Each installment of The Elder Scrolls series is massive and with each release, players have learned to expect two things: a countless amount of gameplay hours and a countless amount of bugs/tweaks/patches/mods which define the experience after the game launches.
With Skyrim, the series reached a new high in what Bethesda can offer players, but it was still missing a lot of the little things needed to make the experience complete. Normally, this is where the community comes in now that the official Skyrim Creation Kit is available to download, but we can’t forget that the developers of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim are also a part of that community and want similar things from the game.
So, when Skyrim launched, Bethesda conducted a “Game Jam” where they had all of the staff who worked on the game create and work on whatever they want for a full week, as long as it was within Skyrim. They then met for big company meeting and showcased what came of the week and the results were rather impressive, while partially disappointing at the same time for the simple reason that this stuff wasn’t included in the game. They’ve now released a sizzle reel of some of the videos shown internally at the meeting, showcasing gameplay improvements and new features including:
New Gameplay Mechanics & Creatures
- Build a house.
- Goblins, outdoor Draugr, werebears, giant monster crabs.
- New Mounts: Dragons, flaming skeletal demon horses
- Kinect dragon shouts.
- Snow foot prints.
- Vampire feeding.
Environmental Improvements
- Seasonal Foliage.
- Flow-based Water Shader.
- Improved underwater visuals.
- Lights can be knocked out with water arrows.
- Hanging structures and moving platforms in dungeons.
- Strong water currents in dungeons.
- Fast-Travel waygates.
AI Improvements
- NPCs will re-light darkened areas with torches.
- Companion commands: set favorites, combat style, equipment, distance, training & more.
- Adopt NPC kids!
Combat Improvements
- The return of spears! (not been in the series since Morrowind)
- Kill cams for magic and ranged attacks.
- Paralysis ruins to trap enemies.
- Combo spells (mix two and create something new).
- Mounted combat
- Water, fire, ice arrows.
Now, take a look for yourself and see what creativity can result in:
A lot of these things seem simple and certainly make us wonder why they weren’t included at launch. Snow footprints, companion commands, mounted combat, spears, vampire feeding, etc. are basic gameplay features that other RPGs, and in some cases, even previous games in the series had. Things like Kinect dragon shouts and other commands have been implemented in the game by users in a far deeper and complex way already, so watching this video raises our expectations in what Bethesda should release in upcoming patches and/or DLC.
The end of the video reads:
“That was just a taste. It was one of the most productive, creative weeks we’ve had. What if we worked like that more often? What could we do?
Now, what if they spent an extra week or two doing this stuff before the game launched? What a twist! We love Skyrim and it’s easily one of our favorite games of 2011, but it was missing a lot of the smaller things and it did have too many bugs. So, for The Elder Scrolls VI, let’s slow it down and worry about polish more than a release date. Take advantage of the team’s creativity and definitely do more of these creative weeks more often. It would result in a better, more realized game.
What things from the video do you want added to Skyrim the most?
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I believe the major reason for all the bugs that weren’t ironed out and some of the missing features was that really cool release date they locked themselves into. 11/11/11 is cool, but I think that held them back a little. No matter. It was still my GotY.
Dear Bethsoft,
Give us all please!
All of this looks amazing. I would definitely enjoy more options for vampirism and lycanthrope:)
So is all this stuff coming to the systems too or only pc?
Re-watch the beginning of the video
Mounted combat… Why couldn’t they put that in?
they said they wouldnt do that in oblivion be it “unbalanced the game”, but thats the whole point of cavalry…derp
Please Bethesda…. implement as much of that as possible. I’ve become burnt out on Skyrim. I NEED something like this to Jumpstart my Elder Scrolls craving once more!
I feel the exact same way man…
DamonW, I totally feel you on that one. I played the game for a week straight, unlocked ALL XBox360 achievements and have well over 300 hours now on the game. My BIGGEST problem with the game is that it feels like a chore to play it. Having “completed” the game with five different characters makes the game so hard for me to play. I think, that besides any of those in the video, except for the scenic tweaks and the house making tweak, they should add a whole new DLC opening another territory/province. There was a rumor saying that someone glitched out of the map and was able to travel all the way to the Imperial City and even to Vvardenfell! Even bringing back the Shivering Isles, of course SKYRIM STYLE.
Can we get some more assassin missions? They were definitely cool, but there weren’t many of them. Or how there’s nothing for being the good guy since they’re aren’t many good gods.
I really, really want to fight a Godzilla sized Mudcrab as a Werebear or Vampire Lord.
ALL OF THEM AND THEN SOME, AND ADD SOME RANDOM LARGE SCALE ATTACKS FROM THE THALMOR OR LEGION OR STORMCLOAKS ETC. PEACE
Wow! I love it
I loled harder than necessary at the mudcrab part.
Oh god. Vampire lord. Do want. Finally, vampirism is useful for something! Also, Imagine a fight between a dragon mount and the giant mud crab. That’s something worth putting to heavy metal and posting to YouTube.
I absolutley love the vampire ideas and the werebear. The Lycanthrope perk tree would be amazing too!
just gimme a dragon mount and a reason to be a vampire and i will be happy, if u guys release even half of this stuff, i might just use another month of my life on this game!! haha jk, but seriously do it
If they released most of this stuff, 2 more months of my life will disappear. I would actually start a new character for all this stuff. Plus I would kill for a skill tree for vampirism and lycanthrope.
Dragon mount+spears was what I originally expected from Skyrim. Seriously, you’re a Dragonborn and you hunt dragons so why not let me be a dragoon?
“What if we worked like that more often?” This line honestly pissed me off. If they worked like that more often then Skyrim would’ve been the best game ever and a little less buggy at launch. I don’t mind bugs at all, but they’re essentially telling us that they didn’t work that hard on adding content and fixing bugs until this Game Jam week.
Skyrim’s a great game and all but hardly lived up to my expectations. That video, on the other hand, was EVERYTHING I expected from the moment the game was announced.
all i need is the giant mud crab and the fat giant
Better vampires! I like the idea of biting somebody on the neck when they have there backs turned. Also the vampire lord and vampire minions, that would make being a vampire be worthwhile.
This is completely disturbing. What frustrates me the most about all of this is that, not only are these features the game *NEEDED* (for the most part) but also now that they know we’re hooked on these concepts, they will most likely actually charge us for it. Making us pay for content that should have already been in the game. If they stick to the “free DLC” line they mentioned in the beginning, I will be truly impressed and be proud of Bethesda, but I doubt it.
You would have thought dragon riding would have been a no-brainer. Any one of these would have me playing all over again.