The Future of Fable

[Lenop]

There was a game franchise I liked way back when and it died due to shoddy producers, publishers, internal turmoil and a downturn in the game industry. The guys who did it have found a cool way to bring it back to the modern age and without any of the problems they had before, and because it'll be without a creative director, producer, publisher, because there will be much fewer hands in the pot messing things up, they could do it the way they wanted to do it.

(Mind the volume. Watch after the initial trailer for what I'm talking about.)

So the idea is simply this: What if the guys who developed Fable were to create their own spiritual successor, creating the game that Fable was supposed to be? If these guys who did a small game fifteen years ago could get $2mil+ so quickly, surely the guys who did Fable should have no problem finding the kind of funds they'd need from the community. Anyway, it's just a thought.

 

[cheezMcNASTY]

I like the idea of this, and I hope you're right. Fable has been Lionhead's lifeblood for a long time now, though... I can't shake the feeling that they'll try to milk it with or without Molyneux.
The part of this that puts me at ease is that it'll be without Molyneux and therefore be better. I guess it all depends on whether the new guy feels like he has to make his own way in the cold dark world or if he'd be better served riding on past success. Lionhead holds all the copyrights for Fable and continues to be showered in cash whenever they make one regardless of how unfinished the game is. Honestly, I'm not really sure that they have a good reason to not make another Fable unless it's to prove they aren't a one-trick pony.

But more importantly, I'm wondering why I haven't seen anything about this Planetary Annihilation game until now.
**** StarCraft.
I want one of those

 

[Lenop]

cheez was kind enough to provide some input on this idea.

"Would be awesome, but I don't think it'll happen. The target audience for a PC RTS and a console RPG are extremely different
The only reason I say that is because every Fable player I run into outside of Pego seems to be 13 years old and has a love for profanity
Fingers crossed I'm wrong"

Then we talked about scary games being a practical parenting tool.

I think this is a valid point, I'd like to add something to it to show the beauty of kickstarter. If the audience is there and wants to fund it, they will. If people truly don't want the Fable game they had hoped for, they won't put any money into it. Otherwise they won't. I know that not everyone is like me, which can only be a good thing, but I have no doubt that there's a market for a Fable game the way Fable was supposed to be, fairy tales and promises and all.

Even so, I doubt they'd ever consider doing anything like this. If for no other reason than because they'd not consider it worth their time. It's just a fun thing to think about.

Edit: Of course cheez would post while I'm writing my own. :|

But more importantly, I'm wondering why I haven't seen anything about this Planetary Annihilation game until now.
f*** StarCraft.
I want one of those

Oh yea. Me too.

 

[cheezMcNASTY]

:steve:

I think people are seeing large paragraphs and avoiding this thread like the plague.

 

[Lenop]

:steve:

I think people are seeing large paragraphs and avoiding this thread like the plague.

I know. But there's so much story to tell. You told me these guys liked story.
It's fine. I can revise the first post.

 

[This is my Albion]

By spiritual successor, do you mean an actual re-release of the entire fable game? Or a new game that has the basics of fable but with a different name, plot, character, etc?
I don't mind lionhead milking the fable franchise as long as it finally has a good premise rather than "look at the pretty graphics!" Its a case of make it ship shape or GTFO.
If they can't come up with a more expansive plot line and rehashing old ideas then they are better off starting from scratch with a fable-ish feel in mind.
Im sure there's a more articulate way to put this but im not in the frame of mind to be smart. I don't think Im even getting the point :s
btw, can't watch the video, my phone internet won't let me (;___

 

[Lenop]

See, this is why the post needed the story.

The first Fable was going to be so much more than it ended up being. It was going to be a fantastic fantastical fantasy Fable, with themes and settings ripped straight out of children's stories and given a dark, sick, macabre twist. It was going to be enchanted forests with good and bad godfaeries, trolls and ogres. In these dark woods would be all manner of foul beings, wolves trying to eat little girls, thorns to give that twisted magic feel, a gothy slutty Rose Red. It was going to be sandbox, open-world, the hero or heroine can go anywhere anytime to do anything he or she wants.

But instead thorns were used to thinly veil chests, Rose Red was rebranded as Briar, trolls and faeries became standard baddies. Other things that were supposed to be in were cut out or simply never started. Huge elaborate cities like the one Bowerstone was supposed to be had to be significantly cut to easily less than half of what it would have been. The main quest was very linear and the gameplay was boxed-in and controlled. You can't even ignore the main quest because over half the map is off limits until you start it, and all the villagers keep going on about that problem in Orchard Farm that *someone* should take care of wink wink.

A lot of these problems were on Molyneux and on Microsoft. Molyneux kept changing the game's direction and Microsoft kept saying "two months, finished or not we're releasing it". Oh and there was that terribly embarrassing moment when they realized that the test consoles had much better hardware than retail consoles, and they had to redo everything again just to get the game to run on consumer consoles. If they didn't have to rely on Moly or Microsoft, Fable could have been so, so much better.

