Monthly Modder: MysticMadman

There are a wide variety of available mods, with countless possible changes, for Skyrim.

MysticMadman (Bethesda.net, Nexus), an experienced veteran of modding Elder Scrolls games since Oblivion, can create in a single mod gameplay changes as varied as an entire new player character race, new followers and summonable creatures, as well as new locations, armor, and weapons. And not only that – he creates them with the console player in mind.

He did not get this skilled overnight, however, and in our Featured Modder Interview for this month, he walks us through his modding journey from the beginning in the Oblivion Construction Set, to what and who excites him in the community now that he has been able to translate his modding skills to professional work. From the power of creating a good follower mod, to his passion for deep lore and finding creativity in limitations in console modding, MysticMadman offers a lot of valuable insight for modders and fans of mods.

What initially brought you to modding and how did you develop your skills?

I first started modding Oblivion as a highschool student in the late 2000s. I remember feeling really curious to see how the Construction Set worked, once I realized what it was actually capable of. I remember discovering TESSource back then and seeing all the talented modders and their mods and being blown away. Maybe that's when the gears started turning for me. It still amazes me how anyone can change the game to their liking, and how anyone is free to learn how to create content of their own.

To learn the basics and hone my skills I watched a couple hundred YouTube tutorials and experimented with a lot of meticulous trial and error. However, once I learned how to backwards engineer the game from within the program it became even more fun to mod, as I could now look to Bethesda’s handiwork for inspiration and enhance my own mods after learning new tricks.

Your mods have such a depth to them in terms of complexity and lore. Do you look to challenge yourself with the scale of what you create?

Devs like Michael Kirkbride really raised the bar in terms of lore and worldbuilding, so I often look to lore books he wrote for inspiration. Lore books such as the Annotated Anuad, The 36 Sermons of Vivec, as well as out-of-game texts he wrote such as C0DA and Tatterdemalion: The Lunar Province of Secunda really inspire me to challenge myself creatively.
However, I have to say that most of my mods began as tiny changes I wanted to see in-game. If I’m lucky they tend to morph and evolve into living, breathing mods that I become proud of. For my most complex mods the end result is always something grand I would’ve never imagined initially.

You've created several mods containing followers. What is it about these types of mods you find most rewarding to create and see other players use?

Just as in real life, I think the company we keep is paramount to our own happiness and success. Creating mods with followers is great because it gives me an opportunity to increase the joy and immersion of whoever uses them. Like most of my mods, followers tend to evolve naturally over time. It’s kind of like creating an imaginary friend who gets to adventure with other people.

In addition to creating a variety of types of mods, you also make a point to release these mods to all platforms yourself. What is involved in that work, and why do you feel it is valuable to do?

The sheer amount of console players compared to PC players is huge, which means that there’s an insane amount of people on consoles looking for high quality mods designed with them in mind. It feels great providing mods to these people knowing that oftentimes they're exempt from some of the more complex mods.

When making a mod that works across all platforms, I make sure to only load the base game in the Creation Kit and remember to avoid making custom scripts. This often works great because I welcome the challenge, and sometimes the limitations actually help me think more creatively because I know exactly what I have to work with. I tend to playtest them on console immediately and pray to God that they work for others, too!

In what ways has modding best prepared you for professional projects?

In the past few years, I’ve become more connected to exceptionally talented people within The Elder Scrolls community, and learning how to collaborate with them has prepared me for working with the dev team I’m working with now.

Some talented people I’ve collaborated with for my mods include: IceFireWarden, founder of the Uutak Mythos, who helped by authoring quite a few lore books for me, as well as Thana Topsy, who helped by creating the digital artwork for one of my mods.

I’ve been incredibly fortunate to find an exciting new dev job recently, as many of the skills I learned in the Creation Kit have translated well to some of the dev programs I’ve been using with similar software. It’s surreal to think that a simple hobby I started all those years ago has led me to the opportunity to reach thousands of people and have a positive effect on their lives. I hope that people will continue to enjoy my Skyrim mods long after I’m gone and get to know me through them.

Lastly, do you have any favorite mods or mod authors you'd like to recommend?

There are so many wonderful people in the modding world so it's hard to name just a few. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know and some of them remain mysterious enigmas, but there are definitely a few modders who really stand out and inspire me to hone my skills: JaySerpa (Nexus), Ershin (Nexus), Xavbio (Nexus), and LokiWasTaken (Nexus).