Peter Molyneux Discusses How Fable 2 Has Changed His Attitude

Creator explains what went right and wrong and what changed during development.

In an interview with European game developer magazine Develop, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux took time to discuss the process of making Fable 2 and his own value as creative guide for his team. The interview covers Molyneux's thought on the popular 360 title in the wake of its launch and looks back on changes made as a result of the company's earlier development efforts -- including the original Fable:

"We also had a long list of complaints about what was wrong with Fable. So when it came to the sequel we went down that list and said we can definitely solve that, fix this, more of this, and so on. That's things like demands for more weapons, and a world that's three times bigger -- all of those kind of requests. We ended up with a feature-set that would make a pretty good sequel."

Molyneux goes on to explain that while Fable succeeded on many levels the team was dedicated to making some changes the second time around.

"We first looked at our capabilities and worked out what our strengths and weaknesses were. One of the weaknesses was writing, so we hired scripters, stagers, scriptwriters, screenwriters from Hollywood, and we acted out the entirety of the game and story -- this was all before we had any tech. We let them rewrite and improvise it, all in order to get it right. That was done entirely at Shepperton Studios. It was a real learning process for us.

"And...at that point, I realized how terribly I had approached game design at that point. I realized that a fundamental error I made was mistakenly believing that if you added more and more features into a game it would make a game great."

The interview itself is fairly lengthy and frank, showing that the hype backlash Lionhead and Molyneux himself experienced over the last few game releases have caused him to reflect a bit more on what he does as a creator and how he manages his projects. Check out the extensive coverage of Fable II here on 1UP, including our recent review of the game, to see if we think this new attitude has paid off in the final product. 

Thursday, October 30, 2008 

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Lead QA Tester for Sony Suggests Bug Fix for Fable 2

Did the epic RPG's online co-op patch ruin the game?

The Internet is boiling with reports of game killing bugs for Fable 2. The Lionhead RPG premiered last week with seemingly more than its fair share of glitches. As Microsoft and Lionhead work to get a patch out soon, a source who claims to be one of Sony's lead quality assurance testers has a suggestion to cure some of players ills.

Rodney, who uses the handle Rod_Five on the Lionhead Community Forums, asserts that many of the bugs and glitches players are experiencing are caused by the hastily created online co-op patch.

"Now as many of you know it wasn't until a few days before the release if it was known whether or not online co-op would make it. Now a game goes gold (off to be made into the retail version everyone plays) at least three weeks before game's release. Now on a larger release like Fable 2, I'd bet that it went gold five weeks before release because of the larger scale of its release. So that means while the game was out of Lionheads hands they were working on the patch to add the online co-op feature, which I doubt they had time to properly test since they were on such a crunch to get the patch out by day one.

"So, my big point is that it's very possible that the online co-op patch created these game-breaking bugs."

Rod_Five goes on to give specific instructions on how to remove the patch, which is set to download and install as soon as you go online with Fable 2.

There hasn't been an official response from Lionhead or Microsoft to this suggestion, but many players have responded to this thread and have recommended removing the patch in many other other threads on the forums. Although it hasn't helped everyone, many players report that they're happy to have found a solution. One poster also pointed out that it allows you to exploit the Fable 2 Pub Games glitch again.

Forums are tricky in that it's hard to confirm the identity and experience claimed by any poster. If  Rod_Five is indeed a QA guy for Sony, it's surprising that he posted on the official forum for an Xbox 360 game and just goes to show that some games can rise above console exclusivity wars.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008  

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Peter Molyneux's Next Game May Be 'Politically Contentious'

Peter Molyneux discusses his secret project, which he says is "so unbelievably ambitious."

While many are eagerly anticipating Fable 2's release next week, Peter Molyneux has already been hard at work on his next project. And despite this game still being shrouded in secrecy, it's not stopping the notoriously talkative designer from hyping it up already -- and using some tremendously grandiose language to do so.

"There's nothing else remotely like it ever before," Molyneux told Kikizo in an interview (via Kotaku), in the way only Peter Molyneux can. "Everyone at Microsoft who's seen it is super excited about it -- I mean there's just this huge anticipation for us to finally show it, because it is so unbelievably ambitious." Apparently his intent is to show the game as soon as at GDC 2009 (which will be taking place near the end of March), but the unveiling may take a bit longer to plan, as Microsoft wants to "shock and awe" the industry when it's finally revealed.

Even more intriguing, though, is the small hint Molyneux gave as to the game's potential subject matter. "Especially with the current timing, this will be really, politically contentious," he said, without elaborating any further. It's hard to extrapolate too much from the statement -- these days, there's any number of topics that could be "politically contentious" -- but it does seem to suggest it'll have a more modern, realistic flare than the lighthearted fantasy of the Fable series.

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Fable 2 Forces Official Website Visit To Unlock In-Game Treasures

Lionhead launches website featuring puppets, chickens, and the keys to special items.

With Fable 2's release date just a week away, its about time Lionhead released an official website for the game. But for a game as huge as Fable 2, they couldn't just launch any plain old website. No, they had to concoct a grand Flash puppet-show/interactive story to introduce the tale behind your character. As the story unfolds, you're presented with various choices, which in turn affect the course of the whole plot. At the end, you'll receive one of five possible prizes, depending on the choices you make (a more "nice" approach will grant you a chicken suit, for example). This item can then be tied to your Gamertag for use in the actual game once you purchase it.

Between this and XBLA release Fable 2 Pub Games, gamers can have plenty of swag at their disposal before they even pop in the Fable 2 disc. There's also a side game called "Chicken Kickin'," which naturally has you punting future McNuggets at various targets for a high score.

Here's the catch though: several sources state that you actually need to visit this website in order to unlock at least one treasure chest in the game. Apparently, there's one chest located in a frequently visited location in the game that prompts you to visit the game's official website in order to unlock it,

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Fable II Patch On 'Day One'

 

Peter Molyneux aims to have an online co-op update ready on launch day.