Skyrim YouTube retrospective celebrates 10-year-anniversary of the game

Skyrim’s 10-year-anniversary was in November. Yes, that’s 10 whole years of dragon shouting through Tamriel, riding Shadowmere up rocky ledges, conjuring Atronachs, becoming over-encumbered with loot, losing Lydia repeatedly, and definitely getting to the final boss battle. And a new YouTube retrospective “A SKYRIM DOCUMENTARY | You’re Finally Awake: Nine Developers Recount the Making of Skyrim,” celebrates that 10-year-anniversary by digging into the game’s development.

Jonah Lobe was the character artist in this 53 minute video. It featured 9 developers who worked on it. Skyrim. Together, they give new insights into the game’s creation and how it turned into such a massive cultural influence. The mini-documentary also shares new stories about early ideation, level design (from dungeon lighting to city layouts), and character animation — including showing off lots of concept art for environments, creatures, and critters.

Bethesda does not employ any of the above developers, however they all had thoughtful reflections on their time at Bethesda. Skyrim. Lobe interviewed Joel Burgess as a level designer, Lianne Cruz as an animator, Salinee Goldenberg is a video editor and Dennis Mejillones as a character artist. Rashad Redic was referred to him by Lobe. Jean Simonet and Mark Teare are both programmers. The interview chronicles the contributions of each individual and their camaraderie.

“None of us knew how the game would turn out, but we all knew that it might actually be good if we all just gave it our best,” Lobe says, in the video’s introduction.

Digging into these new Easter eggs, and learning more about the storied game’s development, is a truly delightful experience. You can see the entire design process of the werewolf and the details about the creation of the gigantic. based on Lobe’s dad. (“I didn’t want the player to see them as monstrous, I wanted them to look gentle,” Lobe explains.) This is far from the only real person developers used as a design cue — certain character classes were based off of colleagues and friends.

Also, the featurette acknowledges Skyrim’s contributions to meme culture. This includes NPC movement — with NPCs famously moving jerkily and pacing in place — which has become a meme on TikTok, along with the trend of putting baskets over merchant heads in order to steal their wares.

There’s no arguing over Skyrim’s influence and impact. The game was launched in 2011 and has sold tens to millions of copies. There are so many modern platforms and consoles that you can use to play the game. Skyrim on is a testament to the game’s staying power. That’s not even mentioning the enveloping presence of the game’s memes — in 2011, it was basically impossible to wander a few paces without someone fus roh dahYou are referred to as a ‘explorer,’ or someone who tries to claim to be one.

Many of us find it difficult to believe that we are not the only ones who have this problem. Skyrim was the first game that really went there, in terms of creating a fantasy world chock-full of explorable areas and dungeons, runes and lore, and weird-ass enemies (there’s nothing like hearing a Draugr hiss behind you). I still remember walking into Fry’s Electronics (R.I.P.), and seeing that sweet, sweet endcap of PC copies — and I still treasure my pre-digitized-edition CD-ROM, even though I own SkyrimYou can now buy many consoles.

It was an amazing thing to play. SkyrimFor the first time in your life, you can explore and combat real-time within an Elder Scrolls game. (MorrowindFans, we know how painful it is to roll the dice. It’s really nice to revisit those worlds from the developer’s perspective, and to learn so much about the game’s creation.