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Bethesda's Todd Howard on Skyrim's biggest development hurdle, fan-made mods, and what happens next

Xav de Matos — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:30:00 EST

Todd Howard and his clan of designers from Bethesda Game Studios walked off the stage with top honors for 'Game of the Year' at the 2012 Game Developers Coice Awards last week, for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. As the large group shuffled off to party, Howard, the company's boss, took a few moments to speak with the media.

Topics of discussion quickly merged into one frame of thought: what happens next? Everyone wants to know when the first piece of downloadable content will launch, how will it change the award-winning experience, and more.

Howard, being as used to sidestepping media inquires about unannounced items as he is working with a talented team, quickly shot those questions down.

Our focus, however, was slightly different. With a game as large as Skyrim, we wondered what complications arose during development. What is the hardest part about crafting a world meant to live on its own, away from the player's eyes?

Gallery: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (11/10/11)

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Bethesda's Todd Howard on Skyrim's biggest development hurdle, fan-made mods, and what happens next originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Skyrim's Creation Kit released with 'surprise' High-Resolution Texture Pack, Portal cameo

Xav de Matos — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:06:00 EST

Tamriel's PC adventurers have finally been granted access to the long-awaited Creation Kit for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. A special surprise was promised with today's release, coming in the form of a High-Resolution Texture Pack for the game. "Experience The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim as you've never seen it before with the Skyrim High-Resolution Texture Pack," a press release noted.

Skyrim also becomes the second title to be featured on the Steam Workshop, which acts as a "central hub of player-created content and tools to publish, organize, and download that content into your games."

Valve and Bethesda have teamed up to bring users the Space Sphere mod, which adds the space-loving robot from Portal 2 to the game, following players around the world (pictured above). While the special mod appeared on Steam earlier today, it has since vanished. Joystiq has contacted Valve and Bethesda to find out when the new companion will land back on the dragon-infested planet. [Update: Steam Workshop is back online! Enjoy your new talkative friend!]

Steam is also featuring the Elder Scrolls series in a mid-week sale, offering a discount on each game in the series or a bundle (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim) for $49.99.

Skyrim's Creation Kit released with 'surprise' High-Resolution Texture Pack, Portal cameo originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Skyrim Creation Kit out on PC this Tuesday, with a 'surprise'

JC Fletcher — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST

The Skyrim Creation Kit will be available for the PC version this Tuesday, according to a tweet from Bethesda VP of Marketing Pete Hines. It'll be available through Steam under "Tools," for free.

As if the ability to generate infinite, free Skyrim content through mods weren't enough, Hines also teased a "special surprise" that would be coming along with it. We'll have to wait until Tuesday to see what that is, but we're guessing dragons. That game would be awesome with some dragons in it.

Skyrim Creation Kit out on PC this Tuesday, with a 'surprise' originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Skyrim's Creation Kit available 'soon' on PC; latest vid offers a first look

Ben Gilbert — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:30:00 EST

Trolls, dragons, giant spiders, giant crabs, giant ... people -- Bethesda's Skyrim has it all, at least in terms of things that can kill you. But series fans know that they can take the game a few steps further into crazytown with mods, as we've seen over the past few months. Bethesda knows this too, clearly, as the developer is releasing a Creation Kit sometime soon which will allow users to more easily mod and share creations for Skyrim.

Interestingly, the company notes in its developer diary that it's "going to keep looking for ways to get mods to more people, and hopefully one day to our console audience," but comes up short of saying anything more concrete. Frankly, we'd love to be able to snap into a Skyrim with our fellow Macho Man fans out there (oooooh yeah!), but we simply don't have a PC strong enough.

The Creation Kit will support Steam Workshop, allowing mods to be shared via Steam users easily. We'd suggest pushing that Steam Workshop support to PS3 given Steam's past with Sony's home console, but then we also know of Skyrim's ugly past with the PS3. Oh well, maybe next game, right?

Skyrim's Creation Kit available 'soon' on PC; latest vid offers a first look originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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