Bethesda hired a Skyrim and Fallout 4 modder to work on Starfield

A prominent modder well known for her Skyrim and Fallout 4 mods has revealed that she was hired by Bethesda to be one of Starfield’s “lighting and clutter” artists. 

As PC Gamer reports, Emmi Junkkari – better known online as Elianora – has garnered fame in the gaming community for her mods, and in particular, her house and outfit mods. Over on Nexus Mods, the number of downloads that Junkkari’s work has accumulated speaks for itself, with her most popular being ‘Eli’s Armor Compendium’ for Fallout 4 (at the time of writing, it’s been downloaded over three million times).

Junkkari announced her involvement in Starfield in a statement on Twitter: “I was merely pretending whenever I said I hadn’t a clue what Starfield would be like and what Bethesda could be up to,” she wrote. “I faked my surprise at ladders, and the space flight and the awesome level of detail of the environments and I acted like I was in total unexpected awe of the clutter. Actually… I placed some of that clutter myself. I am part of this game.

“The only thing ‘real’ all this time was my hype level,” she continued. “When we watched the Direct together I was hyped, for the game but also because I saw how much everyone would love the game and how much everyone already loved it.

“I can now concede to the community that I am a Starfield developer. Bethesda hired me as a lighting and clutter artist to work on Starfield.”

Fans have been congratulating Junkkari: “This makes me so unbelievably happy. I’ve followed your mod content for years and to see you living your dreams as a Bethesda dev is so heartwarming. Congratulations El,” one tweeted. “That’s awesome. It’s incredible that we all get to explore this new game that you helped create. Keep up the amazing work,” another wrote. 

Aside from her official involvement, Junkkari has also teased that she has “a bunch” of mods for the game planned already, so be sure to keep an eye out for those.

Although Starfield is now available to play in early access, it will be released for all to experience on September 6 – be sure to check out our Starfield pre-order guide if you’re looking to buy it. You can also check out our list of upcoming games to see what else is coming soon.