Designer blames himself for 'insane' over-complication of Fable I and II
Peter Molyneux has brandished himself "a talentless bastard" - after admitting that he over-complicated elements of the first two Fable games.
As you might predict, the Lionhead boss thinks his team has got things spot on in Fable III, however - after removing the HUD, RPG experience system and expressions of the second game.
Lionhead has introduced two major gameplay elements to Fable III in their stead: A 'touch' system and 'followers', which gamers must accrue to ascend to the throne.
However, that doesn't stop Molyneux beating himself up for perceived mistakes in earlier iterations.
Molyneux told CVG in a new interview: "There was this amazing moment when a piece of research came back [that showed us] more than half the people who played Fable II understood and used less than half the features in the game. And as soon as you see that you think: 'Oh my God. What a talentless bastard I really am.'
"How can I have made a game in which people actually understood less than half of its mechanics? It's like making a film that makes people think: 'It looks quite cool. I don't know what the hell is going on, but it seems quite cool.' You know, that's just wrong.
"So I think Fable III is all about using mechanics, exploiting mechanics, giving gameplay reason to things. Expressions [which don't feature in Fable III] were cool in Fable II, but they were a way of just doing a fart joke over and over.
"Let's be honest, you know, that's what they were. There was no real meaning to them. There was no real emotional connection to them. They need to have an angle [to them]. The simpler things are, the more people use them."
Molyneux also discusses how Coronation Street and Barack Obama were major influences on the design of Fable III in our interview, which you can read here.
Essay Pro