I don't know anything about the life cycle of game deveopment, but if it's going to be released in about a year, how far do you think they've got in development?

Is it likely that they've already got all the gameplay mechanics set in stone and this year will be just adding final touches to quests and graphics etc?

Considering they have a release date planned, I'd say they are nearly finished with the game.

They are pretty far if its only 11 months away. The storyline is probably done as for the rest I'm not sure I'll have to wait for that exclusive GI interview or something similar before I'll speculate.

Todd says they have a "lot to show".

They have been working on it for around 3-4 years now with a team of around 90 people (during Oblivion they had around 60 as far as I know). So it's pretty far along if I were to guess

what seti said. I would assume its been in production for a few years and now that they are in the final polishing stage they decided to tell us about it lol

Todd Howard confirmed back in August that it already has 2 years of full development. So it will be around three by the time it is released.

they are probably adding extra things, they have the bare bones like the main quest and the game engine and a lot of side quests cities and people, I would think they are 4/5 of the way done

I don't know much about the mechanics of game development, and what technical constraints there might be... But just based on the modular nature of TES games - you could complete massive portions of the game while leaving other bits untouched - it seems like BGS could still be designing quests, architecture, NPCs, and items, to flesh out the game. (I suspect that most parts of the MQ are fixed, and just little tweaks here and there are being made...) But that's a pretty uneducated hypothesis.

yeah they are pretty much done and why the long wait...well they probably completed all the major components but they have some major preparation to do and not to mention that certain dates are set by contracts for when the project is released...its just like any other project in the movie industry

Probably 75% or more. They have been working on it for quite awhile now.

Definitely almost finished. QC is probably beginning soon, and therefore, there's gonna be a lot of information soon by way of press release (though the 11/11/11 date im very skeptical of)

Like I said in another thread, based on the manner in which they announced it, they sound like they have a much better handle on where they are in development than they were with Oblivion. The release date they've given sounds more strategic than an actual expectancy. The game will probably be pretty much done well before that day arrives. Which means we're more likely to see a much more stable release.

Right now I'm guessing the engine (upgrade) is practically finished and they're focusing on content. I suppose they could just keep adding content up until the last minute if they wanted. As long as the engine is functioning properly, debugging and testing shouldn't be too difficult.

i guess i got so distracted by the fact that its confirmed that i did not pay attention to the release date

2+ years of full time work, 4+ years of whatever it is they do when working on another game. They trademarked "Skyrim" at the end of 2006 so, quite a while

Most likely already have game mechanics completed and are implementing content (locations, quests, etc).

they will be in crunch now, polishing, bug testing etc... so pretty much done with all core mechanics. with release in less than a year and going gold probably 8-9 months away they are strictly polishing and adding finishing touches plus stomping some bugs in RAID

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