 

[This is my Albion]

Oh my god! That would have been awesome! But i think they dropped the idea of a darker and more gothic fable to reach out to a wider audience (which was a dumb idea.) They were clearly too busy creating the next "cash cow" and overlooked what would make the game from good to great.
Id like to see them pick up from their original ideas rather than the one we're left with. Id like to see a darker fable series which would make the world far more interesting and given the choice to explore without being forced to do the main quest to do so. But without knowing what direction lionhead studios is going next, its hard to say. At the moment, it seems like their burying their heads in the sand and relying on making their games pretty and a selection of customizable items :/

 

[Lenop]

Exactly. And it's a shame. People get upset because I will talk badly of Fable, but then I get upset because they can't see how much better Fable could have been. That's where the disappointment is, for me at least. And now, the direction of Fable and prospects of its future just make me sad.

With Molyneux's departure it's very hard to say what will happen. I can hazard a guess though. The new creative lead will be handpicked by Microsoft. He will likely turn everything into cutesy phone applets. Imagine Angry Birds in Space with a Fable theme to it. And one of those farming games you'll find anywhere on the interwebs now, again in the style of Fable. Once the Fable name has been drained of all cash prospects they trash it and come up with something new that they can use in the social media world.

But I'm a pessimist.

 

[This is my Albion]

I agree but as far as i can tell, most fans still feel fable's plot lines are shallow. Its true that we can't know for sure why they dropped their concept ideas and how difficult it would be to produce a great game in a short deadline but they've released four games now and each one have become as disappointing as the last. The fable games are on a steady decline story wise, and unless they hire the Chris nolan of the gaming world, Im afraid you may be less pessimistic and more realistic....

 

[MazeisMaze]

I agree with everything you guys are saying. Maybe if they weren't so depended on Microsoft things would be a lot better. I feel like the Fable series will turn into a kitty game with Fable Heroes and everything. It's sad really. They made so many promises about making a game better than the last but failed to deliver.

 

[This is my Albion]

I hope it doesn't end up like bioware did with mass effect 3. How you have to play the app version to get more war assets for the final battle. That was crap....

 

[Daniel Ray]

The franchise dies and we turn into an Elder Scrolls community forum. Can you hear the children screaming happily?

At least the Elder Scrolls have good content these days...

 

[This is my Albion]

That's arguable Danny

 

[Daniel Ray]

That's arguable Danny

Skyrim: Good, and still doing good, thanks to dlc that's still coming out. I'm a little ARGHed that Lionhead stopped supporting Fable III after just two bits of dlc and almost no updates. The game needed some updates to clean the bugs out. :/

 

[This is my Albion]

It's not arguable, trust me. Just look around and how well does Skyrim live after one year and how well Fable 3 lived after one year. Besides the well delayed and ultra bugged PC release that you needed to make a blood ritual with the Lords of Hell, it was pretty much OK.

I mean, how often do you strike a deal with not one, but seven devils?!

Im not actually a big fan of skyrim and i know others who don't like it because of the gameplay and plot line.

 

[Lenop]

I don't like doesn't mean the game sucks. Get your ideas right.

Don't be such a poop. :|

I enjoyed Skyrim. I like that Bethesda provided tools for modding. I like that they have a strong support for the community and give a damn about what people think. Skyrim is a good game and Bethesda's a good developer but Fable really could have been much, much better. That's the whole point of my thread, if Fable was made the way it should have been, people on TES forums would be talking about how great Fable is instead of the other way around.

 

[Lenop]

I'm not a 'poop' I'm merely clarifying that opinions aren't facts.

Daniel said that the TES games have good content. Whether or not it is good is a legitimate matter of debate, since it is an opinion. You get your own ideas right and stop being a poop. We don't need that attitude, come back with a better one and we can be friends.

 

[Lenop]

Since you're determined to be a poop I guess I'll have to entertain you and then you can pester someone else. Fable 3 was released a year prior and the franchise had lost most of its novelty by that time, let alone a year after when a huge title like Skyrim was being released. What we're talking about are apples and oranges. If Skyrim and Fable, not Fable 3 but Fable, were released at the same time and Fable was developed using technologies that existed in 2011 instead of 2004, and both were marketed just as well and accurately, poor Moly, always getting hammered on that... and and if Fable was made the way it was supposed to be made, then you'd have an argument.

You're basically comparing a space shuttle to a paper plane saying more people enjoyed the shuttle. I'm saying that if the paper plane had been made a shuttle too, people would have liked that one more. Please tell me that you understand what I'm saying, because I don't think I can be bothered to indulge your need for argument any further.

 

[Lenop]

Fable for the PC was released a few months before Skyrim and Fable 3 was released one year and two months earlier. That doesn't excuse it. Look at Skyrim one year later it still kicks ass, why didn't Fable 3 kick ass in 2011 then? Because it was a bad game. It was so bad that if you took the name "Fable" away it might have sold more.

It's solid facts the numbers don't lie, more people are willing to talk and share stuff about Skyrim than Fable one year later. In 10 years people will talk about Skyrim and Fable 3 will be forgotten, a phantom a memory.

Now I know where I remember the name. You were on the list of people cheezMcNASTY told me to avoid. I can say now, after talking with you, that he was spot on with his evaluation of you. Confrontational, argumentative, self-centered and stubborn. You don't care about the discussion, let alone adding constructively to the discussion, you only care about the points you want to make. I'll have to ignore your posts, there's nothing for me to gain in reading them. Please leave my thread alone, go bother someone else.