The in-developmentGarden of Eyesoverhaul mod aims to change howElden Ringis played at its very core. The project has amassed a large following amongElden Ringfans, and Game Rant recently had the opportunity to speak with the lead developer behind Garden of Eyes to talk about the mod’s development.The Garden of Eyes overhaul seeks to enhance thetraditionalElden Ringexperienceby adding and reworking a variety of weapons, armor sets, mounts, and bosses, as well as a number of more ambitious changes, which will all be available to download for free once the mod is complete. Its lead developer had much to say about the work that goes into this expansive project.The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.RELATED:10 Elden Ring Mods You Need to TryQ: Can you tell us a little bit about who you are and what this project is?Garden of Eyes: Sure! I go by Garden of Eyes. I have a YouTube channel where we started uploading Boss versus Boss videos for Bloodborne, and then we started moving into modding other games like Dark Souls 3 and later Elden Ring. Creating new weapons, adding new mechanics, creating new armor, creating new bosses, all of that stuff. And right now we’re working on a lot of projects. The main project that we’re working on is theGarden of Eyes Overhaul Mod, which adds new weapons, armor, bosses, areas, levels, and even a lot of mechanics like dynamic progression and dynamic difficulty, and all of that.
Q: The name Garden of Eyes comes from Bloodborne - you said you got your start modding Bloodborne first and then moved to other FromSoft games?
Garden of Eyes: Yeah, so The Garden of Eyes is the name of one of the enemies that you find in one of the areas in Bloodborne. We were looking for a channel name and we just found this and were like, okay, this creature looks cool, and the name is cool. So yeah, we’re just going to name it Garden of Eyes.
Q: Speaking of Bloodborne specifically - your mod includes many features from that game in particular, including trick weapons and gun parrying and even some gear and visual elements. What design aspects of Bloodborne specifically kind of stood out to you guys, and how did they relate to this Overhaul mod?
Garden of Eyes:People are crazy about Bloodborne.At every gaming event that happens, people want either a Bloodborne remake or Bloodborne 2. There’s a special place for Bloodborne in the hearts of all soulslike fans. So we wanted to bring some of those elements to Elden Ring in a way that will sort of add to the gameplay and add more variety to it. So as you mentioned, we added stuff like gun parrying, but we also modified it to fit within Elden Rings mechanics. So for example, let’s say Radagon, when you parry, you need 2 or 3 parries to actually be able to riposte him. So we made it so you have to gun-parry him three times in order to get that riposte animation. It’s not just that we copy and pasted the mechanic, we also adapted it toElden Ring’s gameplay mechanics for trick weapons.
Also, we createdtrick weapons that are themed around Elden Ring. We like the concept of having two weapons in one because it provides a unique opportunity for variety and creativity. For instance, one of the weapons we have is a dagger that transforms into a pickaxe. We also made a greatsword that transforms into two katanas that you can separate. It allows for a lot more variety in terms of the move sets, and new opportunities for creative design and build diversity.
In terms of bosses - take Oedon for example - he was a boss from Bloodborne who didn’t necessarily have a lot of lore. So what we did is basically we created completely new lore for him that he’s actually an outer god in the Elden Ring universe and created some, let’s say, influence between both the Bloodborne world and the Elden Ring world. That allowed us to play with a lot of ideas, like adding some stuff about the Old Blood from Bloodborne that’s sort of corrupting a certain area in the Lands Between. We didn’t want it to break the reality of Elden Ring, so we took a lot of care to bridge the lore of Bloodborne and Elden Ring to make things fit. That’s very exciting because it allows us to be very creative in how we can link things together.
Q: You’ve talked about adapting content from other games but still making it fit in Elden Ring. What considerations do you make to keep this content in line with the artistic, lore, and design guidelines of Elden Ring?
Garden of Eyes: We consider that not only for Bloodborne but for everything we create. With the weapons, we make sure they all fit a certain, let’s say, faction of Elden Ring. As an example, say we’re making a new Godskin weapon. What we do is analyze all the things related to theGodskins in terms of design, patterns or ornaments, decorations, all of that stuff. And then we try to iterate on it creatively because we never want to just copy.
We keep that consideration, this is the base that we have for this certain faction, and then we go into our designs. Sometimes we do completely new weapons that create a completely new story of a faction that doesn’t exist. Or we do things that build upon the lore of the original game, but expand upon it in a way that hasn’t been done before.
Q: A significant aspect of this mod is overhauling Elden ring weapons and mechanics for clarity, polish, and even spectacle. Can you talk about your process for implementing these improvements, like analyzing a weapon, seeing what needs to be changed, and then implementing those changes?
