Fable III Interview

GamesIndustry.biz has wrangled up another three-page interview with Lionhead’s Peter Molyneux (registration required), with most of the Q&A focusing on Fable III and the state of the video game industry.

Q: So what pushes you to go to the level of ambition that you do? Lots of people make fantastic games which are simply bringing very good levels of polish to ideas that are already out there. World of Warcraft has often been cited in that respect.

Peter Molyneux: Well, I’m going to beat myself up about this, because I think a lot of the time it’s been purely me – not Lionhead as such – and I get too excited about the idea, but not so excited about the implementation. So the idea can fall flat, it’s poorly executed, or it’s just an excuse where I should have addressed some other issues.

But I think I’m learning now – ideas are important, but the implementation of that idea and the execution of it, how clear it is… that’s probably more important.

Q: Is that one of the reasons why Fable II was such a successful game, then?

Peter Molyneux: Yes – I think that’s part of it. I got hugely excited by the dog, and I think it worked really well. Yes, I wish the implementation of it was better – and it is better in Fable III – but that is where the idea and implementation starts coming together.

I think if it had been previously, back in the Black & White days, you’d be able to slap or stroke the dog, or teach him to talk – I don’t know, whatever ridiculous thing I’d have come up with! But the simple idea was: “Why not give a player a dog, just a dog. Let’s not go crazy on the invention stuff, let’s just keep it simple.”

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Q: So looking ahead to Fable III – lots of pressure and expectation, but you’ll tell me you’re confident it is going to be a great game?

Peter Molyneux: You’re asking me to judge my own child. Is your kid going to be a nice person? Yeah, of course he is. I’m not going to say he’s going to be a horrible brat.

But absolutely for sure, Fable III is the best Fable yet, by a million miles. Definitely. Absolutely, without question.

Because firstly, Phil – I know this sounds like a PR line – we love making Fable, we really do. It’s amazing to me and the rest of the team to go out to somewhere like E3 and have people walk up to you, and ask what you’re doing with the game.

That’s a brilliant feeling, and it’s not like it used to be. 15 years ago in this industry, if you did a sequel, people would come and spit at you in conferences – but now people love the idea. The dream that me and the Carters had back when we first thought of making an RPG was to make a big, huge adventure that spanned time, that took us from fairy-tales right up to – well, that’s moving on, but where we are now and beyond.

And we’re doing it – that’s pretty cool. It feels that now we’re getting accessibility right, the core stuff is right, we’re sorting out problems with co-op, introducing more innovation than we’ve ever introduced before… but we’re implementing it in such a way that makes sense, that makes the whole game better.

I think Fable III’s going to be great – I really do.