Image: Bethesda
A longtime design director at Bethesda has left to work on another open-world RPG with veteran game developers.
Starfield’s lead quest designer Will Shen left Bethesda Game Studios this week, according to his announcement on Twitter/X. Shen was responsible for quest design and writing for multiple Bethesda RPGs going back years, ranging from The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim to Fallout 4.
Big departures at Bethesda this week
Shen is credited with working on Fallout 4’s most critically-acclaimed expansion Far Harbour as its lead designer, so it’s not a reach to assume that he had a hand in some of Starfield’s best moments as its lead quest designer too. Shen is leaving Bethesda to join developer Something Weird Games, a new studio made up of veteran RPG developers from companies like BioWare, Obsidian and of course, Bethesda.
Shen is joining the company to work on its debut fantasy game Wyrdsong, which takes place in a fictional version of Portugal set in the Middle Ages. Players will get to create their own characters in the RPG, but not much beyond that has been revealed following its 2022 announcement trailer:
This wasn’t the only major departure to hit Bethesda this week, however. The company’s head of publishing Pete Hines, who often acted as the face of the company at E3 and various QuakeCon events, announced his retirement this week. Hines has been with Bethesda for 24 years, and said in a tweet that his career culminated, “in the incredible launch of Starfield, it feels like the time is right.”
It’s likely that many developers feel the same after having worked on a singular project for years on end, and might now take Starfield's release as an opportunity to branch out within the industry.