‘Skyblivion’ developer says death threats are now “normal” to them

21 July, 2023

One of the developers of Skyblivion, a fan-made mod that is remaking the entirety The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion in Skyrim, has spoken out about the abuse they’ve endured while working on the project.

Hacking, harassment, stalking and death threats have become a “normal part” of working on Skyblivion, said developer K Rebel in a post to Twitter. “People on the team and me already sacrifice so much, people have no idea how much time and effort goes into this project,” they shared.

Earlier this month, the Skyblivion developers and their Discord server were attacked, with the hacker “removing anything [Skyblivion] related” over the course of a day and a half using their unimpeded access to the files. Fortunately, only a few “bits and bobs” were permanently lost and the team had their accounts restored with assistance from fellow independent developers and YouTubers.

“I have a full-time job too you know, [it’s] hard enough juggling [what’s] basically 2 full-time jobs,” continued K Rebel, before expressing their gratitude for the support that they get from the community. In spite of the hack, the mod seems to still be on track for its launch window of 2025 “at the latest.”

All that players will require to play Skyblivion is copies of Skyrim and Oblivion with all of their respective DLCs. The team will not charge a penny for what is now more than a decade of work from volunteers from the world over. Additionally, there will be brand new content inspired by the series lore such as the introduction of the lost city of Sutch.

Seeing that The Elder Scrolls 6 was said to be in “pre-production” in 2022, fans will be waiting a while for the next official outing into Tamriel. “I wish they came out faster, I really do,” said Todd Howard, director at Bethesda. “We’re trying as hard as we can, but we want them to be as best as they can be for everybody.”

In other gaming news, Pokémon Sleep players are tricking the application into awarding them prizes for weeks upon weeks of sleep in a number of hours.

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