Fable's Concept 10th Anniversary 2002-2012

[DarkONI]

Hello,

You might be wondering what I'm onto about - well Lionhead studios just ten years ago revealed Project Ego, that would be known by that name until it's final reveal as "Fable" the game that was released on the original Xbox and later on the PC.

First of all, I want to say that despite how Fable is different nowadays, I want to go back in the time when I got the game on my hands -- I had played it in a friend's house for the first time in my life roughly a few weeks before picking it up.

Role-playing games for consoles weren't that popular at the time, and especially the Action Role-playing genera wasn't so big as it's nowadays. I'm sure most of you remember that few were the console titles that were worth playing at the time.

I'm sure that Fable has left us with a small taste of disappointment in our mouths in many aspects - the continuous forced marketing, the publisher, some of the Molyneux effect on the game led to some displeasure.

However, looking around at sites like Projectego.net, FableTLCMod and even the old-favorite but gone Lionhead Community I can understand that despite the thick cloak of problems the game had we still enjoyed it for what it is - a game with its own lore, virtual world that has its own ideas in the action role-playing genera that few did try to mix together and were able to release a decent title for Microsoft's first console back at the time.

I could write on this thread forever, but I'll let you share your own thoughts, enjoyment and ideas about the Fable franchise as it started from a mere concept in a summer of 2002 of a young Lionhead Studios into a worldwide bestseller that might have let down its fans, but regardless is a commonly accepted franchise.



Links (Courtesy of Archive.org)
// Lionhead.com - Developer Diary
// Metacritic.com - Fable (X-Box) Reviews
// Project Ego: E3 2002 trailer
// Lionhead Studios Store

 

[Gikoku]

10 years since its conception and 8 since its initial release, hard to believe it has been that long already. Wasn't really a fan of Fable 2 and 3, but 1/TLC was something else.. very original in many ways even if the story was a little predictable. But it served as an excellently ambitious foundation that didn't get too ahead of itself, can still come back to it after all these years and serve as a game that has stood the test of time. I can only wonder if Lionhead will manage to conceptualize another release within the next 10 years that does justice to what Fable originally was, or if we'll have to continue wondering "What if?".

 

[cheezMcNASTY]

I missed out on the Project Ego hype. I didn't know what Project Ego meant until I signed up here. I first played Fable at a friend's house (first I'd heard of it) and I fell in love. So classic, so simple. The voltron of all famous fairy tales and British humor. Before I bought it, a friend and I would laugh over the possibility of being so evil that the game rendered your character as a giant horn.

Bought the game (not TLC) used from GameStop a month or so later and ended up beating it 6-7 times.
It didn't take long to beat, but I loved playing so it didn't matter. The story was so simple. The bad guy was pure evil and you came from the noblest of backgrounds. It was your destiny to kick his ass. Then comes choice. Do you chop his head on a block and live happily ever after, or do you kill him and your sister, take everything he wanted to use for evil, and be worse than he could have ever been? Gives me the goosebumps just thinking about how awesome that was when I first played it. One of the biggest kicks I've ever gotten from playing a video game.

What Moly and Lionhead failed to realize about the game is that it was the simplicity of the games theme that was most beloved (to me at least). That atmosphere where there's pure good, pure evil, and tons of fairytale lore to back it up. What's the first thing they do? Jump the game forward 300 years and add a dose of Oliver Twist to it. Suddenly it's not about how cartoonishly good or evil you can be, it's about the real-world consequences. Yeah Peter, what these gamers really need is a harsh life lesson. You can't just keep all your money for yourself and ignore giving to charity because if you do then the entire world is dead. You evil, evil bastard.

Honestly, I still scratch my head over that. Who thinks that a splash of reality is going to make a game called Fable better? It's an oxymoron.

 

[Lenop]

Agreed with cheez on the concept of the original, where they went wrong with the sequels, and basically everything else.

Sadly and as was stated in other threads, I doubt Lionhead ever could return to form even if they wanted to. But that's fine. They can have their cartoon-like kid-friendly beat'em ups. It's not the first time a franchise I loved went in a direction that was not specifically targeted at me. With the people they still have, I'd predict making Fable as 'hip' and 'cool' as possible in the social media circles would maximize potential profits to be had on a real-time action/simulation RPG where you're a hero who farms. It'll be all the rage.

While I have no idea what Lionhead will actually do, either with their Fable franchise or perhaps a new one in the works, I have come to the conclusion that they won't ever release another game quite like the original Fable. Daniel Ray says a lot of these things better than I do, I'll let him pop in at his convenience to do so.

 

[Daniel Ray]

I miss these these guys a lot. The guys who came up and worked on ProjectEgo, when it was still called ProjectEgo. With the exception to the Art Director, Ian Lovett, most of the big people from ProjectEgo ended up here:


I'm keeping an eye on these guys. If anyone will honour Fable, it will be these guys. Simon and Dene Carter thought of it, and designed it, and the other three in the picture were all heads of certain departments in Lionhead during ProjectEgo's development.