Molyneux Talks Experimentation and Business

Over at Gamasutra, they have details on commentary by Peter Molyneux during the London Games Summit. Speaking in the grandiose, pie-in-the-sky manner he's become known for, Mr. Molyneux described some experimental gameplay ideas they're hoping might someday make it into Fable 2. From the article: "Elements of design that are changing from Fable's development to Fable 2's are what the players can purchase and own (wealth is likely to play a large part in Fable 2's characters); the responsiveness of and fantastical quality of combat (Fable 2 hopes to keep the combat more dramatic than realistic, but more responsive to objects and locations around the player); and the range of experience the player can have (Fable 2 is aiming to allow the main character to become pregnant, give birth, and raise a child)." The leader of Lionhead Studios also spoke on the business side of indie game development, warning developers not to enter the 'spiral of doom': using payment from a contract for a new game to finish development of one already in production. From that article: "Another key point: 'Every game says something about your company', as it was noted: 'You're only as good as your last game' - the industry has a relatively short memory, and signing subsequent titles is vital to indie developers' livelihoods." Update: 10/05 21:43 GMT by Z : Whether or not it contains any of these experimental ideas, at least Microsoft now has its hands on some playable areas of Fable 2.

What does it take..

[MojoBox]

How many games does this guy have to completely under deliver on for people to stop giving him so much credit? B&W2 was trash, Fable was a super linear hack and slash that failed on pretty much every promise, Black & White had some neat ideas but was fundamentally hampered by dull gameplay. What glorious feat of game design is this guy still coasting on? Populous?

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[RingDev]

But man was populous a good game.

-Rick

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[Anonymous Coward]

Hint: Virtually every "Molyneux success" was a success *contrary* to his efforts and ability. The people around him did the amazing work, he just took all the credit. Indrusty is big enough now that the people who in the past were his shuttle to fame and fortune can find better opportunities rather than feeling like they have to stick their lot with him just because he's the only person they know if in the industry.

Hence the decline in quality of "his games" as fewer and fewer talented folks get suckered in

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[Scuff]

your comment is pretty amusing, considering in the article, "You're only as good as your last game" appears to be a quote from him.

I didn't play fable, but I heard all the promises that were made for it and saw all the features that disappeared one by one as it got closer to release. The claims he's making for fable 2 seem pretty similar.

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[ricree]

Fable was honestly a pretty goodd game. It's a shame that it didn't live up at all to the hype,but once you distanced yourself from expectations a bit, it wasn't too bad.

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[Scuff]

Well, when you say it like that, it makes perfect sense for him to be hyping the hell out of the next game he has in development.

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[Da VinMan]

It reminds me of some managers I've known: lie like hell to get people on a project/to the meeting/to buy in to a plan. They under-deliver on those initial lies and everyone gets ticked. But since they're all there already, they just do what they came to do anyway. At the end of the project/effort, the chronic lier gets rewarded for being visionary.

And no, I'm not gonna name names.

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[CompSci101]

Dungeon Keeper 1 & 2 get this guy a free pass from me in most cases.

Those and Theme Park and (of course) Populous.

I was underwhelmed by Fable and Black & White, but that didn't make either of them trash. I actually thought Fable was pretty fun once I resigned myself to the fact that it was designed for the XBox and I expected something akin to a PC Adventure/RPG (which is what was promised, clearly, and not delivered -- the final result was still fun for me, though).

C

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[espressojim]

You should have seen what PM was promising for Dungeon keeper 1 a year before release. It was going to be like a raid-style MMRPG. You'd get a group of 6 people as the 'heroes', and one dungeon keeper. The 6 players have to defeat the one player.

Not exactly what came out of dungeon keeper, was it.

Compared to the hype, that game was a piece of shit too.

I'd have to fall back to magic carpet and syndicate (and maybe high octane) to give PM's crew much credit, and he probably just rode someone else's coat-ta

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[paganizer]

Dungeon Keeper. Damn. I still play that.
But i'm surprised no one has mentioned "The Movies"; as is expected it is not as cool as he said it would be. But it is still pretty darn cool, and classing it as a tycoon-type game is wrong.
Besides, it is FUN making movies using the game. example at: http://movies.lionhead.com/studio/Changestorm [lionhead.com]

Fable 2 will be better than Fable

[WillAffleckUW]

For one thing, instead of an old wizard continually saying "Have you checked for more quests at the Guild" while you're on a quest, it's now a young albino princess who says "Are you sure you want to open that booby-trapped door?" ...

Most important feature of Fable 2...

[le0p]

More than 8 hours of gameplay.

I love molyneaux games

[d3am0n]

I'm pretty sure I spelled his name wrong, but oh well. I liked the open style of black and white it was insanely fun however only when I would cheat so that I could use all the spells and have my creature large so he could trop the enemy and use the really big explosion spells. B&W2 I kept winning while I was making giant cities for huge armies, not because I needed them to win the game but because I just like watching really cool epic battles...however those giant rathole cities would impress everyon