Skyrim has received more than 200 Game of the Year awards ever since its initial release in 2011. It has transitioned into a cultural phenomenon and has transcended beyond gaming. More than 60 million people have played Skyrim, and it is still getting new players every year.
Skyrim’s open fantasy world is full of giants, elves, dragons, potions, spells, swords, and spears. When it first came out, it was looked upon as the nerdiest game on the market, which it still is; nevertheless, it soon became a criterion for the video game industry and has been re-released on every platform and console imaginable, which its predecessor, Morrowind, failed to do.
Skyrim leads with paces against its predecessors
Todd Howard is the director and executive producer for Bethesda. He led the development of Skyrim, just like every Elder Scrolls game since 2000. Commenting on the power of Skyrim as a fantasy open world, he said:
In Oblivion you’re playing Lancelot to Arthur. You’re not the anointed one; Martin is. So here, we want you to be anointed in some way, be special in the world. It’s certainly a game that means a lot to people. Of the 450 people that now work at Bethesda Game Studios, many of them came there because of Skyrim. Some were even plucked from the ranks of modders who adapted the game in creative ways. And as the game ages, it’s still finding new players – including those who were too young to play it the first time around.
Morrowind lacked the cultural impact and lasting significance of Skyrim, as it redefined the way open-world games were perceived. Skyrim changed the landscape of open-world RPG gaming by giving players complete control over their stories with endless possibilities in front of them, creating a harmonious and customizable experience for each individual.
Skyrim’s aesthetic visual language is similar to the world of Norse mythology, with snow and fur, giants and swords, and epic battles. Skyrim has turned out to be one of the most successful games in video game history and marks a significant moment in the world of gaming.
Todd Howard’s success story with Skyrim
Skyrim was fortunate with the timing of its release due to a shift in cultural winds in favor of fantastical stories with the emergence of shows like Game of Thrones.
Howard was a big nerd for reading people’s play notes as they tested the game and searched for bugs, and still, Skyrim was fluid in its development process. Howard shares an anecdote:
I’d often be wondering, is there a bug here that we need to solve or is this just a fun story someone felt compelled to write down? But of course when it actually came out and got into the hands of players, they immediately started finding things that the developers did not foresee. “There was a person who figured out that you could put buckets on people’s heads and block their line of sight.There was a great debate as to whether we should fix that. We ended up deciding no, because it’s hilarious.
Howard had a statue of Conan the Barbarian on his desk during early development, which was a strong design inspiration for the overall look and feel of the game. Shedding further light on his inspirations, he said:
To me that was the feeling of the game. We kept using the term ‘epic reality’… it wasn’t super high fantasy, it felt very grounded, that was the tone we were going for. We wanted to ground everything in a reality that you believe, so that when the dragons and magic come in you feel it more.
Todd Howard and his team of just 100 developers managed to give the world a cultural phenomenon that is going to be on every gamer’s wishlist for years to come, and they managed to do this while redefining the landscape of how open-world RPGs will be looked at in the future.
