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Thomas Brush22 Oct 2021

I made Skyrim... BUT IT'S 2D

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
Visual depth in a 2D side-scrolling format is achieved through layered illustration, parallax scrolling, and the strategic use of foreground elements like moss or stones.
02
To maintain visual fidelity, the project utilized a 4K canvas and color palettes sampled directly from the original Skyrim assets.
03
Adapting 3D open-world titles to 2D requires significant creative liberty and technical simplification, as demonstrated by a seven-day development project using Unity and Photoshop.
04
Technical implementation relied on Unity’s Mecanim Animator for environmental movement to avoid complex coding, while pre-rendered movie files were used to bypass side-scrolling limitations for narrative sequences.
05
The project serves as a proof-of-concept for core mechanics including dialogue systems, item collection, and breakable objects.
06
The disparity between this independent project and the original Skyrim production highlights the massive scale difference between a solo developer and a 100-person team with a $100 million budget.

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Transcript

Hey, you. You're finally awake. Did you know Skyrim was originally a Super Nintendo game released in 1995? Me neither. That's because it wasn't. What you're looking at now is my best attempt at recreating Skyrim as a 2D adventure game in just 7 days. Be sure to stick around to the end of the video to watch the final playthrough of Super Skyrim. And by the way, it would mean the world to me if you did consider liking, subscribing for more 2D remakes, and even sharing this video on Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit if you find it interesting. [Music] for you guys. I posted a poll and kind of to my horror, most of you wanted to see Skyrim recreated in 2D. I say horror because Skyrim is massive and complex, and even the intro sequence

itself is incredibly intricate. And it's actually kind of baffling that Todd Howard and the team at Bethesda not only created this massive Elder Scrolls world, but that they did it from scratch. We kind of started fresh, rewrote the renderer, shadows, AI interface as opposed to just repurposing the previous games. [Music] Now, in order to Oh gosh. in order to recreate this introduction finally awake. Obviously, we got to create our protagonist. Who are you? Because the camera is pretty far away from the character, this design can be pretty simplistic with just peasants dirty tunic. But this is not a dress is in fact a tunic. Very big difference. And anything more complicated is just going to look strange in a 2D game.

All right, so this is where the fun begins. I spent the majority of my time on this project illustrating the Skyrim world in Photoshop. And I started with just a 3840 x 2160 canvas, which is 4K. And I took the exact colors from the screenshots from the intro sequence of the game. And I just started with basic shapes and filled in those basic shapes with the colors from the screenshots, getting more and more saturated and detailed as the shapes come closer and closer to the camera. Quick Bob Ross tip. If you want to look like a genius, simply make objects slowly blend into the background. you'll create a ton of depth and your 2D art is going to look kind of like a photograph. Now, the foggy, drab colors of the actual 3D game, they just weren't cutting it for me in 2D. So, I increased the contrast and the saturation of the entire scene. And I made sure that the huts were almost identical to the original game. And I also spent a good amount of time, 3 hours, on the horse and the carriage.

Now, believe it or not, even though I pride myself in being a professional 2D developer and illustrator, lately I've been using something called Noun Project. This is a plugin for Photoshop. I just type in horse and I illustrate this logo that I download and I make it more detailed. I then recreated the characters in the carriage, Roloff and Lir and the others. I need a haircut. Next up was illustrating the interiors of Helgen Keep. Interiors are a real pain in 2D. That's because it's difficult to achieve a lot of depth when the camera is pointed directly at a flat wall. Just like a novel being made into a movie, a lot of liberty needs to be taken to achieve the desired results. going from 3D to 2D. I

created large windows that framed large exterior mountains, creating that depth. Similar to Hollow Knight, I also created some dark foreground elements like moss and stones. I replicated the cages mounted on the ground and hanging from the ceiling. And I also replicated the candles and the torches from the original game. I did procrastinate for a couple days after this because honestly I didn't want to take these illustrations and bring them into Unity and actually make a game. But ultimately I buckled down and I began animating with the help of my super simple 2D game kit which is totally free by the way. Click below. I was able to get beautiful parallax environments, fog, god rays, and a rumbling carriage riding down the hill. Now, obviously, this could be coded, but I was lazy and simply animated everything using Unity's Mechanimm Animator. This actually turned out pretty great, so I'm not too worried that this wasn't coded. I stole the dialogue. Do you know the ancient Nord for war? In Jeremy Soul's breathtaking music from

