Fable III Interview

Following the Fable III announcement at GamesCom, GamesIndustry.biz had the opportunity to grill Lionhead Studios’ fearless leader Peter Molyneux about the RPG sequel and a few other topics. The interview is split into two portions, so here’s a bit from the first half:

Q: One of the things we’ve seen since the economic conditions became tricky is third parties having to be more careful about their activities… which serves to reinforce that point further, about first party providing new game experiences.

Peter Molyneux: I think more and more this is where the creative side of a project can be the greatest salvation for that project – but also the greatest cost. If you don’t have a creative direction, especially with first party, if you’re woolly about it – and I’m not saying I’ve seen examples of this – then it can be enormously expensive and you can pour money down the drain.

Because creatively you haven’t got what I call the pillars – what the product stands for, why it’s important, what are the main games features – and unless you’ve got that completely locked down you can waste this money.

And you can also, in first party, start making products that really don’t mean anything – they don’t mean anything to the platform, they don’t mean anything to consumers – just going in there and beating the drum, talking about what first party means and stands for… when we invent or create something from new, or refresh something that existed before it’s got to be done for compulsive reasons.

And a snip from the second half:

Q: Fable III is the next big project for Lionhead – give us a bit of an overview of the game?

Peter Molyneux: It’s always tricky when a sequel comes along on the same platform – traditionally this is when sales drop off. So with Fable III we’re going to take a bold step forward. With the Fable franchise we want people to expect the unexpected, but for the time being we’re just going to be talking about the story.

So in Fable the player was one of many heroes, while in Fable II the player was the only hero – but in Fable III we’re allowing you to be a rebel hero, trying to overthrow a tyrant to become the ruler of Albion yourself.

Then for the second part of the game experiencing what it’s like to be the hero king or queen, so now in Fable III the promises you’ve had to make on the road to rule have to be kept when you become ruler.

But the question is, what sort of ruler will you become? Will you be just or cruel? Will you hoard gold while your land experiences poverty…?