Nate Purkeypile, Bethesda’s former lead artist, has opened up about why he left during the development of Starfield. At the time of his exit, he was the lead artist on Fallout 76 and contributed to popular projects, including Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Fallout 3.
The former lead artist said he left Bethesda because the team ballooned beyond his ideal working environment. The revelation was shared on Reddit by Purkeypile along with a trailer from his upcoming game. The artist spent 14 years at Bethesda before leaving to start a solo studio called Just Purkey Games.
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“I quit working at Bethesda after 14 years during Starfield to go make my own solo indie game with no publisher,” Purkeypile wrote on Reddit. “It’s a heavy metal horror game where you hunt monsters from folklore – It’s called The Axis Unseen.”
According to Purkeypile, he left Bethesda because the team size had become far too large with frequent meetings which he found disorienting. A free demo of The Axis Unseen is now available on Steam.
“So I know a lot of people have thoughts on Starfield and how it is probably too big, should have been smaller, etc.,” Purkeypile explained. “I agree with a lot of that and while I enjoyed working at Bethesda a lot when we were about 65-110 people on Fallout 3 and Skyrim, I enjoyed it a lot less as it grew and grew.”
“Starfield was about 500 people or so and with four different companies involved (BGS, BGS Austin, BGS Dalls, BGS Montreal), and that’s not including outsourcing. This just wasn’t my style. There were so many meetings and it wasn’t the way I liked to build games. I like being able to just move fast and build unique things.”
The Axis Unseen is a first-person heavy metal horror where players hunt nightmarish monsters from ancient folklore in a mysterious open world. The games is planned for release on October 22, 2024.
