Starfield’s lead quest designer leaves Bethesda to work on Wyrdsong

Will Shen, previously design director and lead quest designer at Bethesda Softworks, has moved to Something Wicked Games. Founded by former Bethesda and Obsidian employees, this studio is working on open-world RPG Wyrdsong.

Shen was associated with Bethesda for more than fifteen years and worked on Fallout 3, Fallout 4 DLC Far Harbor and Starfield, among others. In addition he says on LinkedIn to be responsible for the opening of The Elder Scrolls game Skyrim. He is at Something Wicked Games lead content designer.

Something Wicked Games was founded by Jeff Gardiner, who worked at Bethesda for sixteen years and was a high-ranking producer, and by Charles Staples, Obsidian’s lead designer. Something Wicked announced Wyrdsong, its first game, last year. Set in a fictionalized version of medieval Portugal, this open-world RPG revolves around ‘the nature of reality’.

In an interview with Game Developer, Shen says he will be the bridge between Something Wicked’s narrative and design teams. A release date for Wyrdsong has not yet been announced. Shen isn’t the first high-ranking Bethesda employee to leave the company this week; earlier, head of publishing Pete Hines retired.