"A handful of bottlenecks" remain for Morrowind remake mod Skywind, but it's still progressing steadily towards release

"The most difficult groundwork is already in place"

Skywind, the long-running modding project remaking Morrowind in Skyrim's engine, hasn't been without updates over the past couple of years, but you do have to go back to 2024 for the last in-depth breakdown its team put out about their progress towards release. While the project's still release dateless as of right now, the Skywind folks have just put out another showcase of where they're at, with good progress being made and numerous aspects nudging towards being totally finished.

Running department-by-department through everything from 2D art to voice acting, the video sees the Skywind team stick a completion percentage on each element of the mod. Most are very far along, up in the 70 to 90 range, though a couple like sound design and voice mastering lagging a little and a lot behind at 65% and 12% respectively. The latter's the only real outlier, with the devs explaining that team's recently "shifted to batch processing for non-major characters" and are working on streamlining their production under new leadership.

In terms of key story and worldbuilding aspects, all of the major base game writing's done, with the writers among a few team members already getting ready to work on Morrowind's Bloodmoon and Tribunal DLCs - the modders plan to add these via a post-launch update. All of the voice actors have been cast, while all of the base game quests have been finalised and are being implemented as locations are completed. In terms of building Vvardenfell itself, 10 of the 13 exterior regions are between 90 and 100% sorted, with a few stragglers needing more attention. These are the eastern coastal islands of Zafirbel Bay at 85%, the western ashlands at 60%, and Red Mountain itself at 40%. As with Oblivion remake mod Skyblivion's Imperial City, it seems the big tall tower in the middle that lots of story-critical stuff happens around will be last to get finishing touches.

Mechanics like the NPC character class system, the ability to disarm traps using probes when lockpicking, and underwater combat have all either been implemented or are coming along nicely.

"Across all departments, the most difficult groundwork is already in place, allowing more pieces of Skywind to move toward completion," the modders summarised. "In 2026, progress on the project remains steady, but a handful of bottlenecks still stand in our way." To help vault over those particular hurdles, the Skywind team are currently looking for volunteers to make 3D art for clothing, implement assets, mix voice line audio, program systems like NPC schedules, and QA test. If that sounds like something you fancy, head to the mod's website.

As I've mentioned previously, Skywind's probably at the top of the list for me at the moment in terms of big modding projects I'm keen to play. It's got potential to make a classic RPG with a story I dig, but mechanics I often find frustrating or clunky as a Skyrim baby much easier to appreciate and get properly lost in. Whenever it's done, I'll most likely be on the first boat to Seyda Neen.