Harthstone Isles: Faadgolt Isle (2022-23)

Island I made for Harthstone Isles project using Bethesda's Creation Kit.

Information

Island was made for the Harthstone Isles project. Which has been released on the Nexus. Harthstone Isles is a project from the Arcane University, which is a discord group lead by experienced Skyrim modders that teach people interested in modding. This project is a 6 month project for students to work on, from level design, 3d modelling, animation, to voice acting each person contributes something to the project. I worked on Exterior Level Design and was assigned the island of Faadgolt to complete, there were 5 islands total, and my island ended up being the largest looking only at physical size.

Level design had ~10 weeks to complete their claim. I was able to finish mine before the deadline with a couple weeks buffer. This was my second ever exterior landscape I had worked on in the Creation Kit and I had to learn how to do a lot of things for the first time on this project.

I had to communicate with other team members and refer to design documents detailing the island, the area around it, and information about the Nordic Ruin it contained. I mainly had to communicate with the interior Level Design member who worked on the interior of the dungeon on the island. We had to coordinate how the entrance was, and where the exit popped out.

The most challenging part of this project was the NavMesh, since the Creation Kit for Skyrim does not have a good auto-generate feature its easier to do it by hand. This is what took the majority of the time making the island since it was my first time doing NavMesh and manual navmesh is tedium hell.

My favourite parts to level design were my own two mini "exterior with interior" dungeons both of which involved a bit of minor trigger setup to result in a surprise enemy appearance that I think adds a lot to the enjoyment of the exploration of my island. One of them is the tower you see connected to the main ruin by bridge and the other is the 5th(?) image from bottom with text saying "Hi! I'm what I am. :0". While I love just level designing I like to control the player's interaction in that level just as much so having easy ways to do that in engine is great.

Mod Description (From Nexus Mods Page)

"Some ways off the icy fields of Winterhold, in the Sea of Ghosts, lie the

Harthstone Isles..."

"This small archipelago might've remained undiscovered for all time, if the East Empire Company hadn't stumbled over it when a drunk captain took a wrong turn starboard on their way to Roscrea. Whilst humble in size, this spa-to-be is home to a small community of unique individuals (for better or worse) and is a shining beacon of Imperial expansion that doesn't butt heads with Solitude."

"Harthstone Isles is a short term modding project developed by the students of the Arcane University, as an opportunity for students to collaborate across departments and experience mod development in a structured learning environment, while receiving in-depth feedback and creating work to a higher standard."

"To start your journey to the Harthstone Isles, you will need to come upon two familiar figures in the hotsprings of The Volcanic Tundra, near Kynesgrove - or alternatively make your way directly to the Windhelm docks."