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Fable III Changed Lionhead’s Design Philosophy
Fable III was a good game, but many reviewers landed lower on the scale than they had for previous entries. Lionhead Studios head honcho Peter Molyneux says even he is disappointed, because the studio never fully realized many of the core ideas.
In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Molyneux talked about how Fable III’s gestation time was shorter than the studio was used to. This meant the team didn’t have much time to iterate on the game as they would have liked.
"The real dream of [Fable III’s] 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?” Molyneux explains. “The feeling that you're going through the game at your own pace, but having to make these tough choices, was never actually realized.”
Molyneux also described how the studio has changed its development approach moving forward. “The process, the way that we designed, and the way that we crafted – meant that the game came together very late," he said. "That is one of the things that we're changing; that is just such an old school way of working…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.”
Let's hope this new approach allows Lionhead to recapture the magic with Fable IV.
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