Skyrim's creepiest Dark Brotherhood moment had a lot of trickery behind the scenes

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A Skyrim developer has finally revealed how Whispers in the Dark was pulled off

Skyrim
(Image credit: Bethesda)

One of Skyrim's most haunting scenes was actually an incredibly clever game of smoke and mirrors from a developer.

On November 21, veteran Bethesda developer (and current Starfield lead) Emil Pagliarulo took to Twitter to join in on game dev "confessions." As for the former Skyrim developer, Pagliarulo revealed when the player is locked in the Night Mother's coffin in the Whispers in the Dark quest, they're actually still out in the wider room.

Pagliarulo writes that because he couldn't get the player to fit into the Night Mother's coffin, and the animation team was too busy to help out, he had to come up with a workaround. The player needed to be in the Night Mother's coffin, so they come face to face with the imposing character when the Night Mother whispers to the player.

The workaround is very clever: take control away from the player, lock them in the first-person perspective, and cut the lights, making it seem like they were in the coffin all along. Then, press them up against the Night Mother so as to make the player think they're trapped in the coffin, for the big reveal of having the Night Mother speak to them.

In terms of game dev "confessions," this has to be up there with the most creative of them. This trend all came about from Twitter's decline, and so believing that the social media platform could cease to exist at any moment, game developers around the world are humorously joining in to share their secrets. Some highlights so far include 15 seconds of jiggle physics being cut from The Witcher 3, and Dishonored nearly shipping with a sign made in Microsoft Paint.

Meanwhile for Bethesda, Starfield is still on track to ship at some point next year in 2023, after being delayed out of launching earlier this month in November. 

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.