Dene Carter Interview

Develop’s new interview with former Lionhead Studios designer Dene Carter primarily focuses on his new indie studio Fluttermind, though a few of the responses lend some insight into the early days of the Fable franchise.

And do you feel it’s important to have ownership over your own projects?

Creatively? Yes, and if anything tangentially threatens to take that away, I’ll view it as equally important. In traditional publisher relationships it’s easy to lose that ownership – and with it, the cohesion of the game’s vision. However, I’ve been blessed over the last decade. Microsoft were a joy to work with in that regard, as they understood what we were trying to do and were utterly supportive. They allowed us to create a great, very British and very quirky franchise. Fable and Fable 2 are a testament to Microsoft’s confidence and delicacy.

Now I’m indie, I have more time than ever for constructive criticism, but any new publisher would have a lot to measure up to. I really don’t have time or patience for a publisher telling me my game’s music should be a dance track rather than ambient weirdness, or that central character – a small, yellow, overweight chick should be swapped for a ‘certain well known super hero’. We went through that when we were looking for publishers for Fable. We ignored them then, and the result was better for it.