The Elder Scrolls: Skywind Progress Update Video and Interview

The modding team that is currently hard at work on Skywind, a reimagining of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind on Skyrim’s engine and with the same mechanics and art style, has released a new video to show off the progress made on the mod. Many of the landscapes and assets shown look to be about on par with the actual Skyrim in my non-professional estimation, which is very impressive and exciting:

The team has also been interviewed by the folks at PC Gamer, another sign that the mod has caught mainstream attention. Hopefully the added pressure will galvanize the team and help them complete this ambitious undertaking, instead of creating additional problems. An excerpt:

“It wasn’t until late into the following year that the project evolved into what it is now,” Giles says of the Elder Scrolls Renewal Project, of which Skywind is a part. “[We] aspired to do something greater than a mere port of Morrowind. No one really knows the exact point that this switch happened, but I think as we got more and more talented individuals on board, we really broadened our horizons and looked to make something much more special. Since then the vision has only grown.”

Skywind’s global team was brought together by a love of the Elder Scrolls series. They’re all volunteers, and their ultimate reward for the thousands of hours invested will be the finished project itself. The challenge they have set is to take a classic and renovate it, improving it graphically and bringing the world’s density, life and interactions up to the standards set by today’s open-world games.

The team, though scattered, has clear lines of management. Tasks are chopped into manageable chunks and assigned by the development leads. Countless spreadsheets are assembled in order to keep track of the various tasks and deadlines. The driving force is a small core team, working with and managing the vast array of people who have volunteered their time.

These team members all share the same broad vision for Skywind. Morrowind is a game that now shows its age. The locales feel barren and sparse compared to modern achievements, the fog-cloaked horizon is a stark contrast to the immense draw distances we’re now accustomed to. The team have to address this disparity, filling in areas of the world with new content. This act of creation in a game so revered comes with its own difficulties—the additions must merge seamlessly with the established world. Skywind will include the story and quests familiar to Morrowind players, but some carefully constructed new missions have been added. The ultimate aim is that new content should be indistinguishable from the old.