Skywind, the ambitious total conversion mod aiming to remake The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, just received a new gameplay demonstration featuring over 21 minutes of footage, released as a celebration of Morrowind's 21st anniversary.
The video shows a rather simple side mission where the player character, the Nerevarine, is asked by Tharer Rotheloth (master of Molag Mar's Tribunal Temple) to find and dispatch the wanted Dark Elf Necromancer Delvam Andarys, who's hiding in a Velothi tower called Mawia.
While describing the gameplay demo, the modding team behind Skywind highlighted 're-imagined assets, creative level design ideas, and more immersive dialogue and scripted sequences' added on top of the structure of the original quest. At the same time, they are still looking for volunteers in various areas, such as voice acting, 3D art, animation, animation, coding, landscaping, sound, quality assurance, writing, and more. You can find additional information and submission forms for all these vacancies on the official website.
Skywind first began receiving gameplay trailers and showcases in 2019. The latest development diary from June 2021 revealed that over a hundred dungeons had been completed, and 35K voiced lines had been recorded. However, much work still needs to be done and no release window is in sight, unlike Skyblivion. The sibling project within the TES: Renewal family now has a 2025 estimated launch date.
Skywind is also directly threatened by the RTX Remix remastering tool. As part of its debut showcase, NVIDIA picked The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind to show off the technology, and the footage looked a lot better than anything that could be done in Skyrim's engine, thanks to the path tracer renderer. NVIDIA isn't going to fully remake Morrowind as they did with Portal, but with the upcoming release of the creator toolkit, it is likely a group of modders will endeavor to do so. Thanks to the RTX Remix tools, they could work faster than projects like Skywind. On the other hand, it would be a mere graphics overhaul. In contrast, this project also seeks to take advantage of the advancement in mechanics and gameplay delivered by the newer version of Bethesda's Creation Engine.