Famously outspoken British games designer Peter Molyneux has being reigning in his insane press promises recently, and it seems he’s finally learning to stop over hyping his projects. Speaking to Develop in an interview published today, the god-genre creator admits Fable III was a “train wreck”, and that he’ll never make what he sees as his “perfect gem” of a game.
Molyneux touches on numerous topics during the interview, from how he would have improved the recently released mobile version of Dungeon Keeper, to 22Can’s own unique approach to free-to-play monetization.
“We’ve got to move players away from their first thought about free-to-play games, which is that they will never spend any money on it. Every consumer is saying the same, and a lot of games gradually wear them down, and then they take a lot of money. My approach is very different: if people feel like this game is a hobby, they will want to spend money,” Molyneux tells Develop.
“What they get, the type of thing they get, the amount they get, must feel like an investment not a cheat, and if we do that, that feels like a more responsible way of monetising free games.”
When asked if his methodology is similiar to that of League of Legends, where players purchase more characters to use and outfits for them to wear, he said, “..we need to be as inventive with our monetisation strategies as we are with the rest of our gameplay”
“With Godus, we’re trying to approach that monetisation very differently and in a very unique way. We’ve got a limited launch coming up – we’ll announce the actual date at GDC. The whole of the game is insanely different from what people think. They’ve already looked at early access and said, oh we know what Godus is, but that’s just a slither of what the game will be.”
Despite the numerous references to promoting Godus, which you would expect from its lead man when the game is nearing release, Molyneux is noticeably cutting a more cool and calm persona these days. Between talking about re-inventing the god genre he invented with Populous, lessons learned from Curiosity and the $50,000 pickaxe, and Godus’ early access problems, the former Lionhead Studios boss admits he needs to stop overreaching and making wild promises to the press.
“The trouble with me is I do this stupid thing – and I always do it – where I start talking in an excited way about what I’m working on before I’m finished. And what people are actually seeing is me as a designer being excited about what I am doing. You’re not seeing someone who’s a brilliant PR person selling ice cubes to the arctic
“In my mind, as a designer, whenever I’m making a game I have this perfect jewel in mind. Fable for me was this beautiful, incredible, amusing, funny, artistic, wonderful gem of a game that anyone could play, that tugged on the heartstrings and that was instantly engaging.
“The gem that was in my mind has never come to be, it’s always flawed in some way. I thought Fable 1 – when you consider that it was the first game I ever did of that type – wasn’t bad. It was hugely flawed in some senses, there were technical issues like the animation didn’t work, but it wasn’t bad. I think Fable II was a step in the right direction, I think Fable III was a trainwreck. It was built to be much bigger than what it was constrained to be and eventually ended up as. If I had my time again, I’d take the advances we made from Fable 1 to Fable II, I’d make the same advances from Fable II to Fable III and spend another entire year working on Fable III. But would it be that perfect gem that’s in my mind? No.
“I just shouldn’t get so excited in front of the press. There’s an empirical decay between what the idea is in your mind and what you end up with, no matter what creative field you’re working in. I talk to a lot of creative people and they’re often disappointed in their own work.”
Modest words indeed. The entire interview makes for an enthralling read, and even touches upon possible government legislation that will crack down on free-to-play gaming and how game studios should prepare for that inevitability.
A possible Vita version for Godus is also suggested. Read the full interview here.
http://www.thirteen1.com/2014/02/26/molyneux-says-hell-never-make-perfect-game-fable-iii-trainwreck/
