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FromSoftware is the champion of asset reuse, and one modder believes its reign started a long time ago - since the entirety of Dark Souls' Blighttown is apparently made of just ten pieces of wood.
Modder Scott "Grimrukh" Mooney tweets, "Fun fact: the entirety of Blighttown, as far as I can tell, is built from scaled copy/pastes of these ten bits of wood." There are two planks, three sticks, and five panels. It's impressive work.
Blighttown is an infamous level in the original Dark Souls. It's a rickety series of shacks and pathways built into the steep cliffs above a deadly poison swamp. It is actually possible to find the back entrance and bypass most of it to get to the necessary boss at the bottom, but most of us have memories of dying repeatedly there. Either because we fell, got poisoned, or just got killed by all the enemies lying in ambush.
Fun fact: the entirety of Blighttown, as far as I can tell, is built from scaled copy/pastes of these ten bits of wood.(today's fun fact is brought to you from Grim's cave, where he is working on Nightfall almost every day and isn't allowed to leave until it's done) pic.twitter.com/uuMupMAtOUFebruary 26, 2025
Grimrukh discovered this while working on their Dark Souls: Nightfall mod. They also made the Dark Souls: Daughters of Ash mod which you can get on Nexus.
If you ever wonder why so many games are 100GB plus these days, it's because there's more storage available so developers don't have to use creative solutions like this to limit the number of assets in their games.
What's so genius about this type of asset reuse is how utterly unnoticeable it is. When I'm in Blighttown I'm not taking the time to inspect each individual piece of lumber, I'm running for my life trying not to fall to my death or get poisoned.
FromSoftware reuses a lot of material for its games, from animations to weapon designs to boss attacks. It's proof this method of game development can be done well, as us fans and critics alike love all the games the company makes. In an era where game development is taking longer than ever before and costing more than producing blockbuster films, FromSoftware is able to consistently put out banger games like Elden Ring Nightreign, and reusing wood is why.
While you're here, check out our ranking of the best FromSoftware games you can play right now.
