When news of the next Skyrim DLC was released it was pretty much assured that you were all watering at your mouths…except PS3 users anyway…Regardless the rest of you plowed through the Dawnguard DLC and were thirsting for more. In comes Hearthfire, the DLC that gives you the ability to craft your own house and make that house a home for your family. Just like in Fable III you can adopt children as well, hopefully they won’t take too much fun out of the game.

In a developer diary over at Bethesda, lead designer Bruce Nesmith talks about how he was inspired by Mojang’s hit success when he created Hearthfire.

Being a fan of [Minecraft], I asked, ‘Why can’t I build things in our game?

That was all she wrote.

The Skyrim game jam was the actual birthplace of this DLC. Hearthfire started as just being able to build your own cabin and turned into so much more. One such thing that came out of it was the idea of adoption. Steve Cornett, the level designer, was feeling the orphanage in Riften needed some more screen time.

The idea of adoption came to me after the Dark Brotherhood questline was presented,” Cornett recalled. “After first seeing the [Innocence Lost] questline, I asked, ‘what happens to the kids? What happens to the orphanage after the quest is completed?

This DLC seems like it will truly be an improvement on other attempts at building and owning a house such as in Morrowind where nothing really ever happened to your little town. Hopefully Bethesda will continue to expand on Hearthfire and make it so much more amazing.

Source: Bethesda Developer Diary