Fallout 3, Skyrim, and Starfield are just some of the games that Nate Purkeypile has worked on. After moving on from those projects, Purkeypile is now on the next stage of his life, tackling the new challenge of making games as a solo indie developer, with his first project in this vein being The Axis Unseen.
FandomWire was lucky enough to sit with the former Bethesda developer and speak to him about his experience, insights, and thoughts on the direction of the industry.
A Former Fallout Developer Talks About the Gaming Industry’s Major Shift
Having been in the industry for many years and getting to know its ins and outs, Purkeypile had a lot of wisdom and interesting information to share.
We spoke about the market shift, where the success of indie titles like Palword and Helldivers 2 has been absolutely phenomenal, and asked Purkeypile how he thinks the industry will adapt to follow this trend.
He started off by stating:
I think this was an inevitable course correction. Games are extraordinarily expensive to make and it is hard to hit the sales targets to justify the budgets of a lot of the games that are being made.
He continues, explaining that it’s “only natural” that smaller-scale games would end up having a lot more innovation and leading to big hits.
Purkeypile also said:
I have seen this happen so many times in my career where everyone tries to follow the big trend (MMOs, open world games, battle royale games, extraction shooters, etc.) and there’s always only a handful of winners.
It only makes sense that gamers are hungry for some fresh new takes on the same tropes we’ve seen for ages.
Indie studios seem to have a lot more innovation than bigger ones, and this could be because these small teams have the common goal of making good player experiences rather than raking in numbers to please stakeholders.
How Purkeypile Began His Adventure
Having previously worked at Bethesda for many years, Purkeypile decided his time at the company was over and started a new chapter as a solo indie developer.
He explains that Bethesda “simply got too big” for his tastes:
Instead of being a scrappy team in the basement making Fallout 3/Skyrim, it became four different companies spread across the world and countless levels of approvals and meetings.
As the entire cycle became process-heavy, he found it difficult to get people invested in the project.
This led to him starting out on his own, and he’s currently working on his passion project, The Axis Unseen. The game is set to release sometime this year on Steam, according to its shop page.
Purkeypile maintains that while DLCs and all that jazz will depend on the game’s reception, he has no intention of growing into a large studio at any point.
What do you think about the former Fallout developer’s outlook on the industry? Let us know in the comments below!
