Gamescom 2010: Fable III Interview - Peter Molyneux Weighs In On The Kinect Debate, Talks Fable III

38
Dan Webb

As well as going hands-on with Fable III at this year's Gamescom, we also had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting Kinect and Fable with the legendary Peter Molyneux - one of the truly brutally honest games designers left in the industry.

It's the first chance we've really had to talk with Mr Molyneux on the whole Kinect issue, but having the chance to delve deeper into the design process of Fable is always a pleasure, especially when the Lionhead and Microsoft figurehead is so candid.

Expect talk about dogs, parrots, core games and Kinect and the token morality question. Get comfy, it's a long one...

Being a huge supporter of Kinect and now Fable III will no longer be shipping with Kinect support, what is your opinion of the lack of core games for the launch line-up?

Well, I've got two thoughts about it. I mean, today I did a demo of Fable to the people on the showfloor and there were lots of people there and that question came up – “Will there be Kinect in Fable?” - and I asked the audience, how many people want Kinect in Fable? About ten hands went up, and so I asked, how many people definitely don't want Kinect in Fable? About 300 hands went up, and the problem is - I absolutely love Kinect, I adore it and I love Fable - but crafting a great core experience for Kinect is going to take some time, it really is.

There are a lot of things that are going to have to be designed and thought about from the ground up. It's taken about seven years to get to the point where A is the standard button for accepting things and a lot of games made in the early stages of controllers, the movement was here (the d-pad) and aiming was here (the right stick), so that's just a controller. I think until we actually have the time to make a truly fantastic, amazing core experience, we shouldn't attempt to do something. And we were going to do some stuff in Fable, but I've got to be honest with you, it was just too gimmicky. I don't think it did Fable or Kinect justice.

Do you regret announcing the Fable and Kinect association?

No, I don't. I mean, I'm fascinated with both Kinect and Fable, and I'm definitely not saying at this point that we're not going to do a Kinect and Fable, but I'm definitely saying that we have not had enough time to balance a quality experience that I'm happy with that does Fable or Kinect justice. And incidentally, I think Kinect is a real revolution. That's not me as a Microsoft person talking to you, that's purely me as a game designer, because it really does change a hell of a lot. It's an important moment – I think – in gaming.

Was it just that the Kinect stuff wasn’t natural and didn’t fit in with the game? Was it a gimmick?

It wasn't natural. I sat down with Kinect and thought, the truth about controllers and games like Fable is, about 70% of the time, you're just doing this (Molyneux pushes forward on the left thumbstick), that's all you're doing and if you'd never seen a controller game before and I just said, “I've got a new world of gaming. Forty-million people will love this gaming device.” So, what do you do? “This.” (pushes forward on the left thumbstick again) You would think I'm insane. But we have to functionally replace what that does and those micro-movements that make you feel involved and engaged during control. And the trouble with something like Kinect is, I can't ask you to do something like this (points gun forward) or even worse, I can't ask you to do this (Molyneux runs on the spot). Twenty hours of doing this (continues running)? I've got to think of something completely new and fresh and different to do that keeps you engaged, that keeps you feeling like you are part of the world, but doesn't exhaust you. Now I know what that is, but it took a lot of prototypes and a lot of playing around with that, and a lot of asking yourself, am I standing up, am I sitting down, what am I doing?


Fable III picks up 50 years after Fable II, so what impact will that shift in time have on the gameplay?

Let's talk about that and let's talk about the story in Fable 1, because that was a problem, that was a rubbish thing in Fable 1 and Fable 2. Let's be honest about it. The gameplay was gimmicky, it wasn't connected to the story,  marrying people didn't really have an effect, going and farting in people's faces was funny, but it was a gimmick. There was a whole collection of unconnected toys, so we really thought about that in Fable III, that's the first thing. The second thing is feeding things into the drama and story and then the third thing is deciding on the pace of the game. But we're going to go to the levelling-up stuff, so we've tackled all of this in one neat package.

Interestingly, there's a mechanic in role-playing games called levelling-up, we all know what it is, we all love it and we all love the idea of starting at level 1 and progressing to level 10. We wondered if we could use levelling-up, reinvent it a little bit, so that it would help us with a.) the gameplay, b.) the story and c.) your compulsion to play.

So, the story in Fable III is very simple. You're a rebel, there's an evil king, he's called Logan, you've got to get followers and when you get enough followers, you attack the king, take out the king and become king yourself. That's the story. And this word 'followers', we got very interested in and very fascinated with. We realised, if you crossed out the word 'experience' and made levelling-up less about combat and more about gaming and story and replace the word 'experience' with 'followers', then we could invent this place [shows the road to Logan’s castle in-game] where you spend your followers.

You earn followers through everything you do in Fable III. You get followers for fighting well, you get followers for doing quests, you get followers for marrying well, you get followers for doing well in business and you'll lose followers for doing badly in business, getting divorced, dying in battle or failing quests. So followers equals power. The more followers you have, the more gates you're able to go through and when you get through the final gate, you're ready for that battle, you’re ready to take on the king and his forces. So, levelling-up is part of the story, it's part of the same game mechanics and that's pretty cool, but we wondered whether there was something else we could do.

One of the problems with Fable 1 and Fable 2, was we gave you a big bag of stuff and we just gave it to you. We kind of puked these game features on you and then just let you choose whether you do them or not, it was up to you. You had no control over when you got something or when didn't get something, and people forgot about it. So, now we've invented something called 'gameplay chests'. In each level and between each gate there is a chest and in each chest, there is a piece of gameplay, an entire gameplay mechanic. For example, in here is the 'friends expression' pack. If you want to play the 'friends' game, which gives you the ability to go and make friends with people - once you become friends with people, they become your followers and anybody in the world of Albion can give you quests – then unlock that box. If you want to play the 'simulation' game – buying and selling houses, running a business – then open the landlord box. If you hate all that stuff and you just want fighting and combat, then you can open the red chests, which are all about combat, spells and special moves. That means the game flow, the levelling-up, the story, what the game of Fable is, is all integrated into this one system. God knows how you're going to review it, I don't know.

The interesting thing is, because you spend followers to open these chests and the gates, it means the speed-runners will only get one or two of these chests per gate. The grinders will do exactly what they want to do. They'll grind and get enough followers to gain all of the boxes before opening the gate.


When you play your own game like Fable with moral choices, do you find yourself adopting the good or evil route?

I'm as conflicted as other people are, in that I'm tempted by evil but attracted too much by good. But I think Fable III is far, far, far less about good and evil, because actually those moral choices happen in a lot of games that involve good and evil stuff and they're doing this big set up between just and unjust, cruelty and kindness and you're the only person in the world who knows these things, what's right and what's wrong, so it's less about that and more about the kind of choices we have. It's very interesting morally, because we've got these things called 'promises', and as you get followers, you've got to promise them things. Promise that you'll abolish slavery, promise them that you'll give them back their land, that you'll abolish child labour, so when you become king, those are the choices you'll have to make. Which of these promises are you going to keep? There's this classic philosophical problem of five people walking along a rope bridge, they get to the middle, one of the people is overweight, the rope bridge starts to break, what do you do? There's no right or wrong answer. There's only your answer which is the right thing, so I think for me – I haven't yet played Fable III – I've played through it a thousand times, but it's not until I actually go into a shop and buy a retail copy, sit at home and not have 32,000 bugs to worry about, that I'll be able to find out who I really am.

You've kind of levelled-up at Microsoft by getting to your new role and made a lot of promises along the way. Which of those promises do you want to keep?

Haha. Good question. Yeah, in a way Microsoft is like a little kingdom actually. Well, not so little really. I think we as human beings always make promises either to our boss, to ourselves or to our partners and I mean, I always over-promise. I think that's what I do in the press a lot. I over-promise and under-deliver, and I'm sure my boss at Microsoft would say that, definitely. But I'm passionate and autistically, I believe in my promises, but I've never once lied to you, I've always told the truth, because everything I say, I passionately believe in. That same thing's true about Microsoft, so I'm just going to tell them, I'm going to make the greatest game of all time, that's it! Just give me loads of money and leave me alone to do it!

How are you looking to improve the co-op aspects of Fable III since Fable II was fairly limited in this department?

Let's look at that. It was absolutely rubbish. It was one of those features that we only half-implemented at best, so we've looked at this and we've said, a.) when you come into my world, you should come in as your hero. Your hero, you bring him in with all the weapons and customisation choices, you bring in your dog: you should be yourself. b.) When you're in my world, I should be able to say, I want to go off and do this job for a while, and you go off and quest, so the camera is not being attached. When you are fighting together, one of you can go off and get some health potions, so keep these people off me. You can really, truly co-op together. Then c.) there are some really charming things about Fable we've given you, so if you want, you can hug your co-op buddy, you can touch them in inappropriate places, you can have sex with your co-op buddy, you can marry your co-op buddy and you can have children with your co-op buddy. Or, you can have a business partnership if you don't feel like exploring your sexuality in that particular way.

What can we expect to see in Fable III in terms of world-morphing? Will there be key events that change the world at all in Fable III? Can we expect more in Fable III?

Absolutely. Especially when you're king. What we found in Fable II was that there was some level-morphing stuff, but people found it very aggravating that we had to remind them that this was the decision they had made. That is completely solved by you being king, because people will come to you and say, “Sire, if you do this and this, this will happen” and “If you do that, this will happen” and it just makes more sense.



Having a dog has proved very popular in Fable. Did you ever anticipate that?

I don't think the team really wanted to implement the dog, because there was this constant battle with the dog to keep it just a dog. In Fable III, interestingly, there was this idea from the team to give him a 'super bark', so he could knock over enemies with his bark. I said, “Look, we've made a dog. There's no new features. We're not going to do any more press on it, it's just a dog. He can't run at 60 miles an hour, he can't bark and knock down trees, he's still just a dog.” Yes, we will use him as part of the drama, but he shouldn't be anything more than a dog.

And do you think the dog will remain a part of the franchise as it goes on?

We did talk about turning the dog into a parrot, bizarrely. When we found we were getting John Cleese to play your butler, we thought if we had a parrot, we could do the parrot sketch in the game! Wouldn't that be cool!? Then we realised that would be a bit silly. I like the dog but I think if a lot of our systems become boring and it's there just for the sake of having it there, then we should change it. I still like the idea of having this companion that relies on you and you rely on it, and it's a real thing in the world.

Do you think you'll be as critical of Fable III a few years down the line as you are of Fable II right now?

I'm no fool. I've read the reviews. I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said in a review. I could choose to ignore it and blindly go on thinking I'm the greatest designer of all time, or I could just accept them as what they are, which are failings in what could have been a great game. And yeah, the co-op was rubbish, the 2D interface was confusing and bewildering, and that experience spending system – guess what – 30% of people filled up the first experience bar, then the second experience bar, then the third experience bar. Why? Because we presented it to them in that order, which is just bad design and I could choose to ignore it, but I think places like Develop where I'm stood in a room filled with 400 programmers and designers from the industry, well if I wasn't honest, then what am I doing standing there? It just doesn't make sense, so I don't know. I mean, the problem with games development is that you get to the bug-fixing phase – and we had 32,000 bugs in Fable III -  and that's when all the horrible stuff starts happening. It's when your light map resolution goes down and your textures get reduced, and the gameplay here that you thought was so wonderful has so many bugs in it and has to be ripped out like dissection. We're down to just 46 bugs now, so I'm happy that we're not going to lose anything, but it's not until I truly walk into a shop to buy my copy to play at home that I really know the game I made, even though I've played it thousands of times.

When you do finally become king, is there as much impetus to continue playing as there is in the first half of the game?

That's a tough one to answer.

Do you think you’ll ever talk about the second half of the game?

No. There's this massive plot twist when you become king, and it's something you do not know and do not realise.

It’s not very often you release a game where half of it is surrounded in mystery...

You can't really say much about the second half of the game, because it's made up of your choices, but it's this massive, dramatic thing.

Fable III is scheduled for an October 26th and October 29th release in North America and Europe respectively. Don't forget to check out our Fable III Gamescom hands-on here.