the actual intro sequence using Audacity, which is a free audio editor, and voila, the intro sequence was completed. You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush. Next step, I was going to somehow recreate the entire execution sequence. I mean, how hard could this be? There's just a bunch of characters talking to each other, a dismount sequence, several character animation sequences, and a massive dragon attack. Yeah, I'm not going to do that. Mainly because I'm lazy, but also because this is going to be difficult to show in a sidescrolling environment. And typically 2D games like Hollow Knight or Cuphead are going to utilize a cutscene sequence. So, what I did for the execution sequence is I basically just took cutouts and screenshots from the actual game, added a tune filter to them, painted over them, made them look like a 2D illustration, and exported them as a movie. And believe it or not, inside of Unity, you can actually take a movie file and just show it as a cut scene. I did this with Neverong, which

is my second commercial release. Finally, I finished up the game by creating a dialogue sequence in Helgen Keep. some running humanoid creatures, breakable boxes, coins, and finally a collectible item. This was all quickly created because I basically have this core structure already prepared with my super simple 2D game kit. Again, link in the description, totally free. Ultimately, I kind of hated this project. Honestly, it was a ton of work. And I'm unsurprised by this considering the budget for Skyrim was $100 million and it had about 100 team members. That could buy you like 114,000 blades of woe in Skyrim. Okay, let's play Super Skyrim. Hey, you are finally awake. You were trying to cross the border,

right? walked right into that Imperial ambush. Same as us and that thief over there. You Stormcloaks. Skyrim was fine until you came along. Empire was nice and lazy. If they hadn't been looking for you, could have stolen that horse and been halfway to Hammerfell. You there, you and me. We shouldn't be here. It's the Stormcloaks the Empire wants. We're all brothers and sisters in binds now. Prisoners out of the guards. Move it. Why are we stopping? Why do you think? End of the line. No, wait. We're not rebels. Face your death with some courage beef. Next prisoner to the block. Prisoner. Nice and easy. What in oblivion is that? entrance. What do you see?

[Music] [Applause] [Music] Take a look around. There should be plenty of gear to choose from. You better get some gear. You better get some gear. You better get some gear. You better.

You better get some gear. Thanks so much for watching, guys, and please leave a like if you felt like I did a good job here. And be sure to subscribe for more videos like this. And let me know below in the comments a game you'd like me to recreate. And as always, feel free to download my free 2D game kit below. It's my treat to you. Cheers. This is the itchiest chain

Summary

Recreating the complex, three-dimensional world of Skyrim as a two-dimensional side-scrolling adventure requires significant artistic adaptation and technical simplification. The project demonstrates that translating a massive open-world RPG into a 2D format necessitates prioritizing visual depth through layered illustration, parallax scrolling, and the strategic use of cutscenes to bypass the limitations of side-scrolling mechanics. By utilizing a 4K canvas and color palettes sampled directly from the original game, the developer emphasizes the importance of contrast and saturation to maintain visual fidelity while adapting to a flat perspective.

The development process relies on a seven-day timeline, utilizing Photoshop for asset creation and the Unity game engine for implementation. Key technical strategies include using Unity’s Mecanim Animator for environmental movement rather than complex coding, and integrating pre-rendered movie files for intricate narrative sequences like the execution scene. The project highlights the inherent difficulty of converting 3D interiors into 2D, where framing devices such as windows and foreground elements like moss or stones are essential to simulate depth.

The final product serves as a proof-of-concept for 2D game design, incorporating core mechanics such as dialogue systems, breakable objects, and item collection. The experience underscores the massive disparity between independent development and the original production, which involved a team of 100 people and a $100 million budget. Ultimately, the project illustrates that while 2D remakes of complex 3D titles are feasible through modular game kits and artistic shortcuts, they remain labor-intensive endeavors that require significant creative liberty to successfully capture the essence of the source material.