How to Make a Game Like Elden Ring with AI (2026)

Elden Ring looks impossible to make alone. It is a 60-hour open world with hundreds of enemies, dozens of bosses, six interconnected legacy dungeons, and combat that took FromSoftware fifteen years and four Souls games to perfect.

You are not going to clone that. But the question worth asking is not "can I make Elden Ring," it is "can I make a game in the Elden Ring style, at a scope I can actually finish." That answer is yes, and AI changes the math on it more than any tool in the last decade.

This guide breaks down the mechanics that actually define the genre, which template to start from, and a concrete step-by-step build plan in Summer Engine, the AI game maker compatible with Godot 4. It is honest about what AI does for you and what it does not.

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What Actually Makes a Game Feel Like Elden Ring

Before you build anything, separate the surface from the systems. The dark fantasy art and the Erdtree on the horizon are the look. They are not why the game works. Five mechanical systems carry the feel, and getting these right matters more than any amount of content.

Stamina-based, lock-on combat. Every attack, dodge, and block spends stamina. When the bar empties, you are exposed. This single constraint is what makes Souls combat deliberate instead of button-mash. Pair it with lock-on so the camera tracks one enemy, and you have the spine of the genre.

A death-and-recovery loop. You die, you drop your currency (runes) where you fell, and you respawn at the last checkpoint. Recover the runes by reaching your corpse, but die again on the way and they are gone for good. This loop is the entire risk-reward engine of the game. It is also one of the simpler systems to build, which makes it a great early win.

Mounted open-field traversal. A spectral mount (Torrent in Elden Ring) lets you gallop across the open field, double-jump up cliffs, and ride past enemies that would kill you, returning when you are stronger. The mount is what makes the open world feel like freedom rather than a long walk. It also sets the pace of exploration.

Legacy dungeons inside the open world. The genius of Elden Ring is that traditional, linear Souls levels are nested inside the open map. Stormveil Castle is a full interconnected dungeon with shortcuts and a boss, and it sits in a world you can ride around. This hybrid is the structural innovation. You build self-contained dungeon levels and drop their entrances into the field.

Spirit summons. Collectible ashes summon an AI companion for a fight, from a tank that holds aggro to a ranged supporter. For a solo player, spirits are what make brutal bosses approachable. They also change how every encounter is designed.

There are smaller signature touches too: map fragments at stone pillars that reveal terrain you crossed blind, mini-checkpoints (Stakes of Marika) before hard bosses to cut the runback, guard counters, and crafting from field materials. These are the details that read as "Elden Ring" specifically rather than "a soulslike."

If you only build three of these for a first project, build stamina combat, the death-recovery loop, and one legacy dungeon. That is a complete, satisfying game on its own.

Which Template to Start From

Do not start from an empty 3D scene. The whole point of an AI-native engine is to begin with the systems already scaffolded so you spend your time on world design, not on reinventing a stamina bar.

Summer Engine has an Elden Ring Style template under the soulslike category. It is the right starting point because it already scaffolds the genre-defining systems:

• Spectral mount with double jump and mounted combat
• Spirit ash summon system with varied AI companion behavior
• Map fragment reveal at stone pillars
• Site-of-grace checkpoints with leveling, plus stake mini-checkpoints near bosses
• Guard counter follow-up on a timed block
• Overworld material gathering and recipe-gated crafting
• Legacy dungeon shortcut architecture and open-field boss encounters
• Rune currency with the death-drop and recovery loop

Starting here means you are tuning a working open-world soulslike from the first minute instead of asking "how do I even make stamina work." If your idea leans more linear and claustrophobic, the Dark Souls Style template in the same category drops the open world and focuses on interconnected level design.

For the broader picture of how AI builds real 3D games (and why browser-based AI tools cannot), read How to Make a 3D Game with AI.

Step by Step: Building Your Soulslike

Here is the build order that gets you to a playable vertical slice without drowning. The principle throughout: one region, then judge it. Not a map.

1. Write the core loop in one sentence

"The player rides across a ruined valley, finds a castle dungeon, dies to its boss, recovers their runes, levels up at a checkpoint, and tries again." That sentence gives the AI a target. "I want a souls game" gives it nothing.

2. Open the template and build one region

Pick the Elden Ring Style template and prompt the first zone. Keep it small on purpose.

