Todd Howard was too busy. Former Bethesda employee points out Starfield’s main issue

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Todd Howard had so much on his plate that Starfield was technically ready to launch, but the development team – and players – weren’t happy with the final result.

As a big fan of Bethesda games, I was really bummed to read Kurt Kuhlmann – one of the creators of Skyrim – talking about not getting to work on another RPG with them. He actually shared his thoughts with PC Gamer, and while he didn’t trash Starfield, he didn’t exactly rave about it either. He seemed to feel it didn’t quite reach the legendary status of some other RPGs, which is a little disappointing to hear.

Incoherent cosmos

According to Kuhlmann, the biggest issue with Starfield is a lack of overall unity and cohesion. He recalls that Skyrim was developed in a more straightforward era, highlighting how much the project lead’s direct involvement shaped its creation – a point we discussed previously.

I was a lead designer on the game, and back then, all the leads worked hands-on. This meant I collaborated directly with the entire team, including all the quest designers, and actively contributed to the design process myself.

As Bethesda grew, team leaders began managing others’ work instead of directly contributing to the game’s creation. While Klaus Kuhlmann acknowledges his feelings about this shift are personal, it generally slowed development. This was especially true because Todd Howard was frequently needed by multiple teams – not just those working on Starfield. This often caused delays, as teams would either wait for him to resolve issues that arose during his absence or needed his direct assistance.

Developing Starfield was a complex and lengthy process, taking roughly eight years from around 2015-2016 until its September 2023 release. While the complexity extended the development time, former Bethesda employee Kuhlmann believes the game wasn’t released prematurely. He does acknowledge, however, that Starfield launched in a playable condition, but wasn’t fully polished to its potential.

Too new RPG

Developing Starfield was Bethesda’s biggest undertaking yet, requiring them to build many entirely new features and systems. Creating these completely original game mechanics is notoriously time-consuming and challenging for developers – sometimes even more so than designing doors!

According to Kuhlmann, Starfield felt like starting from scratch half the time. This meant Bethesda couldn’t always use their established methods because key elements like planets and spaceships were constantly evolving. If these fundamental systems are always in flux, it’s difficult for the development team to build upon them or finalize the game’s story.

As the project grew, we needed to add more people to the team. This created some organizational difficulties, making it harder to keep everyone aligned on the game’s overall direction. Managing the larger team was challenging, and we were largely learning as we went.

The game felt disjointed because many elements were constantly changing or being redesigned throughout development. It was like trying to build something solid when the pieces were always shifting.

Considering the disappointing launch of Fallout 76, it’s understandable why Kuhlmann describes Starfield as a good game, but not a classic like Bethesda’s greatest hits. Players had high expectations for this title, especially after the hype surrounding its announcement and the enduring popularity of Skyrim.

The creator enjoys many aspects of the title, but feels the individual parts didn’t quite blend together as well as in Bethesda’s previous role-playing games. Kuhlmann believes it wasn’t a failure, and the studio shouldn’t be ashamed of it.

We attempted a big change in genre with a lot of new features, but it’s unrealistic to expect immediate success compared to games that have focused on that genre for years. It wasn’t a failure, but it wasn’t perfect either – it was good enough.

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2026-01-22 17:02