Elden Ring concept art has surfaced from an artist who worked in the trailer for FromSoftware's upcoming game.
Gabriel Björk Stiernström uploaded a lengthy ArtStation post yesterday on January 14, giving users a look at a litany of original art pieces that he put together when contracted to work on Elden Ring's reveal in 2019. You can see one such art post from Stiernström just below, exploring what the visual effects would look like in the section of the trailer where a character uses a hammer to smith an item.
Over on the Elden Ring subreddit, Stiernström put together a lengthy post explaining the concept art. "This was my first project at Digic Pictures and I made these concepts two years ago, back in January 2019," the artist explains. "I had no idea what I was working on; the only information I knew was that FromSoftware was the client. I first learned about the project and the title when everyone else did at the E3 reveal. So I hope that explains how little I actually know about the game."
"Most of these were made for internal discussion at Digic Pictures between the Art Director, Director, Producer and Leads," Stiernström continues. "When they were happy with something they would then share those concepts with the client. In the end FromSoftware would more or less provide us with most of the concept art in any case."
The artist then goes on to explain that while users are free to read into the concept art as much as they please, he unfortunately has no knowledge about the actual FromSoftware game itself. It's probably a good thing that Stiernström put that disclaimer at the end of the lengthy post, as the Elden Ring community are especially desperate for news on the game, since there's been very little said about it in an official capacity since it was revealed in 2019.
For reference, you can see the full Elden Ring reveal trailer just below, which debuted during E3 2019. This is the only information we have to go on about the game so far, and as you can see in the trailer, it's revealed that Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin is collaborating with FromSoftware in creating the world and lore of the game.
Ultimately, we still have no idea when Elden Ring will release, or what it's even about, for that matter. We'll have to keep on waiting for more information from developer FromSoftware, and it's not hard to imagine the COVID-19 pandemic having played some role in the game being MIA since 2019.
For a complete list of all the games that could possibly be releasing at some point this year, head over to our new games 2021 guide for more.
