After ten years of development, Skyblivion looks stunning

Skyblivion has been in development for ten years and still isn’t done, but work continues on the mod project remaking Oblivion inside Skyrim. The latest video is impressive, too, taking a 15 minute tour of areas, enemies, weapons and more that have been rebuilt, while outlining the work still to be done. Watch it below.

As you’ll have seen if you watched it, this is as much a recruitment advert as it as a progress update. Mod projects like this are enormous, and take a long time, and so they need a constant influx of new developers willing to work for free. There’s on online form if you’re interested in volunteering.

There’s plenty to enjoy even if, like me, you don’t know how to make 3D models. The video shows new goblin tribes, NPC clothing, special Daedric weaponry, and the city of Bruma, all of which have been recreated from scratch to replace the old 2006 models with work more befitting of Skyrim’s 2011 release date. There are clearly lots of unfinished parts – the video is explicit about what still needs doing – but it’s still astonishing. Look at what people are doing!

As far as these grand remake mods go, I have a particular fondness for Skyblivion because I have a particular fondness for Oblivion. It’s less often championed than its weirder predecessor, Morrowind, and its sequel Skyrim remains a cultural juggernaut even now. But Obliviion was the first Elder Scrolls game I ever played, it’s still the one I’ve played the most, and I have fond memories of running across its hills and past all its happy little bushes.

Skywind – a similar project by a different team which aims to bring Morrowind into Skyrim – still has the better name, though.

There’s no release date for Skyblivion yet, but it’ll be free whenever it does release. You can see more of it in action at its site.