Skyrim Creation kit and Workshop explained

It’s no secret that one of the reasons the Elder Scrolls series has been so successful is its dedicated modding community – which has over the years created thousands of interesting tweaks, customizations and complete overhauls for Bethesda’s RPG franchise.

The latest in the series, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, is no different, and there is already a lively modding community hard at work constantly releasing new modifications which customize the gameplay experience.

However, in many ways the fun has not even begun yet, and many are awaiting Bethesda’s Creation Kit and Skyrim Workshop – both of which will facilitate the creation, distribution and management of Skyrim mods.

For those still a little unclear about how these two pieces of software will work, Bethesda’s production director, Ashley Cheng, has posted a blog piece over on theelderscrolls.com explaining it all.

Skyrim super HD mod

Bethesda has teamed up with Valve to create what it is calling the “Skyrim Workshop”. The workshop will allow regular players to easily browse the plethora of mods that are available.

“With Skyrim Workshop, you can browse and search for the latest or highest rated mods, subscribe to any that interest you, rate your favorites and post feedback. Once you’ve subscribed to some mods, start the Skyrim launcher and you’ll see your subscribed mods automatically download. The launcher will even check if a mod has been updated and grab the latest version,” said Cheng.

Then for mod creators, Bethesda will be releasing the Creation Kit, which will be a free Steam download that will introduce a range of powerful mod creation tools, including the ability to build archives.

Existing fan-hosted mod sites such as Skyrim Nexus will continue to operate, and Bethesda is not making any changes that will isolate the those who are already hard at work creating mods.

“We even added a few features to help out — for instance, custom INI files can now be packaged into mods so you don’t need to backup your INI files anymore,” said Cheng.

There is no word on when the Creation Kit and Skyrim Workshop will be released, but currently only PC gamers will be able to enjoy this portion of the game.

Cheng did, however, mention that Bethesda hopes to one day reach its console audience with mods.