If you're a gamer, than you may have heard about the incredible amount of hours players have put into The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. But you probably haven't heard about the incredible amount of hours people have put into developing for it, like Alexander J. Velicky, a 19 year old high school graduate who decided to prove he deserved a job at Bethesda by actually making an impressive mod for Skyrim, named Falskaar.

Falskaar is about a third of the size of the original game, adds 25 hours worth of original content, an original soundtrack, and has new characters, new voices (Velicky actually held auditions), and dozens of quests. Specifically:

  • An entirely new land independant of Tamriel, roughly the size of 2-3 Skyrim holds.
  • 20-30+ hours of gameplay.
  • 26 quests, including a 9 quest long main story, and 17 side quests! (Along with some unmarked content)
  • New items including new books, recipes, weapons and armor sets. (A mix of brand new, and retextured)
  • Two new spells and a new shout.
  • A bard with several unique new songs.
  • A soundtrack containing 14 brand new tracks composed by Adamm Khuevrr just for Falskaar, adding more than 40 minutes of new music!
  • A fully voiced experience, featuring almost 30 semi-professional and professional voice actors and actresses.

Also:

  • Falskaar only requires the latest version of Skyrim. (As of July 12th, 1.9.32.0.8)
  • It does NOT require any DLC.
  • It does NOT require any additional mods like SKSE.

On creating Falskaar's and finding talent, Velicky was surprised at the professionals he got to work with:

I’m still kind of shocked at some of the talent I got on the project… and every single one of them surpassed my expectations by leaps and bounds.

But how did he find the time to make this happen?

[My dad] was incredibly supportive and allowed me to live here, paying for living expenses and charging no rent,” Velicky says. “I was able to not go to school and not have a day job. Meaning, more or less, that Falskaar was my day job.

Velicky says Bethesda knows he's out there, and hopes his time on Falskaar proves his commitment to game development, saying:

The best way to show Bethesda Game Studios that I want a job there and should be hired is to create content that meets the standards of their incredible development team.

Falskaar isn’t perfect. I’m not an expert who’s been crafting game experiences for the last 20 years, so I certainly still have a lot to learn, and I always will. I’m always looking to learn and improve, and Falskaar was a huge chance for me to do this.

With the sheer amount of time and effort put into Falskaar, I hope Velicky gets his chance; and of course, his family's support is incredible, and may just be nurturing the industry's next great game designer. For a closer look at the game, check out the trailer and screenshots below; or just check out the mod for yourself, since Falskaar is currently available on Skyrim Nexus.

Source: PC Gamer, via All Games Beta

http://www.youtube.com/embed/7gJiVKpLPYw?feature=player_embedded