. The area is a handcrafted, landed area from what players have experienced in Starfield before.
But that whole area, elevation changes, it's all hand placed. There's nooks and crannies for you to explore things in. You might find something if you go the path less traveled. You might find a location that you want to explore, but you can't and you know you're going to come back there."
"So it's a more traditional feeling on foot experience.
Normally when you play in the horror genre it's often a quite linear story, but Bethesda are also known for these kind of branching story paths and many choices. So how much room is there to role play in this expansion?
I think we paid special attention. We know that characters have backgrounds and skills that they can choose from. We always like being able to show that back to the player that I'm reacting to a decision that you made earlier and it just feels good to be like, oh because I did that now I get to do this. So I think we definitely try and capture some of that in the expansion."
"When you arrive at this planet is there like a special build, a special kind of character that will have an easier time than others or doesn't that matter?
No, I think all types of characters can play through all of our content. I think there may be some where certain styles feel more comfortable, but I don't think it's not a deal breaker.
You have been working on this expansion for quite some time. It's about a year since the main game released and I can imagine a lot of hard work and sweat poured into it. So what are you most proud about what you have achieved with this Shattered Space expansion?
I want to say the whole thing, but in that we had this idea in our head that we were excited about and to be able to realize that idea in the game and have something that we're really proud of. To me it is that complete and total explorable area that has the tone and sort of the vibe of this alien world."
"Yeah, I think that's fantastic.
Looking a bit towards the future, I think it has been said before that there will be many expansions for this game. It's really a very long term project for you guys. Do you know if further expansions will also have this kind of self-contained world or are you also considering more open expansions?
We have a lot of ideas and those ideas are always different degrees of traction. So we have a lot of things in discussion. We really want to get Shattered Space out. We have some plans that I can't talk about, but our games tend to have really long legs and we want to support the game for a long time."
"Yeah, well thanks for talking to us and I wish you a good launch of the expansion.
Thank you so much. It was great to meet you."
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