George R.R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones' literary counterpart, expanded upon his involvement on Elden Ring, mentioning that he had completed working on it years ago.
In an interview with local news station WWTW while visiting Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Martin said that working on a video game was "considerably different" from working on fantasy literature. "My work on it was actually done years ago," said Martin. "These games, they're like movies -- they take a long time to develop." He mentioned not being much of a gamer himself, which contributed to the different experience, as well as what FromSoftware (Elden Ring's developer, along with other popular titles like Dark Souls and Bloodborne) expected from Martin.
"Basically they wanted a world created to set the game in," Martin continued. "They wanted world-building," which Martin calls a big factor in the fantasy and science-fiction genres. He references not only the characters and the plot but how pivotal the setting is in the work. He cites J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth from Lord of the Rings, Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age and the universe of Isaac Asimov. "I worked up a fairly detailed background for them and they took it from there, so really it's been several years since I've last seen them, but they would come in periodically and show me some monsters they designed or the latest special effects or other cool things."
It's unclear to what extent Martin was involved in Elden Ring's world-building -- whether he only worked on the characters, setting and lore or if "world-building" signifies a larger part in scriptwriting and narrative design. However, FromSoftware referring designs and effects to Martin could signify the company's desire to utilize the author as an ongoing creative reference, given Elden Ring's size and Martin's initial work in constructing the game's world.
Additionally, Martin mentions that the game is a "sequel" to Dark Souls, which has caused some confusion among fans given the impression that Elden Ring would be a standalone game and not related to the Dark Souls universe. The reference could simply be attributed to Martin's aforementioned lack of video game knowledge, however, and FromSoftware's other familiar work and Elden Ring's proximity to those titles. Nonetheless, Martin is "excited as anyone else" to see it.
Elden Ring is developed by FromSoftware and will be published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game launches on PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S|X on January 21, 2022.
Source: Twitter
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