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Starfield aims for a ‘NASA punk’ visual style
Bethesda’s upcoming sci-fi RPG Starfield has a gritty lookâmore gritty and raw than the sleek, smooth lines of something like Mass Effect. That’s intentional — game director Todd Howard previously described StarCraft as “a more down-to-earth game and a more down-to-earth environment to explore” than Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls franchise — early in the production process , the developers even gave it a catchy name.
“Early on the project, when we were trying to establish the overall aesthetic of the game, we coined the term ‘NASA-Punk’ to describe a more solid and relevant sci-fi universe,” Starfield lead artist Istvan Paley told Xbox line“We wanted a very realistic shot. You could draw a line from today’s space technology and extrapolate from there to the future so it’s believable and relevant.”
Adding the “-punk” suffix to a random word doesn’t always clarify the subject – for example, I don’t know what jazzpunk is – but according to lead animator Rick, in this case the team immediately “caught the concept” Vinceens.
“When you say NASA-Punk, the art team can immediately take those two words and make them work,” says Vicens. “It’s just the perfect term for our art direction and getting everyone involved [the] Same process and work in a consistent style. For me it just clicked. At the beginning of the project, I thought this word was critical to us. “
Bethesda touts StarCraft as “Skyrim in space” in terms of its overall structure (exploration, conflict, factions to join or oppose, etc.), but also promises more real-world “authenticity” in the experience. sex”. In 2019, Howard said he visited SpaceX headquarters for inspiration, comparing Starfield’s space travel to flying in the 1940s: “Despite a lot of people doing it, it’s still dangerous to explore.”