Former Bethesda dev on working with UE5: “I completed what I thought would be 13 weeks of work in 4 weeks”

Nate Purkeypile, a solo indie developer and former Bethesda employee, has shared his experience of creating a game on Unreal Engine 5. He was impressed by the engine, saying that it helped him significantly accelerate the development of his title.

Image credit: Just Purkey Games

Purkeypile opened up about using Unreal Engine 5 in his latest newsletter.

“In fact, it’s such a good engine that based on my current schedule, I completed what I thought would be 13 weeks of work in 4 weeks,” he said. “So, turns out it’s an even better engine than I thought. I am sure I’ll run into more hurdles later, but so far things are going way better than I expected.”

Purkeypile left Bethesda in April 2021 after working at the studio for 14 years. He was a world artist of Fallout 3 and Fallout 4. Purkeypile also worked on the world art for TES V: Skyrim and was a lead lighting artist of Starfield.

After leaving Bethesda, Purkeypile founded one-man studio Just Purkey Games. He is now working on his first game as a solo developer. It will be a large open-world title with some horror-related themes.