Garden of Eyes: The process varies for every aspect of the game. As an example, let’s say we want to make a new version of The Crucible Knight. First, we consider the lore and how he fits in the world, then think about how we can reflect that in the visual design like modeling and animations. The gameplay is the hardest part because you want to make a finely balanced experience that also does the concept justice. So there are a lot of back-and-forth processes that go into this kind of stuff. For example, the Oedon boss that I mentioned, we actually came up with his design, I think back in like November, and we finished him in April. He has a lot of attacks, spells, and animations - there’s a lot going on in making sure that all of these things work in the game. There’s a lot of scripting that also goes like making stuff, basically making him go to phase two, the level changes, making sure his AI works and the attacks are connected properly. Every individual aspect needs to be tested, as well as all of them in combination with each other.
When you think about it, it’s the same as the game design process. We’re doing the concept, then we’re doing, let’s say, the 3D model, then we’re doing the animation. We’re going throughall the processes that are needed when developing a game.
Q: Your team seems to specialize in translating content from other games into Elden Ring, from other FromSoft titles to the likes of God of War and even Sonic the Hedgehog. How do these more outlandish projects tie into the development of the Garden of Eyes Overhaul?
Garden of Eyes: I really love Elden Ring, and I love playing mods. I’m passionate about modding in every scene, whether it’s Elden Ring or something likeMinecraft. The Garden of Eyes mod is the polished, flagship project, but sometimes I also just want to test the game’s limits and have fun. For example, when Hogwarts Legacy released, I wanted to put flying brooms and hippogriffs in Elden Ring. Nobody had ever done a flying mount before, so I wanted to see if it was possible. Same thing with the God of War stuff. We tested a lot of wild weapons ideas, like having the blades of chaos. Just creative, crazy ideas. Things where you don’t have to worry about balance and just have fun - but we still care a lot about polish and quality of course.
We’re adding descriptions and icons, as well as effects and completely new movesets. We really just want to do what hasn’t been done before and give players new ways to experience the game we love.
Q: Your team just announced a major update to the overhaul: class-specific progression and dynamic difficulty. Can you talk about what went into the development of such a fundamental gameplay change, and what players can expect?
Garden of Eyes: Yeah, as we were working, we were thinking, ‘hey, we’re adding armor, we’re adding bosses, we’re adding new systems. But you’re still playing the same old Elden Ring at the end of the day. How can we take progression to another level?’ So we looked at the classes and decided to give each class their own progression path, with a unique starting location. So, logically, the problem then became that if I start in Leyndell or theAltus Plateau, progress will be all broken because you’re starting in an endgame area. So we decided to go all-in on dynamic difficulty, with the help of other modders in the community.
So the idea is that if you start with, say, the Nomad class, the difficulty, health, animations, and stats of all the enemies and bosses will be changed based on the area you start in. If you start in the Altus Plateau, the enemies there will have the difficulty of Limgrave, for example. But that also means that Limgrave will now have the difficulty of Altus and the areas in between.
We also made it so that weapon upgrade materials and other items scale based on your starting area. We even had to consider the actual region progression, because if you start from Altus, there’s no way to actually go back to places like Limgrave. We moved things around so killing different bosses will give you the items needed to progress.
It was a very big project that we worked on for months. Right now, we have only one class that we’re testing this feature with which is the Nomad class, which as we said, starts in Leyndell. We even modified the design of the area to add a full tutorial section for it. So even if someone is playing Elden Ring for the first time, they can actually play that section and they can get the tutorial and everything for it. We also added a new boss, the Frenzied Omen. After going from Leyndell, you actually start the game in the Overworld and Altus Plateau and this is where your journey begins. You can go toVolcano Manor, then you go to Liurnia and like Raya Lucaria, then you go to Limgrave, then you go to Caelid, and then this is where you kill the demigods. And then you go back to Leyndell and progress with the linear part of the game.
The other great thing about this, as opposed to something likethe randomizer mod, is you don’t need to restart the game or manage your edits through external windows. You can go back to the main menu, choose another class, and the world will dynamically change to match your choice. We could easily have made it an external program, but we really wanted it to be integrated into the game itself. So even if you have two different save files, even between different classes, it will all change dynamically.
Q: So it’s scaled progression based on the class you choose. Are there any narrative aspects to that?
Garden of Eyes: Yes, absolutely. One of our main goals is to create a story for each class. During your playthrough, you will have a special memory section for that specific class where you will visit new areas and fight certain bosses that are specific to that class. We’re going to add secret ways to access the boss fights from other classes of course. This memory-based story allows us to revisit old events that happened in Elden Ring, and pay homage to things that may have been alluded to in the base game but not featured.
Q: You’ve talked about collaborating with other creators. How has the community played a role in the development of this mod?
Garden of Eyes: Well for one thing, Elden Ring doesn’t offer any official modding tools. So no matter what mods, tools, or libraries you see from me or any other team working on FromSoft titles, that’s all community-made. There are constantly new tools in development in order to edit and add new things that we couldn’t before. If modders have questions or want to access tools, it’s almost all publicly available on forums and the like.
Q: From Software recently announced a major expansion to the base game, Shadow of the Erdtree. What impact does this expansion have on your project? Have you been inspired by any of the reveals so far?
