"elden ring" began development in early 2017 following the release of "dark souls iii" final downloadable content, "the ringed city". as with the "dark souls" games that miyazaki had previously directed, "elden ring" will be themed around dark fantasy, and have the ability for players to create their own custom characters instead of playing as a fixed protagonist. miyazaki also considered "elden ring" to be a more "natural evolution" to the "dark souls" series, as the game will be much larger in scale compared to them, featuring an open world with new gameplay mechanics such as horseback riding and combat. however, unlike many other open world games, "elden ring" will not feature populated towns with many non-playable characters, with the world having numerous dungeon-like ruins in place of them instead. when asked about the possibility of the story being novelized, miyazaki stated that he would rather have players experience it themselves by playing the game, as he thinks that the game's secrets and mysteries would be spoiled otherwise.