"Build one open field region with a mounted traversal loop, three small dungeons, one legacy dungeon entrance, and a field boss."

The engine creates the terrain, the mount controller, the dungeon entrances, and the boss arena as real scenes in the project. This is your sandbox for everything that follows.

3. Get the combat feeling right first

Combat is the heart of the genre, so tune it before you add content. Work in small, targeted prompts.

• "Add stamina-gated attacks and a dodge roll with invincibility frames during the roll."
• "Add lock-on that snaps the camera to the nearest enemy and lets me switch targets."
• "Add a guard counter: blocking an incoming hit then pressing heavy attack does a dedicated follow-up strike."
• "Make the heavy attack recovery longer and add a short hitstop on a successful hit."

Then play it. Weight comes from tuning, not a single prompt. Roll through a few fights and give the AI one adjustment at a time.

4. Wire the death-recovery loop

This is the system that makes it a soulslike rather than an action game.

"Add a rune currency. When the player dies, drop all runes at the death location and respawn at the last site of grace. Recovering the runes returns them. Dying again before recovery deletes the dropped runes."

Add a stake mini-checkpoint right before the field boss so the runback does not become punishing in a way you did not intend.

5. Build one legacy dungeon as a vertical slice

Now prove the hybrid structure works at small scale.

"Inside the legacy dungeon, build interconnected rooms with two shortcuts that loop back to the entrance, a site of grace partway through, and a multi-phase boss at the end."

A single legacy dungeon that feels good is worth more than ten empty ones. If this slice is fun, you have a real game. If it is not, you have learned that cheaply.

6. Add a spirit summon and one field boss

"Add a spirit ash the player can summon in the boss arena. The spirit tanks aggro so the player can attack from behind. Make it summonable only near the boss fog gate."

Spirits change boss design, so add one early and design the field boss around the player having that option.

7. Generate assets in context, then export

Ask for the mount model, the boss, the ambient dungeon audio, and the UI inside the same conversation. The engine places them in the project as real assets, not loose downloads. (AI asset generation draws on credits, covered below.) When the slice plays start to finish, build for Windows, macOS, and Linux, and follow How to Publish a Game on Steam.

What AI Does, and What It Does Not

Being straight about this saves you from disappointment halfway through.

AI does the system building and the boilerplate. The stamina bar, the lock-on camera math, the rune drop logic, the mount controller, the dungeon shortcut wiring, the checkpoint respawn. This is the work that historically stops first-time devs cold, and it is exactly what an AI-native engine removes. You describe the behavior, the engine writes the GDScript and builds the scene.

AI does not author your content load. Elden Ring is enormous because hundreds of people hand-designed every area, enemy placement, weapon, and boss moveset. AI accelerates building each piece, but someone decides what goes where. A field with one dragon is a design decision: that dragon is a locked door the player can open early, and you choose what they earn for beating it. That judgment is yours.

The realistic solo scope is a vertical slice, not a 60-hour epic. One region, one legacy dungeon, one memorable boss, the full combat and death loop. That is a finished, shippable, genuinely-Elden-Ring-flavored game. Plenty of acclaimed indie soulslikes are exactly this size. Build that, ship it, and decide whether to expand from a position of having finished something.

The honest version: AI moved the bottleneck from "I can't build the systems" to "I have to design and fill a world." That is a much better problem to have, but you still do the work.

The Free vs Paid Reality

Summer Engine is free to download, and the free tier includes generous AI usage for building your game through conversation. Heavier sustained use moves to a paid plan, and AI asset generation (3D models, audio, textures) draws on credits rather than being unlimited. See the pricing page for current limits.

What you do not pay is a revenue share. The game is a standard Godot 4 project you own completely. Export it, sell it on Steam, keep the money. If you ever want off the tool, the project opens in vanilla Godot.

Start Building

A game in the Elden Ring style is genuinely within reach for a solo dev in 2026, as long as you scope it honestly. Start with the Elden Ring Style template, build one region, get the combat and death loop feeling right, and judge from there.

The combat weight, the death-recovery tension, the thrill of a legacy dungeon: those are systems AI can build with you today. The world is yours to design.

Open Summer Engine and describe your shattered realm. Build one region. Make the first boss matter. Then decide how far the horizon goes.