Garden of Eyes: Yeah, for sure. The DLC is actually one of the things we’re most excited about because it will give us more material to work with, you know? It’s going to add all kinds of new bosses, weapons, and areas. So it’s going to also allow us to elevate our creative vision for the mod because we also want to mod the DLC when it comes. It’s also going to bring new attention and new players to Elden Ring, which is really exciting. We wish we had more details - for example, we wanted to create a boss fight and storyline for Miquella, but we can’t really do that until the DLC comes out because we want towait and see what FromSoft does with Miquella. So we’re holding off on certain aspects of the mod that are related to Godwin, Miquella, and all those aspects that will probably be expanded on in the DLC.
Q: So you’d say it’s in no way a competition to your project, but rather a new opportunity for resources to enhance the mod?
Garden of Eyes: Exactly. It’s definitely not a competition because the point of these mods isn’t to create a “better” Elden Ring, it’s to give Elden Ring lovers a new experience. We don’t view it as one-upping or challenging FromSoft, but rather as giving the community new and exciting things. As modders, we have more creative freedom than the developers because they have a very particular guideline or roadmap that they have to follow. For example, we like togive players access to the boss’s signature moves when using their weapons, like Malenia.Her katana, the Hand of Malenia, we’ve given players access to the boss attacks and animations. Now that’s something usually that they don’t do, give the movesets of the bosses to the player. I think they might see it as breaking the immersion and all of that. But in the mod, we can do stuff like that. So yeah, it’s not about being better, it’s about being creative and paying tribute to this game that we love.
Q: The project is supported in part by Patreon - what kind of relationship do you have with your patrons?
Garden of Eyes: So this is one of the most, let’s say, controversial choices that we have made in terms of the Mod because like there’s a general outlook and sentiment that mods should be freely available for everyone, and that’s something we actually agree with. I want to clarify because I’ve been confronted in the past - when the Garden of Eyes mod is finished, it will be free to download for everyone. What a lot of people don’t know is that we are a team of 15 people, and I’m paying them monthly salaries. Some of our team do this as a full-time job, like weapon designers and animators for example. So having the Patreon provides me with a consistent way to be able to pay them for the work that they’re doing.
The mod is not finished, we’re always, always, always working hard on new content, and we’re constantly testing and trying new things. We’re very much in the experimentation phase of development. So the Patreon is just a way for the community to support the people who are working on the mod, and be a part of the development of an unfinished product. Our Patreon supporters aren’t paying for the mod, they’re paying to support our team, to playtest our in-development mods, and to contribute to the development process.
A lot of mods don’t allow ‘early access,’ but we like the idea of having people involved in the dev process helping to tackle bugs and balance things as we go. That way, when we’re done, it will already have gone through many phases of playtesting and will end up a more polished product. At the higher tiers, supporters can also commission weapons and armor and the like, but the main $5 tier is just for supporting the developers and getting access to the mod launcher.
I want to really drive this point home: when the mod is done, it’s going to be free for everyone to enjoy. That’s something that’s set in stone and is really important to the team. Patreon is for supporting us during the process, so we can give the community the highest quality we can. We’re a professional modding team, so we want to release professional products. Patreon allows us to bring on talented people and work hard to give everyone the best product in the end.
Q: What features are you most excited to implement that you haven’t yet?
Garden of Eyes: I think the class-based memory stories I mentioned before is really exciting because it’s going to allow us to do new things that we couldn’t do before for fear of breaking the immersion of the game. We’re going to basically be creating entirely new levels, which will be really, really exciting. We also have four or five bosses in the pipeline. We just released a teaser for one of them, which is basically arecreation of Ornstein and Smough from DS1but as the Godskin Dragonslayer and the Godskin Executioner. I don’t want to give away too much, but I think it’s going to blow everyone’s minds when they see what we’ve done with the boss. It’s technically been in development for four or five months now, and every time we think we’re done, somebody pitches a new amazing idea and we add on another month to develop it.
We were actually planning to tease the boss on the 1st of June, but right at the last minute, someone suggested an idea that was too good not to do. So we shifted the release, because we’re always going for more quality. I think people are going to be very impressed with the quality of the new bosses because we’re not just creating a new design, we’re creating new weapons, and even composing new music and crafting new levels for them. It’s something that’s never really been done at this scale, and we’re really excited to reveal more as we get closer to finishing.
Q: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us. Is there anything else you want to touch on or shout out for the audience?
Garden of Eyes: First of all, I want to emphasize that this is a community-driven project, and the support of our Patrons is what keeps the project alive. Without it, we couldn’t have such a large and talented team working so hard to hit this level of quality. There’s so much that goes on behind the scenes with coordination and management, and I’m so thankful to my amazing team and our supporters that make this possible. I don’t mind the difficulties because in the end we’re creating something amazing and new that tons of people are enjoying.
So please consider supporting us on Patreon, and look forward to the exciting things we have in store for the future. I don’t want to overstate things, but even if you have high expectations, I think you’re still going to be blown away.
Elden Ringis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
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