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Annuls of Project Ego

Precipice

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@Gikoku sparked my interest in talking about history in this thread. But since that thread isn't about history I thought I'd make a new one.

This is not solely the history of Fable or Molyneux or anything else. I'd like very much for this to be a community thread, where anyone who knows anything about the history that led up to or subsequently followed anything connected to WishWorld, Project Ego and Fable, including Fable communities (official and otherwise); it'd be amazing if the forum founders would contribute.

And now I share the story as it was passed down to me.

Fable owes much of its existence to Molyneux and Lionhead, true. But that's just a tiny bit of a longer story. There was a lot in play.

In the beginning, there was Bullfrog. Anyone alive and active in the gaming community back then would probably love to bore you to tears about how great Bullfrog was back in the day. It was founded in Guildford, over in irl Albion. Because of the history that follows, it is my imagination that Guildford is some kind of game developer megalopolis with gaming culture busting through the seams of every industry there. If it's not, I'll be very disappointed.

Bullfrog Studios was founded by Peter Molyneux and Les Edgar. I speculate that at this particular moment, Edgar can be thought of as "the money" and so "the boss." Other people worth noting at Bullfrog are Mark Webley, Dene and Simon Carter, Russell Shaw, and probably others who would in time become involved with Fable.

Bullfrog was ****ting success for years. They couldn't produce a game that didn't strike gold (bet Molyneux misses those days). They caught the eye of Electronic Arts, who would buy into the company. More speculation on my part, while Edgar probably thought this was fantastic since he was likely all business, Molyneux probably didn't enjoy this arrangement as much. Moly would in time get a seat at Electronic Arts as a Vice President, which I've worked into my theory as appeasing him. Didn't work though; in the years following that Moly had enough in his own warchest to resign, taking Webley with him to start up Lionhead. The name is derived from a pet rodent, I believe.

Not long after Edgar was given a Vice President position at EA. They still had a few good titles for years after this, a couple of which sequels of Molyneux's works. I suppose it wasn't enough because EA absorbed Bullfrog. Edgar eventually got out of the games industry in favor of more traditional business ventures that don't involve whiny prima donnas (*purely speculation*). EA established EA UK in Bullfrog's place, now called EA Bright Light and famous for (imo horrid) Harry Potter games. After this there were suddenly a large number of free agents running around looking for work, a few of which started up their own studios. Of those, Muckyfoot was one. They didn't survive. That period was such a dark age for gaming studios. They left a nice monument to their company though.

Another company that came out of the dissolution of Bullfrog and will sound more familiar to some of us was Big Blue Box, started up by Dene and Simon Carter as well as Ian Lovett. They were sitting on a winning lotto ticket, what would ultimately become Fable but at this time was called WishWorld. Time would pass, they still wouldn't have a game, I think it was around this time Dene started his goth thing? Maybe it was before. He doesn't do it anymore, now he's all posh and wax. Back to topic, they needed some serious help.

Down the street, Lionhead had success with Black & White and an expansion pack for it. Molyneux had people living and working out of his castle dungeon, something he at one point rephrases and points to as a point of pride. Maybe mixed pride and shame. Some people who do that are sentenced to 1000 years plus life in prison, but this is Surrey so who knows. Now, Lionhead is a game developer with time, money, manpower, resources, but all they had in the works was The Movies and it was bogged down in Development Hell. So they got this idea. There's a bunch of struggling game studios out there spread thin trying to manage being a legit studio and doing all this management crap and not having the right people, just a bunch of problems that Lionhead's already solved. So they set up a "satellite" program. I don't know why they called it that; they weren't launching kerbals into space. They gave studios money, people to handle the corporate aspects and left the developers to develop. The mixed blessing that came with this is that Peter Molyneux and Steve Jackson (the UK one, not the US one) would help/interfere with development.

Big Blue Box was one such satellite company. Over time WishWorld would take on some aspects that Molyneux put into Black & White, and now the game that was going to have unique multiplayer aspects isn't going to have multiplayer because those resources are needed to work on making the playable character have dark eyes when he's evil.

*** Digression: An interesting note about Molyneux and Black & White is that both he and C. Hudson (of Kotor and Mass Effect fame) apparently came up with the idea of morphing protagonists independently but at the same time. This note is interesting to me because Hudson now sits on Molyneux's former throne as creative director at Microsoft. ***

It came time to look for a publisher and that's how Microsoft got involved. WishWorld was scrapped for Project Ego, since it was no longer about a world of wishes but instead about, apparently, ego. Microsoft thought the game would be a great way to promote their new console (something they'd do repeatedly to the franchise much to my disdain). Now the PC game was being ported to Xbox. Because of how the game was to be utilized in this manner, a strict deadline was imposed. All of this served to further tax an already overtaxed development team. Lionhead and Microsoft became increasingly involved and I suspect it was well understood that Big Blue Box would eventually lose its autonomy and be absorbed immediately following the game's release as Microsoft laid in motion a plan to acquire Lionhead. Eventually someone thought Fable would make for a better name, hinting to the fabled elements in the game. Good call.

