Sam Wilkinson, Bandai Namco: First off, please tell me when and how development forElden Ring took off.
Hidetaka Miyazaki, Game Director: Development for Elden Ring started just after development for the Dark Souls 3 DLC had ended. At the time, Elden Ring was being planned as a more classic fantasy title compared to others that were either being considered or already in the early stages of development.
We wanted to create a new dark fantasy action RPG full of things that we weren’t able to do in the Dark Souls series.
Wilkinson: Elden Ring seems to have been in development at the same time as Sekiro. How did you go about its development?
Miyazaki: The overall process of development has been the same as it was in Sekiro.
While assigning co-directors to each project, I took direction over the various game design, art and musical aspects of the titles.
We tend to space out the development-peak for our projects to make use of what little time we have, however being able to share a vision with the co-directors as well as the development staff has allowed us to build a trusting relationship which makes this kind of development style possible. I am incredibly grateful for them and their hard work.
Of course, this project still has a load of work ahead of it as well (laughter).