GP Q&A: What Peter Molyneux can't say about Fable 2

Peter Molyneux, legendary game creator and president of Lionhead Studios, recently spoke to us about the current state of Fable 2 and Xbox 360 development in general.

By Bro Buzz

Molyneux said he couldn't talk much about Fable 2, but what he doesn't say always speaks volumes

Molyneux said he couldn't talk much about Fable 2, but what he doesn't say always speaks volumes

GP: Is it fair to say that the Xbox 360 games coming out represent the console's second generation?

Molyneux: I think you are absolutely right. We are coming into the second generation for Xbox 360 games, and it always happens that the second generation is led by some game, and I think we all agree that Gears of Wars is that game. The challenge of the second generation is that we no longer have the excuse that we don't understand the hardware or that we don't have enough time to develop games for it. The games that are soon to come out have been in development for almost three years and that is a reasonable development period so that means quality is really, really high. Naturally, the quality bar is extremely high, too.

GP: Do you think there Xbox 360 capabilities yet to be explored?

Molyneux: I certainly do. I think certainly that Xbox Live and online gameplay in general are areas that have some sparked some pretty interesting game design approaches so far and we have seen some great multiplayer features in games like Gears of War. I think online co-operative gameplay, especially with friends who are playing on other machines, is a whole new area of exploration that we really haven't approached. That's not too surprising because you have to realize that this is the first time we really know that we have a huge number of online users, in particular Xbox Live users, so we can start designing around that.

GP: Online gaming so far brings lots of people together, but it still seems to focus on individual activities. Do you think we are still searching for collective online interaction that somehow moves a narrative story line forward?

Molyneux: I completely agree with you and I find that notion fascinating. The idea that you, me, and a couple of friends are facing a challenge together as part of a self-contained piece of entertainment rather than just exploring an open-ended world has not been exploited, yet.

GP: Then, can we expect to have that type of experience in Fable 2?

Molyneux: Well, that is a very clever question, of course, that I would expect from you. I can't say anything about the Live and online experience in Fable 2. I can say that I find it fascinating that we can look at online co-op adventuring and say, well, not many games have exploited this and really that is as far as I will go on that.

GP: To go along with that will Xbox 360 games begin to tell deeper, more engaging stories as well?

Molyneux: Well, you know it's funny that you said that, as I have just come out of a very big story review for Fable 2. Bear in mind that for Fable 1 we probably spent a couple of days mapping out the story. Then as we played through the game, we refined and tweaked it. I wouldn't say the story was secondary, but I wouldn't say it was at the top of our list, either.

Now, with Fable 2, it's different. All that I have been doing since Christmas is going through and refining the story, refining the characterization, choosing the dialogue, and choosing all the consequences of that dialogue.

GP: Will Fable 2's story be somehow fundamentally different from Fable's?

Molyneux: Fable 2 is a little bit different than Fable 1 because what we really want is to nail the story so that there are consequences for what you do in the game that reflect all the way through it. We have a team spending an enormous amount of time on the story. We also have plans to review it and to bring in some people with specific skills to help with it.

My ambition is to really just tell a really compelling story. What I keep saying in our meetings is that we have got to think more like storytellers and less like programmers.

GP: At this time in the evolution of the video game market, is story even capable of carrying as much weight as gameplay?

Molyneux: Sure, but the story can't get in the way of the game play. I don't want anyone playing Fable 2 to sit through endless hours of cut scenes frantically moving their finger over to the skip button. That's the unique challenge of making computer games, when you're telling a story you have to realize that a lot of people instinctively just want to get to the next section and there must be ways around that.

Story is massively important. We have profiles for each of our characters in the story: what their motivations are and what their back history is. These are things that we never had before, so I think more than ever before story is really, really important.

GP: Is there anything that you could tell us about the new plot for Fable 2 or can you give us a sense of where that tale might be headed based on Fable 1?

Molyneux: I would love to tell you that! But right now I'm not even allowed to give you any hints. The only thing that I can tell you is there are some twists and turns and some choices and some things that are very unique about Fable 2. It is set in the Fable world; it is some time in the future of the Fable world which I really hope is going to surprise people. Through the story and through the game play, I want you to feel new emotions that you haven't actually felt before.

GP: Do you mean something different than what you might have felt after playing the original Fable?

Molyneux: Yeah, oh absolutely, definitely, completely. I think that parts of the first Fable story were very rushed, and we didn't think about the characters. We are talking about what motivates a character to take certain actions, and what you will feel when you see this being played out in front of you.

GP: Are there familiar elements from Fable in Fable 2 or does it take place so far in the future that that it is just a completely different world?

Molyneux: No, there are some familiar elements. There are some locations which you may have heard about in the past, and actually during my GDC [Game Developer's Conference] talk in March, I am going to be unveiling a couple of those locations and how they have evolved since the last time you played Fable. The change is dramatic from the opening shot of the game, and I want that to be jaw-droppingly dramatic.

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