Author George R. R. Martin has revealed that he finished his work on FromSoftware’s Elden Ring “years ago.”
Speaking to WTTW news, Martin revealed that he was involved in the early development phase when he was approached to create a world for Elden Ring to be set in. He crafted a “fairly detailed background” for the developer, which involved work on characters, plot, and setting. It’s been a few years since Martin last worked with Elden Ring‘s development team, but both parties have remained in touch.
He said:
These games, they’re like movies, they take a long time to develop. Basically, they wanted a world created to set the game in. World building is a big factor in fantasy and science fiction. You’re not only talking characters and the plot, but the setting is almost as important as everything else: Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, Robert E. Howard’s Hyborian Age, the foundation universe of Isaac Asimov.
I worked up a fairly detailed background for them and then they took it from there. So really it’s been several years since I last seen them but they would come and periodically show me some monsters they’d designed or the latest special effects, or [other] cool things.
The game has been slowly developing and now it’s coming out in January, I believe, so I’ll be as excited as anybody else to see it.
After a lengthy wait, Elden Ring will release on January 21, 2022 (barring unforeseen delays) for the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, and PC.