Skyblivion “Close to Release”; Former Dev Calls This “Impossible”
- Fan remake of Oblivion in Skyrim’s engine gets a polished gameplay trailer, with a planned release by the end of 2025.
- Former team member claims the trailer misrepresents the actual state of the game and that announcing a release date was a mistake.
- Current devs deny forced crunch, stress volunteer nature of the project, and say delays will be communicated if needed.
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Skyblivion Update
Skyblivion is a fan remake of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in the Skyrim game engine, and it’s been in the works since 2012. Officially a project of TESR (The Elder Scrolls Renewal), a collective of dedicated modders, Skyblivion recently received a new gameplay trailer presented by Rebelzize, the head of the project.
However, while the 15 minute look at the start of the game has been well-received overall, a former member of the main dev team has spoken out on social media, calling the claims that Skyblivion will be ready for release by the end of 2025 “a massive mistake,” as well as calling out trailer footage as an inaccurate representation of the actual game.
“Skyblivion’s biggest strength was its PR, with its Dev Diaries and Trailers, but sadly the project was never in the videos would show off,” Dee Keyes posted on X on Aug. 31.
“They would require massive amounts of work to fake the polish that is present in those videos. And while they used to be great for showing the fans and devs how the game would look when we finished it, it soon became clear that this was a level of polish that we were never gonna be allowed to achieve.”
Looks Can be Deceiving
Fake or otherwise enhanced game trailers like Alkahest by Push On are fast becoming the norm in this industry, and as such Keyes’ claims have divided the Skyblivion community, especially considering how polished the recent gameplay trailer looks. In it, the player character escapes from their prison cell with the help of palace guards and Emperor Uriel Septim, who believes the player is a prophesied hero.
So far, so Oblivion, but the biggest immediate difference is how everything looks. Septim has been remodeled to better represent his voice actor, Sir Patrick Stewart, while the environments benefit from improved textures and lighting. The assassins who appear to slay the Emperor have also received a new look, with redesigned Mythic Dawn armor.
Even so, Keyes maintains that what gamers are being shown is not accurate to the actual state of the game, as the project timeframe shifted to something closer to a typical industry experience: “Within the last 2 – 3 years the Skyblivion project has become less of a passion project and more of a crunch project.”
“The announcement of the release date (the end of 2025) was a massive mistake. Instead of announcing the release date when we were close to releasing and polishing up the project, the release date was instead announced because the person making the trailer, HeavyBurns, didn’t want to make another trailer unless it was a release date trailer,” Keyes added.
“The decision was seemingly made not out of confidence that’s when the project would be finished, but out of the idea that that’s the kind of trailer that would get more views.”
Trouble Behind The Scenes
Keyes’ full statement is lengthy, and he singles out HeavyBurns multiple times as someone who has taken over the project. However, whether this is a genuine issue or a personal grievance isn’t clear. As such, Eneba reached out to HeavyBurns for comment.
“Many of the statements are either misrepresented or just untrue which makes it especially upsetting,” he told Eneba. “We are all volunteers at the end of the day and nobody is ever expected to crunch or offer the project any time or effort that they do not wish to. We’ve always maintained that every dev should put themselves and their lives before the project and it was no different in Dee’s case.”
He also noted that it’s unfortunate Keyes’ felt the need to air his view publicly rather than with the team. Other members of the Skyblivion community have also echoed this sentiment, including Evan, the Communications Lead for Skyblivion, who posted in the official Reddit channel:
“Skyblivion isn’t ready right now, but we still hope it will be by the end of the year. If it isn’t going to be, we will let you all know. Passion projects are full of passionate people, and sometimes we don’t always agree 100% on everything. Treat each other with love and respect.”
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