14 DAY TRIAL // The development team working on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has revealed that the core idea for the Hearthfire downloadable content pack was created during the Game Jam session that the company held just after the launch of the action role-playing game.
Robert Wisnewski, an environmental artist working on Hearthfire, has stated, “It started as a small idea to expand on the crafting element of the game because alchemy, smithing and enchanting were things I was interested in when we were playtesting the game.”
Bruce Nesmith, a lead designer, revealed that he liked Minecraft and wanted to combine its ideas with the crafting system of Skyrim.
He added, “We even were able to add a wine cellar! Anything you can think of that you’d want to have in a Skyrim house is here.”
Hearthfire is designed to allow players to create their own house in the game, with a wide range of potential customization options.
The new DLC pack will also allow players to adopt children that have been orphaned in the game world.
The developer says that the idea for the adoption mechanics was created when some members of the team started to wonder what happened to the kids linked to the Dark Brotherhood storyline.
Bethesda has revealed that it plans to support Skyrim with new content in the long term, adding both more features and more content.
Since the game was launched Bethesda has launched a number of patches which have added mounted combat, new quests while also fixing the problems that have affected the game.
Hearthfire is now available for the Xbox 360 version of Skyrim and Bethesda has not announced launch dates for the PlayStation 3 or the PC yet, although based on previous DLC history it will probably be launched in early October.