The Skyrim development team is keen on letting us have a look behind the scenes on Skyrim, which they call their “most ambitious entry in The Elder Scrolls series to date.” So, they have a number of diaries up on the Elder Scroll website. The latest one details the newest DLC add-on, Hearthfire.
As some of you know, that add-on allows players to build their homes from the ground up: sounds kind of Minecrafty, actually, with a bit of Fable thrown in for good measure. “Beginning with a small, one room cabin in The Pale, Falkreath, or Hjaalmarch, players can eventually construct a fully functioning home with more features than you could possibly expect,” Bethesda explains.
They use that description as a metaphor for the DLC’s own creation. Since the idea started in a gamejam, its origin was humble and small. The gamejam allowed the designers to do something different. This in particular, the developers wanted to expand the crafting system. They asked themselves, why can’t players build anything in the game?
Boom. That’s where Hearthfire started. The add-on would go on to allow players to "trick out the houses they were building: a greenhouse for growing new alchemy ingredients, mannequin displays to show off weapons and armor, and even the ability to add multiple porches to the home."
Once the idea started getting fleshed out, the team knew that it would make its way out of the gamejam and out as content for Skyrim proper. And the product is something the whole team is proud of.
Check out the trailer for Hearthfire here: