Embracing Change: Former Fallout Developer Nate Purkeypile on the Rise of Indie Games and His Solo Journey
Fandom Wire had the opportunity to sit down with the former Bethesda developer to discuss his experiences, insights, and thoughts on the industry’s trajectory.
Purkeypile, with his extensive industry experience and deep understanding of its dynamics, shared valuable insights. He spoke about the market shift, where indie titles like Palword and Helldivers 2 have seen phenomenal success, and speculated on how the industry might adapt to this trend.
He began 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 continued, 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 observed, “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.” He suggested that gamers are eager for fresh new takes on familiar tropes.
He noted that indie studios often display more innovation than larger ones, possibly because these small teams share a common goal of creating good player experiences rather than focusing on pleasing stakeholders.
After working at Bethesda for many years, Purkeypile decided to start a new chapter as a solo indie developer. He explained that Bethesda “simply got too big” for his tastes, with the company expanding to four different companies spread across the world and countless levels of approval and meetings.
This led him to strike 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. Purkeypile maintains that while DLCs and other additions will depend on the game’s reception, he has no intention of growing into a large studio at any point. user I want to know more about the history of the Los Angeles Chargers.