In a new Gamasutra feature interview, veteran developer Peter Molyneux talks about how Fable III didn't live up to his hopes -- saying that this has resulted in a "very, very different process" for Lionhead Studios moving forward.
One of the game's ambitious ideas was to take leveling out of the user interface, abstractly represented by numbers, and put it directly into the game -- tie it to the world, the character, and key moments in the story. Unfortunately, Molyneux says, this did not come across as hoped in the final product.
"I thought the idea of leveling outside the GUI, but leveling in the environment and the world was actually quite a good one, but I'm not sure..."
"The real dream of that leveling process was that, as you went through each gate, there would be these tough choices for the player. Which chest should I open? This one or that one? The feeling that you're going through the game at your own pace, but having to make these tough choices, was never actually realized," he says.
The problem, he says, was with the way the development studio worked.
"The process, the way that we designed, and the way that we crafted -- meant that the game came together very late. That is one of the things that we're changing; that is just such an old school way of working."
This left the team with "so little time to balance and refine" the game, says Molyneux. "That meant that what could have been a great mechanic turned out to be a good idea."
"I don't think that good ideas are a reason to do something; I think it has to feed into the overall experience to be a great idea. I liked the idea of not pressing the pause key and going to some abstracted GUI; I think that worked reasonably well."
He also admits, however, that "we didn't have the time to craft that into what that dream was."
"Lionhead -- especially me -- has never created projects in less than two years. This was the first time we ever did that," he says.
So how have things changed since? "It's because of those things that, now, when we approach development, it's very different, because we want to know precisely how long the experience we're crafting is up front, rather than waiting to the end, so that we have a clear idea how each of these mechanics is used, how they're meted out, how they're exploited, and how they're really used to amplify the whole drama of what that is.
"So we've got a very, very different process of designing now," Molyneux says. "We've spent a long time thinking about that and doing our research on how you can have a creatively-led production process and how you can take the complete randomness out of the way that a lot of ideas are developed and evolved."
The full interview goes into further depth on the travails of developing Fable III, contains new information about Milo, and more -- and is live now on Gamasutra.
|
![Molyneux: 'We Didn't Have The Time To Craft [ Fable III ] Into What That Dream Was'](http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/news2001/35445/molyneux.jpg)
Peter Molyneux is honestly enthusiastic, and famous enough that he gets to say what he wants and what he's excited about without getting filtered through some PR lackey. Saying he "shouldn't be allowed within 500 feet of a microphone" is a vote for the bland messaging of Nintendo, the profit-focused statements of Activision, or the near silence from Rockstar.
Lionhead's process of cutting isn't uncommon - large features get cut even far into implementation if the design doesn't work out - they're just more open about it.
I love the games the he has been involved with over the years, the man has my respect.
(also Russell Shaw from Lionhead is a Genius, just had to say that...)
I fully agree and as I said before: this man is just a big soap bubble of nice sounding ambitions. I never understood how people could still believe this guy after all this empty promises for the first Black and White. To me it became already at that time absolutely clear that he is nothing but a dream seller. I wonder why (10 years later) people still think he is a great mind in the game industry...
So, what lessons have you learned Mr. Molyneux? Don't promise stuff you don't even know it's possible or not or at least only talk about it when they are implemented.
Yet they had enough time to release a bunch of DLC that broke the game even more.
I, for one, WILL NOT be buying Fable 4.
At this point, I feel that Molyneux has given us his best, but he will continue to promise better. I have no interest in them, especially when they seem like such gimmicks.
I thoroughly enjoyed Fable II. Fable III was...interesting. Was still a good game, even though the re playability is low.
I still enjoy Molyneaux though. He is passionate, and I haven't been disappointed by him yet.
I loved Fable 1 (even if it was a bit short) and I did enjoy Fable 2 a lot (especially the Spire sequences), but Fable 3 really left me cold. Some good ideas, lots of extremely poor implementation, in almost every way a major step backwards.
It gives me the impression that Molyneaux has a great understanding of games, and a great imagination, but little understanding of how to make a modern game. I feel for him - I struggle to get my head around scheduling and planning, but unfortunately as budgets, expectations and team sizes grow, these things become exponentially more important.
Maybe he just needs to find the right producer?
I like hearing about the things they are trying to do... but clearly, gamers do not. I think they should have a post-release to talk about all of the cool things they tried to do and why they didn't make it. It would appeal to people like me, and it'd stop the complaints.
And when the title arrives, it's these features, the game is lacking, that are broken or now working at all. And after people start complaining about this fact, he is promising the exact same features for the next title again.
He is doing it over and over again, it started with Black & White, was the same with The Movies and every single Fable installment.
I would say he over hyped the first game but the franchies is fun and pretty unique.
It has it own look and feel which i think is realy important, specialy in a generation of clones.
Besides theres hardly any action RPGs made these days i'd hate to see the series fail.
The reason i don't have F3 yet is becouse i've seen so many people who liked F2 say this new title sux and i realy enjoyed fable2. Yes it was buggy and it had optimisation issues but theres nothing else like it as far as an active franchies goes. I would say its easy but thats not a bad thing IMO if i want to play a challenging action rpg i already have demons souls.
Granted it'd be nice to see fable steer a bit towards the depth legend of mana (another easy but fun game) had but with all the interactivity with NPCs of the 1st two fable games as well.
I think peter is very ambitious and gets excited wanting to see the end product as much as the franchies fans. That is too rare, i've only seen a couple of people in the industry like that. The guys at Runic games are pretty fired up about Space marine and i like that. It makes me think they will do the best they can to make a fun game. I think peter does the same and doing your best under whatever circumstances the work is being done is all you can hope for a guy to do. The delivery is up to the company, dev team along with any money and time restrictions. I think if pete could do it all(solo) to make it just as he visioned, he would.
So I say Godspeed, you barmy Englishman.
P.S. -- Fable 3 was just awful
Of course, I've always wished for specific improvement after finishing one (for example the very limited number of weapons and armors) but i really didn't expect more than that. And I haven't been disappointed much. Haven't since Fable 3 though. I enjoyed the idea of splitting the game in 2 parts and the idea of giving hard choices to make but i have to say that I have been quite disappointed about the game becoming so simple. I really felt that the game was trying to babysit me -think in my place -remove items because more items might be too much for my small cerebral performances -level up for me for the same previous reasons -reduce the armors to mere pieces of fabric that have for sole purpose of covering my winner and please my fashion design wannabe ego.
All in all, i felt that the Fable 3 looked down on me and considered me as unable since Fable 2.
SO in the end, i didn't enjoy Fable 3 for its gameplay value at all but only for the tale.