The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is an action-adventure role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game, as the fifth installment in the Elder Scrolls franchise. The main narrative depicts that the Dragonborn, namely, the player’s role, on their journey to defeat Alduin the World-Eater, a dragon who is prophesied to devastate the ancient world . The game highlights the open world setting with a grand quest system and highly developed branching plotlines to create a significant sense of immersion and freedom of exploration in Skyrim.
However, the original opening of it is boring with slow pacing and unskippable cutscenes, which doesn’t present the spectacular experience that the game could offer to the players. Besides, other storytelling elements are not used intelligently, including camera, lighting, dialogues, audio, etc.
Nevertheless, a good opener should be a pitch for an entire experience, so I intend to create a brand-new one that will convey the vibe and tone of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. There are a few elements that I would like to consider and incorporate as follows:
1. 3 perspectives - narrative, mechanics, spectacles
2. the eye-catching open world
3. the mystery of the player’s character
4. a basic tutorial/mechanic for newbies
5. the decision-based quest system
6. a proximate10-min opening with an appropriate pacing/pattern
7. other storytelling elements – visual (scenarios, camera, lighting) and audio (music, sound, dialogues, voiceover) etc.
Sequence 1 – The Essence of Skyrim
Map of The Empire of Tamriel
The starting point is a documentary narrator (via voiceover and subtitles) who states the back story of the current status of the Tamriel Empire and the implication of Skyrim as a conflict centre by showing the map below. While the map is fading on the screen, the narrator continues to talk about travellers’ intentions (why they come to this land). Meanwhile, the protagonist is sailing on the Sea of Ghosts near the north of Skyrim, with a bright and spectacular view. (Time length: 1 min)
The Sea of Ghosts
The player sits on a boat and looks at the picturesque landscape with a symphonic BGM, then crosses under the Solitude Archway. The bright lighting here shows the positive force brought by the player, meaning hope for the world. (Time length: 1 min)
Solitude Archway
When the player is approaching the land, they see a dragon attacking the harbour and run into the fight. There are navigation tutorials here to educate players to control the avatar, such as navigating, running, jumping, and turning/switching camera views. Once the avatar encounters the dragon, he/she casts fancy spells/abilities and uses powerful weapons to fight with the enemy, with a QTE style of tutorials in order not to interrupt the game flow. The sky becomes darker and darker to show the evil of the boss. At this critical moment, the player releases a lethal move with fantastic visual effects, but all of a sudden, the player blacks out, being attacked by something or somebody else. The whole sequence prophesies the final destiny of players. (Time length: 2 mins)
Darkness Falls
Sequence 2 – The Helgen Keep
Unexpectedly, the player wakes up in Helgen Keep and realizes that he/she does not have any memory from the previous dragon fight and does not understand why he/she was capable of defeating a dragon. By applying the technique of in medias res, the previous sequence is a non-linear event happening in the intro, whose purpose is to surprise the players. Besides, the Helgen scene circles back to the storyline in the official opener (the released version of the game).
One prisoner walks toward an officer and reports his name before being executed. One of the officers announces his crimes (rebellions) while the first NPC is beheaded. Afterwards, another NPC steps ahead and says his name as Ulfric Stormcloak and the officer is facing and asking the player’s name, at which point, the player starts creating his/her in-game profile, the character creation process. Simple dialogue and serious BGM are employed here to enhance the tension between the officers and the prisoners. (Time length: 1 min)
Sequence 3 – The Dragon Slayer/Dragonborn
The player’s character kneels in front of a beheading stand. Shockingly, a dragon appears and attacks the people in the keep. The camera focuses on the player’s vision of a killer, the keep and the flying dragon. Swiftly, people begin running away. Ulfric Stormcloak shouts at the protagonist and asks the player to follow him for escape. With Ulfric’s help, the player learns how to climb and equip weapons/gears inside the keep (another tutorial). On the top of the keep, players can see the bird’s eye view of Helgen, where the dragon is close enough to be shot. The player must shoot arrows at the obstacle because it blocks their way. After the dragon is hurt, the player falls to the ground. (Time length: 2 min)
Ulfric Stormcloak
The Dragon & The Killer
Helgen Keep
On the floor, the player and other people are fighting with the dragon together, but only our protagonist is able to hurt the hazard. After a few rounds of running, avoiding and attacking, the dragon is killed by the player, and then a spiritual thing is absorbed into the player’s body. Ulfric tells the player the mystery of a Dragonborn and lets the player to meet him in Riverwood village (or meet other people based on a decision that the player made), so there is a choice-based interactive dialogue with Ulfric, who is proven to be a leader of a major rebelling force in the empire era during the gameplay later. (Time length: 3 min)
The background music and sound effects during the fight are inspiring and exciting, so the player can enjoy the intensive battle and obtain positive feedback from their attack. The lighting is still set in a bright tone, and as time goes by, the scene becomes brighter, which indicates feelings of hope and victory.
Intentions Behind Scenes
Overall, the camera view follows the player’s vision to show the broadness of the open world setting, including landscapes, cities, and communities. The main plotline will be decided by the choices made in dialogues and quests. One major sidekick character is presented in the opening to show his significance and to build their connections for future quests.
In addition, production credits are posted on some quiet screens, for example, the map, the sailing, transitions, the blackout, the top of the keep, etc. This new opener applies the pattern from action movies through a couple of rises and rests. Also, the nature of games – interactivity is embedded with calculated pacing. The possibilities of exploration, decision-making, and activities/fights are pitched as the core game experience that people expect.
Among these, one key component is the fragmented tutorials scattered during playing, which will not bore players and interrupt the game flow. Moreover, the appearance of Ulfric Stormcloak is used as a mentor and a friend in the opener, leading the player to understand the virtual world from a living person’s perspective in Skyrim. Furthermore, the NPC, dragon and the mysterious Dragonborn work assembly as an initial setup in the game and all of the settings will be paid off in the future.
In conclusion, I re-design this opener for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which is a fascinating open-world RPG game that could provide a memorable experience for explorers, one classical gamer type from Bartle’s theory. And more, story-based video games require good openings to make people desire to stay longer in an incredible world.
References
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on Steam - https://store.steampowered.com/app/489830/The_Elder_Scrolls_V_Skyrim_Special_Edition/
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_V:_Skyrim
Map of The Empire of Tamriel - https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Sea_of_Ghosts
The Sea of Ghost - https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrim/comments/6ucnnt/the_sea_of_ghosts/
Solitude Archway - https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/images/13400
The Sea of Ghost - https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Sea_of_Ghosts
Helgen Keep - https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Helgen
Ulfric Stormcloak - https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Ulfric_Stormcloak_(Skyrim)
The 1st dragon that players slayed in Skyrim - https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Unbound
Helgen Keep - https://www.ign.com/wikis/the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim/Helgen
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