The head of Xbox Game Studios, Matt Booty, describes shipbuilding and “NASA Punk” art design as his two favorite aspects of Starfield.
Speaking during an interview at PAX West 2022, Matt Booty was asked about his favorite part of Starfield, to which he responded with two. In his opinion, the shipbuilding is going to be one of the game’s greatest aspects, but he also finds the “NASA Punk” art style as the other defining aspect of Starfield.
According to Matt, , Starfield’s “NASA Punk” aesthetic calls back to the late 70s era sci-fi artists, including people like Ron Cobb and Robert McCall.
Earlier in February, the lead artist, Istvan Pely, explained that his team coined the term “NASA Punk” early during development to describe a sci-fi universe that’s a little more grounded and relatable. According to him, the studio wanted a very realistic take.
Meanwhile, the lead animator, Rick Vicens, said that everyone in the team instantly resonated with this concept. The Art team was able to take the words “NASA” and “Punk”, and make sense of it in context of Starfield’s aesthetic. It set the tone for the game’s art direction and allowed everyone in the team to work in flow and with a consistent art style. According to him, it was critical for the team to come up with a term that defined the aesthetic at the beginning of the project.
Starfield is an upcoming action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. In 2018, Bethesda made the official announcement of the game during its E3 press conference. The first new intellectual property created by Bethesda in more than 25 years, the game takes place in a space-themed setting. Starfield is slated to launch for Microsoft Windows and Xbox Series X/S in the first half of 2023.