*** More digression: Because TLC was initially ported mid-development to Xbox and then ported back to PC, and because it underwent countless changes in direction and design, a lot of the things that were going to be in the game are there but unfinished. The modding community is well aware of this. Multiplayer, more quests, more maps, all kinds of cool stuff never made it into the game. Additionally, the game was never properly designed, only cobbled together and hacked to work as needed, which is why proper modding is said to be impossible. ***

Molyneux bullwhipped a game out of the original Project Ego team, utterly destroying their lives. After the game's release, many people on that team were burned out. There were articles published on this that make the work environment seem something akin to the LeQuint Dickey Mining Company, but still not as bad as Konami. Lionhead took a year and came out with The Lost Chapters. Big Blue Box was absorbed by Lionhead. Now, I say that like it's a bad thing, but it was essentially a mutual and beneficial merger and now Dene and Simon were working with Peter again, like the old Bullfrog days.

With Fable done, Molyneux takes the bullwhip to The Movies crew and Lionhead finally comes out with The Movies and an expansion pack. It was developed by a completely different team from the Fable guys. It was being worked on at the same time as Fable. A publishing deal had already been set up with Activision. I say that because it's important. The game was already in the works and the deal had already been made. Microsoft waited to acquire Lionhead, or Molyneux put off the acquisition, until after these games were out, possibly to prevent a vaporware situation where they have the game but can't do anything with it because of licensing issues or some other legal crap. After that, the acquisition is finalized and Lionhead has produced nothing but Fable titles since.





That is the extent of my knowledge and speculation on Fable's development. If I'm wrong or incomplete on anything, please feel free to pitch in. As I said, I want this to be a communal thread where everyone who knows the history can share. More than that, there are other chapters to explore: the sequels, spinoffs, Legends, a "Where Are They Now" for Molyneux, the Carters and others. Just whatever there is that can be tied into the lore.
 

Precipice

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Neglected to mention that Black & White 2 came out just after TLC and was done with EA, with an expansion pack done half a year later. Significance notwithstanding, it was something that Lionhead was cooking up at around the same time as the original Fable and so should be in the canon.
 

DarkONI

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Time would pass, they still wouldn't have a game, I think it was around this time Dene started his goth thing? Maybe it was before. He doesn't do it anymore, now he's all posh and wax.
Yeah, he stopped doing it some time ago. Quite sad, really, I thought he was the coolest goth ever. The reason I did have the whole "Shadow Modder" persona in 2010 was because to an extent, Dene had inspired me.

I also think Molyneux, used to look better back then. Nowadays he's overly stressed over what has been going on with 22 Cans and Godus, and it's very different from the way things were when Fable, Fable 2 and Fable 3 was released. I might have been rude towards Molyneux at the time, but I still appreciate his work and Lionhead's.
 

HobbeBrain

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This is a ridiculously impressive account of Fable! Congratulations. Interesting to read that Moly founded Bullfrog, back when I wa a youngster my dad showed me his favourite video game, a little piece called Dungeon Keeper... also developed by Bullfrog. Interesting that, generations apart, his and my favourite games were - sort of - developed by the same man.

Er, also, my dad used to work in Guildford, and... there's no megapolis of Gamers there. Sorry. I hear there's a very big Forbidden Planet, though.
 

Precipice

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This is a ridiculously impressive account of Fable! Congratulations. Interesting to read that Moly founded Bullfrog, back when I wa a youngster my dad showed me his favourite video game, a little piece called Dungeon Keeper... also developed by Bullfrog. Interesting that, generations apart, his and my favourite games were - sort of - developed by the same man.
Men. The Carters, Russell Shaw, probably other people. Molyneux's just one guy. And it is super cool to have that generational bridge.
Dad's favorite video game was Ms. Pac Man. We didn't have the same kind of mutual appreciation going on.

Er, also, my dad used to work in Guildford, and... there's no megapolis of Gamers there. Sorry.
That is such horse ****
I hear there's a very big Forbidden Planet, though.
Oh, well, I guess it's alright then.
 

HobbeBrain

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Men. The Carters, Russell Shaw, probably other people. Molyneux's just one guy.

I know! Hence the "sort of" in my original post - I didn't want to give him all the credit, I just didn't know anyone else to give credit to. Can't give Moly all the credit, he certainly doesn't need his ego getting any bigger.

On a side note, I am now experiencing a huge nostalgic lust to play Dungeon Keeper. Ah well, guess I'll just play Fable instead.
 
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