So Many Virtual Books: Oblivion Book Jacket Mod

In my travels on The Elder Scrolls Oblivion Forum I recently found a post on a modder's work in progress to replace all of the 300+ in-game book jackets (that are a little ho-hum) with dynamic looking covers. This may at first seem like a frivolous mod, compared with mods that create new quests or fresh dungeons to crawl through.  Judging from the response in the forum from those following this project it is clear that this is far from true, as this has become an anticipated release within the Oblivion modding community.

The Oblivion Book Jacket mod was first announced on the forum at the end of April.  Since that time there have been hundreds of replies to the forum posts about this mod, with well over ten thousand viewings. The mod creator is Phoenix Amon, a thirty-something modder who has been active in the modding community for a while, having created a similar book mod for TES III: Morrowind. 

I was curious to find out more about her modding project, so I asked Phoenix a few questions about what the process has been like for her.  Here are the results:

Guilded Lily: How long have you been modding games, and TES games specifically?

Phoenix Amon: I honestly can't remember. It's been years. Most of what I've done has been for my own use because I have a bad habit of starting projects that are too big to finish. Book Jackets for Morrowind was the first large mod I released for any game. That started out as something for myself, and I didn't decide to release it until I was about 50% done and sure I could finish.

GL: Do you see this as a hobby, or do you work in the game industry or want to work in the game industry?

PA: Definitely a hobby. I don't have broad enough talents to work in the industry, and I think being trapped into someone else's concepts would bore me anyway. I've always enjoyed art but I'm not very good at it. Modding gives me a chance to be artistic in a small way.

GL: How much time do you spend modding, and do you enjoy it more than playing games?

PA: I spend more time modding than playing recently, but I enjoy both a lot. I wouldn't have bought Oblivion if it hadn't been moddable, but that's because I knew from experience that I don't like a lot of Bethesda's game design choices. It's not a deciding factor for all games.

GL: What got you interested in making mods for Morrowind/Oblivion?

PA: Seeing what other people were doing. I'd find 4 mods that each had something that I liked and some other things that I didn't, so I started trying to put together all my favorite parts. Then I got caught up in the "playing with legos" aspect of it. Making 3D art is fun, but it's more fun when you can feel you're walking through a house you built yourself.

GL: You are about halfway completed on the book jacket mod - do you have a sense of when you will release it?

PA: It'll be at least a month, could be 2. After I finish the graphics I'll still need to do some polishing. And 2 very kind guys are working on proofreading all of the game books for me, so I'll need to re-import some of the text. There are a lot of spelling and grammar errors in the books and my mod will not be compatible with any other mod that corrects them, so I want to combine those features.

GL: Do you think that as a woman you approach modding any differently than your male counterparts? Do you see modding as a way to make games more enjoyable to play as a woman?

PA: I think women are people-pleasers more often than men. That's a bug in my system, at any rate. So in this case where I made the mistake of announcing what I was up to so far in advance, I'm going to be including a bunch of alternate designs to try to please a wider audience. That's not unique to being a woman, but probably somewhat more common.

I don't think there's any type of mod that universally appeals to women rather than men, but there are probably some types that fill gaps more often noticed by women. For instance I think when NPCs in a game lack any form of personality, women will be more likely than men to be bothered by it. Mostly, though, I think mods make games more fun for individuals by allowing them to tailor their own experience.

GL: Do you find that male modders on the forums are surprised when they learn you are female?

PA: Sometimes yes, particularly in the gaming communities where I've been more on the technical than the artistic end. But it surprises me when they're surprised because I'm always aware of lots more women doing the same types of things.

I enjoy sharing what I've learned, and a lot of times where I do the teacher routine and then people find out I'm a women their response is, "So that explains the patience!" Which it doesn't; I'm not patient, I'm greedy. I want what they are going to be able to create after they learn how to use the tools. ;-)

GL: Do you have any suggestions for modders just getting started with the Oblivion CS?

PA: Download other mods that do different things and pull them apart to see what they're made of. Like everything else, it's easiest to learn by breaking something. ;-)

GL: Is there anything specific you would like to say about your mod or modding Oblivion in general?

PA: Hm, freeform… um… About my mod I'd like to thank everyone who's taken the time to make comments more thoughtful than "That's awesome, dude!" It's hard to find people on the net to give an honest critique on a work in progress or finished project. Sometimes I don't agree with people's comments and sometimes I don't have the talent to incorporate them, but I really appreciate getting thoughtful feedback in all cases.

About modding for Oblivion, I'd like to encourage people to keep making small changes. It doesn't have to be grand in scope to be a great mod.

Thanks very much to Phoenix for taking time away from working on the book jacket mod to answer my questions.  I know I am not alone in anticipating the release of this Oblivion mod, and will post links on the GL blog once it is available for downloading.

Until then you can follow the development of this project on the Elder Scrolls forum with the current thread HERE, with previous forum threads HERE, HERE and HERE.

You can view all of image files Phoenix has posted to the forum at her PhotoBucket album HERE.

UPDATE 7/15/06: The Oblivion Book Jacket mod is now available - read more HERE.

Comments

[NeoApocalypse]

Those are really beautiful book covers. I think though that the time to make so many different textures isn't the only reason they didn't ship the game with that kind of variety. Texture sharing cuts down on the number of textures in ram and space on hard drive. I have the 360 version of Oblivion. I can't imagine how Oblivion would run with all these different mods installed.

[Marc]

Those are beautiful! I'd love to run the mod (I'm not certain I have the power for it) and see how my Skingrad home and Wizard's Tower look--I've been collecting the one-of-a-kind books, myself!

[Rob Burke]

That's unbelievable. Truly a labor of love. Compliments to Phoenix on such beautiful work, and thanks for the interview.

[Phoenix Amon]

Thank you for the article. This was really fun for me. :)

I agree with NeoApocalypse about why Beth didn't include something like this in the shipping game. I don't know how something like this would run on an XBox360 and I wouldn't add any graphics mods to the game if I were running at close to minimum PC specs either.

My comment on Beth's design choices was more about game mechanics... I love their game ideas, but don't find the games challenging enough. Their original book graphics are actually very nice.

[bloo]

Can I get the first one with the star pattern on a real world, blank book? :)

[Guilded Lily]

NeoApocalypse & Marc - I believe there are utilities available on the forum that can combine multiple mods into one file (as long as there aren't design conflicts) which help address the issue of files sizes for mods. But as Phoenix says, it is a good idea to be running the game on more than the minimum requirements if you want to add mods to Oblivion. - Guilded Lily

[Guilded Lily]

Bloo -

I agree! Can't you see it? The book bound in midnight blue full Moroccan leather, with a crisp deep silver embossing of the design - thick cream colored pages on the inside - maybe with a silver ribbon marker and hand-sewn headbands. Oh, and don't forget the marbled endpapers: dark blue and maroon, with flecks of silver in the swirls! - GL

[NoodleBandit]

Gorgeous, granted I don't play the game but I can appreciate art and that more personal touch in games.

Kudos to Phoenix Amon.

[Unclever title]

Though I would never have the patience, perhaps even the skill, to make mods about the look of books, I
do appreciate your work here, the standard books in the game resemble crayons moreclosely than books.

Though I'm not sure how difficult it would be, I would suggest titles on the fronts and sides of the books where they don't exist.

Maybe not all of them, but at least some.

Keep up the good quality work!