Comments
38
  • Why October! Rock Band 3 and Fallout and this!
  • good interveiw...really looking forward to fable 3...not so much kinect
  • Looking forward to this! Nice interview!
  • Good interview however, if asking the audience whether Kinect should be apart of Fable 3 and having 10 of them say yes and 300 say no, you would think he would scrap the idea of Kinect fully within the Fable franchise? Seems to me, he doesn't want to admit that Kinect and Fable are not a good combination, then again i am one of those people who really do not like the idea nor the product that is Kinect.
  • I didn't read it at all but I already get the gist of it. Molyneux: I really want Kinect to be on it. It would be the greatest thing in history but I of course will half-ass it and say it will release compatible. Then I'll wait a couple months, release 9 billion images and every british voice actor available. Then i'll wait another month and say it won't ship with Kinect. Tune in next month when Molyneux decides the whole game will be in Arabic!
  • Seems really interesting. I'm glad he actually cares about his gamers. Great move on not having Kinect IMO, though im still interested in seeing what Kinect will be like. Def dont ever wanna give up my controller though. Hopefully Fable III will be more promising
  • This Peter guy makes me want to believe in Kinect as well. He talks about it with so much intensity and level-headedness that it really appeals to me. I've never played any fable games, but I appreciate his honesty at his shortcomings. Goodinterview
  • interesting, been checking up on the progress for a while now i think I'm going to pick it up
  • I read the sub-title of this article as "baldly".
  • Well, I didn't get my answer here either. :(
  • Good, honest interview. Im relived that fable 3 will not have kinect.
  • @ 7 - Playing the Fable games on their own is defintely a worthwile experience. Playing the Fable games after hearing Molyneux bullshit about What Will Be In The Game is like reading about the second coming of Christ only to find out it's really a dung beetle with a beard. He promised WAY too many choice issues in the original Fable and tried to recap with The Lost Chapters and only added 1/4 of what he promised. Oh and still tried to sell it for retail. He completely overhyped the "innovative" dog in Fable 2. It was just another "partner" AI like any other game. And finally the co-op. For a 2008 game, it had 1993 co-op and "free roam" which wasn't free at all.
  • Top notch review as always. Now I might just get collector's edition on day one. Hmmm...
  • Amazing the way he craps on Fable I and II now, justifying why we should buy Fable III but at least he's apparently being honest about them. Time will tell how honest he's being about Fable III. Now that he's not implementing Kinect in any way, Fable III might just be a bargain bin purchase for me. Sometime.
  • "I asked the audience, how many people want Kinect in Fable? About ten hands went up, and so I asked, how many people definitely don't want Kinect in Fable? About 300 hands went up." Hahahahaha
  • Although Molyneux has fucked up on many of his promises I get what he's saying about him telling the truth, techinically he does he just over emphasises the features in his games. #5 If you have not read the entire interview how can you say that? OT: Fable 3 sounds really good and the gameplay vids that are available look promising. I also read somewhere tha tin the second half of the game you go to war with another country? Sounds cool if its true.
  • After reading this review I'm MUCH more interested in F3 than before. I'm very happy that Kinect isn't a part of it, even if it is optional. I'm not a Molyneux fan but I do appreciate his honesty on F2's problems and it's good to know the coop option will be a true coop option. I just hope they fix the issue with not being able to join each other's games.
  • "you can have sex with your co-op buddy," Wait. What?! Now that's interesting!
  • I think that this will turn out well. And what does he mean by 46 bugs. 46 bugs in general or 46 noticiable bugs or 46 huge bugs. I like how he can say what was wrong with Fable 2. Though i hope he isn't over hyping like he did with fable 2 (i wasn't there when 1 was in development)
  • @#20 - He means, that there are 46 bugs left to fix. The final game should have 0 - well, from the list he is talking about that is, who knows what others will find =P
  • Nice interview. I have been waiting for this to come out since I finished Fable 2. I'm just dissapointed it's coming out the same day as Force Unleashed 2. Tough choice, but probably going for this first.
  • Wow. Great interview. @Webb: Not to be picky, but at the end of the response to the first question "but I've got to be honest with you, it was just to gimmicky." should be too not to.
  • Screw Peter Molyneux and his words. I've learned to not put much faith in anything he says.
  • That paragraph about Co-Op made me randy.. I CANT WAIT FOR THIS.
  • Why must you keep tempting me Webb?! I want my Fable 3 CE NOW!!!! Sucks having to wait 2 more months =(
  • Forget having a parrot as a pet - i want the chicken from that trailer. And also "No. There's this massive plot twist when you become king, and it's something you do not know and do not realise. " What a spoiler!
  • I've been saving all my earned money for almost half a year, and I'm so happy I got enough for Reach, Dead Rising 2, Fable 3 and New Vegas! It's gonna be an amazing autumn for me!
  • @ 17 - The first part of my post was sarcasm. I don't trust Molyneux anymore at all. Emphasis or not, he still lied at the end. If you're excited about what you want in the game, be excited. Don't go and promise the fans that it will be in the game and then shift to might then to should then won't. "Fool me once, shame on you..." to be blunt - and he's slipped the bill twice already. The second part, which is fact is the fact that he promised bigger and better and now it's not releasing with it only echoes the same BS all over again.
  • Wow. So you can f**k in co-op now. SOLD.
  • Hold up. . . Did Peter mention he was AUTISTIC in that article?
  • I think this game is going to bomb massively. Guy hypes his games to death, fails to deliver, and then has the nerve to say "Fable 1 and 2 were rubbish." (AFTER everybody paid good money for them) but then goes and does the same thing with Fable 3. Molyneux is officially at George Lucas status.
  • to crunchb3rry peter is a genius and a good one he can adimit that his last game wasnt great thats an awsome thing that means hes gunna work harder on the next one thats what a great artist does he will never think his there game is awsome theyll always just see room for improvment and that is exactly what it needs both fables were awsome especailly fable 2 i play it alot ya the multi player sucked and the marriage concept needs work but they world morphing and the clothing options were awsome ...oh yea and the (graphic user interface) gui for short sucked but it does in most games shit the best game ive ever played fallout 3 the gui in that blew but peter ,peter my man fixed that with this fable 3 he reinvented the gui and i think alot of games are gunna copy his idea and i for one wouldnt blame them i hope they do . just for shits im gunna add the +'s about this game that i can tell so far (1). the gui (2).the followers/ experience thing they made it more realistic in a sense with u not having to absorb exp and i could see getting followers as fun who doesnt like to woo ppl to there side (3). multi player, multi player , multi player they fixed it i think thats what sold me into pre ordering this game is when he said they fixed the single screen multi player 100000 achievement points for peter and u can have babys with ur frineds and get married thats pretty neat im thinkin he stole that from my mind while i was asleep lol,(4). weapon evolution pretty sweet idea but i could see the evolution being very narrow and not very customizable i mean alot of ppl will prolly have the same exact evolved weapon but i guess well see fingers crossed but its a awsome idea.(4) judgment's do i have to say anymore (5). touch for instance me n my wife sit down to play fable 3 we have a real life son together so we make a baby in the game and name him my sons name well instead of just bein able to put on a sock pupet show for him me n my wife can come home from hobb killin and give our son a big hug and both grab his hand a frolik down the street it might sound lame to u but if u have a wife and kid ud understand how cool thatd be for ur wife n u to play plus u can just grab ppl up by there throat and throw them in the dungeon/ execute them pretty effin sweet......... ok the only thing im worried about is maybe they might have went a lil to action game for this and a lil to short on the rpg side but well see i believ this game will be awsome and if it isnt ill stomp on it with my highwayman boots which are kilo white lol
  • oh yea and the companion should either be ur kid which would open alot of quest options alot of options period and everyone would like that from what ive read and heard or u should be able to choose from a selection at a pet store maybe or have spacific quests for companions in order to get them make it to where u can collect pets lvl them up even breed them so u can get a certain color or a certain health limit or strenght itd be cool to be able to go to ur house and pick which animal ur taking today itd open alot of doors to maybe ull have to have a birt to get a key from a high place or a dolphin or w/e an aquatic animal to get a item on the see floor.....i just had an idea breeding ur animals with friends animals thatd be pretty cool ..make it possible to get legendary pets like a dragon , unicorn,chibucabr,gryphon, options are very open i think i should write a letter to peter so i can assure fable 4 is gunna be awsome but he wouldnt listen anyways but i think these are good ideas
  • It's this big troll face ahahahaa
  • Fable 3 looks awsome, however i still think Fable: The Lost Chapters was the best game in the trilogy
  • There will be Kinect in Fable 3. MS wants it, the man who made farting and dancing like a monkey for people an integral part of the game wants it They just don't have time to implement it and make their deadline So first or second Fable 3 DLC, COUNT on having Kinect features
  • I only recently played Fable II and although I think I may eventually get this there are too many good games coming out for it to be anything but an impulse buy at some later point. Anything after mid-October is going to be all Fallout.
  • You need to register before being able to post comments

Game navigation