The development team behind the highly anticipated Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim mod Skyblivion spoke out about the advice they gave to series developer Bethesda on the subject of modding the studio's games. Skyblivion is the team's large-scale project recreating The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion using the modding tools and engine of Skyrim.
Though Bethesda is a major developer with many games across multiple genres in its catalog, it's best known for open world RPGs. Titles like Oblivion and Fallout 4 are ranked among the best Bethesda games around not just because of their scale and play experience, but for their support for user-created modifications. Bethesda regularly releases toolsets and documentation to support players who take it upon themselves to create new content for the games. In turn, the likes of Skyrim and Oblivion have become evergreen titles as players spend years, even decades playing through user-created mods and customized expansions.
Skyblivion May Be Missing a Huge Piece of the Puzzle
Skyblivion, the upcoming fan-made remake of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, looks incredibly ambitious, but it's missing one major piece of the puzzle.
One of the largest such projects is Skyblivion, which attempts to create an enhanced version of Oblivion's campaign and content within Skyrim. The project was so highly anticipated that the Skyblivion development team was even invited to visit Bethesda directly in the wake of the launch of Oblivion Remastered, Bethesda's own official refresh of the 2006 classic. According to an interview with PC Gamer, the team's visit to Bethesda's offices went rather well, with in-depth discussions of modding and mod tools.
Skyblivion Team Offers Advice to Bethesda on Engaging the Modding Community
According to Skyblivion's team lead, who goes by Rebelzize, Bethesda developers were happy to show the Skyblivion team around the office. The visit originated as an impromptu proposition that came as Rebelzize planned to visit the PAX East convention in Boston. Because Boston was located relatively near Bethesda's headquarters in Maryland, Rebelzize reached out and raised the possibility of a quick visit to "say hi." Bethesda opted to formally invite the entire team over to interact, with the visit lasting nearly five hours. Rebelzize said that Bethesda was most interested in finding out how the Skyblivion team got along with the Bethesda-created tools it had created to support modding, such as Skyrim's creation kit. Since Skyblivion is one of the largest and most detailed Skyrim mods, and one that riffs directly on Bethesda's official work on Oblivion, the team was in a position to give detailed insight.
One insight the Skyblivion team shared was a desire for more detailed, video-based documentation and help to accompany the release of a creation kit. Rebelzize shared that he missed the days when Bethesda would produce a series of videos helping new users come to grips with the Skyrim Creation Kit Suite, which included developer-led walkthroughs for basic projects like creating a new dungeon. Such learning aids for future Bethesda games like The Elder Scrolls 6 or Fallout 5 could get fans well on their way to producing high-quality content for those titles and extending their lives much sooner.
- Released
- November 11, 2011
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Use of Alcohol, Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes
- Developer(s)
- Bethesda
- Publisher(s)
- Bethesda
- Engine
- Creation
- Expansions
- Skyrim: Dragonborn, Skyrim: Hearthfire, Skyrim: Dawnguard
- Franchise
- The Elder Scrolls
