Renowned Modder Was Hired By Bethesda To Work As A Lighting And Clutter Artist

Renowned modder Elianora, aka Emmi Junkkari, recently revealed in a tweet that Bethesda hired her to work on Starfield as a lighting and clutter artist. Although she later clarified that her contributions are a fraction of the general environment, her journey from being a modder to a developer in one of Bethesda’s biggest launches inspires the modding community.

https://twitter.com/Elianora/status/1697405778011791769

For those unaware of her work, she is responsible for creating the “Breezehome” replacement mod for the Skyrim Special Edition, which now boasts over 1.5 million downloads with over 3 million views. Her Fallout 4 mod “Eli’s Armour Compendium” is even more popular, with 3 million downloads and nearly 5 million views. She is well-known in the modding community for her amazing mods of various Bethesda Games.

I faked my surprise at the 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 clutter. Actually… I placed some of that clutter myself. I am part of this game,” said Elianora. She then added, “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.”

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Last year, Bethesda tried to hire two popular modders from the Fallout London mod team, Ryan Johnson and Dean Carter, of which only the former decided to accept his position as an associate-level designer on Fallout 76. Such situations have only created more inspiration within the modding community, and Elianora’s story seems to be doing that as well.

Listen, guys I was a lighting and clutter artist, one of many. I wasn’t the only one and I am not trying to diminish their work and can only take credit for a fraction of this game’s environmental stuff,” says Elianora.

So the next time you see some things resembling Eli’s independent work, know that she might be behind it. If you can’t find it, fret not, as she confirmed in a reply that she will continue to make mods for Starfield and already has planned a bunch of them.

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Starfield was released in early access on Xbox Series X|S and PC on September 1, 2023. The standard release of the game is scheduled for September 6, 2023, when it will also be available on Xbox Game Pass.