Peter Molyneux: Fable III Was a Trainwreck. I'll Never Make my Perfect Game

[Steven Bogos]

Peter Molyneux: Fable III Was a Trainwreck. I'll Never Make my Perfect Game

Peter Molyneux says he will never be able to make a game that matches the "perfect gem" in his mind.

Peter Molyneux, creator of Black and White, Fable and most recently Godus in an interview with Develop [http://www.develop-online.net/news/molyneux-i-ll-never-make-my-perfect-game/0189622] has claimed that Fable III was a "trainwreck", and that he will never be able to make his "perfect gem" of a masterpiece, as the creative process is subject to "empirical decay" from inception to final product.

Molyneux has built up a kind of infamous reputation as someone who likes to over-hype his games with outlandish claims that never come to fruition in the final product. Molyneux explains that his claims of grandeur are never meant to be misdirection, just his unbridled passion.

"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."

"In my mind, as a designer, whenever I'm making a game I have this perfect jewel in mind," he said. "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."

He went on to claim that while Fable II made some great strides in the right direction, Fable III fell very flat. "Fable III was a trainwreck. It was built to be much bigger than what it was constrained to be and eventually ended up as."

Source: Develop [http://www.develop-online.net/news/molyneux-i-ll-never-make-my-perfect-game/0189622]

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[Shocksplicer]

Glad to hear you admitting what we all already know Peter. Somehow I doubt it'll stop you from making the same mistakes over and over though...

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

That's pretty much what I always thought he did. He was always talking more about the game he was dreaming of, and got a bit over-excited. I still like most of his stuff, even if it isn't the "perfect jewel" he wanted it to be. Most of 'em are good or great games. I have fond memories of Black and White; I managed to play it without hearing the hype so I went in with my judgement unclouded and had a lot of fun.

He sounds unhappy, though. Wonder if it's all finally getting to him?

 

[Ninmecu]

And so the man who wishes to make others play god, reaches the epiphany that he's simply too optimistic in this day and age. But, yeah, thanks for pointing out what we already knew and all that.

 

[Evil Smurf]

You won't make a perfect game with that attitude Pete!

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I thought Fable III was pretty good, right up until the last half hour or so. Introducing that new villain half way through really raised my hopes and I was expecting great things at the end.

Instead, I got a regular bandit fight that all I had to do was dodge-roll, dodge-roll, strike, repeat. Only the ending fell flat for me. The rest of the game was great.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

Although I've never played his games (du fuks an Ex Box?), I will concede that he is at least passionate about what he's doing. Everybody want's to make the 'Perfect Game', but once you've got perfection, where else are you going to go? It's like what Yahtzee said about Will Wright; having made the most popular god games (the Sims), Spore wasn't going to live up to it.

At the absolute least he's made a name for himself and gotten millions of people to play his games, which is more than what a lot of developers/designers get.

 

[Frotality]

its absolutely amazing how a little humility and admission of error can completely erase your negative opinions of someone. glad to see peter is finally realizing what everyone else discovered at the age of 19; what you want in your head and what's available in reality very rarely match up.

 

[Story]

Aww it's okay Mr.Molyneux, I liked Fable III quite a bit. There is no such thing as a perfect game anyway.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

I actually liked Fable III, hell of a lot more than I liked Fable II. It was a good game, right up until when you become King. Because that's the part that majorly screws over lawful good players by making them grind a ridiculous amount of money. Whoever thought up that part was a fucking moron.

 

[Something Amyss]

I'd settle for making a game that lived up to its promises.

Glad to hear you admitting what we all already know Peter. Somehow I doubt it'll stop you from making the same mistakes over and over though...

Like making batshit promises that nobody can realistically keep?

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

I still believe that the aversion against people like PM for talking too much is a part of the current trend of secrecy and carefulness where nobody actually associated with a game can talk about it and all we get are carefully constructed press releases and trailers.

No thanks. I'll take PM talking passionately about his ideas every day over some soulless marketing hyping bullshit made up by bean counters.

Peter Molyneux is just as full of shit as any of those marketing bean counters:
http://www.neoseeker.com/news/16034-molyneux-admits-he-lied-about-game-features-to-keep-journalists-awake/

Or then there was the time he lied about Fable: The Journey being 'definitely not on rails!'
http://www.destructoid.com/review-fable-the-journey-236153.phtml

Or the time he claimed that Godus is not 'free to play' but 'invest to play'!
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/peter-molyneux-says-godus-is-invest-to-play-not-free-to-play/1100-6417794/

I suppose if someone is going to continuously mislead you, you might expect them to put a bit of passion into it.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

I didn't mind Fable III really much at all, I still love Fable II more than the other two but III's story and forcing a time limit on you for the first time in a Fable game didn't exactly sit all too well with me and in the end just gave us roughly two endings which kinda sucked, at least in Fable 2 I had a reason to roughly replay the game 3 times, each playing out differently and having 3 different endings.

But still I'd love to see something like Fable II but being a little more complex and bigger for a world yet still retaining the art style since it grew on me over the years I've come to play it.

 

[ellers07]

It's ok, I forgive him. I hope he keeps trying to make that perfect jewel that's in his mind, because it sounds really good! If he can't quite get there at least I'll have some new Fable games to play, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Shocksplicer]

I'd settle for making a game that lived up to its promises.

Glad to hear you admitting what we all already know Peter. Somehow I doubt it'll stop you from making the same mistakes over and over though...

Like making batshit promises that nobody can realistically keep?

Precisely, and he only seems to be getting worse about it with time.

 

[Something Amyss]

Precisely, and he only seems to be getting worse about it with time.

The good news is, he's running out of ways to top his ridiculous claims. I mean, unless he says his next game will bring you to orgasm and let you literally see God....

 

[Something Amyss]

It's ok, I forgive him. I hope he keeps trying to make that perfect jewel that's in his mind, because it sounds really good! If he can't quite get there at least I'll have some new Fable games to play, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I thought MEter Polydeux was out of the Fable business.

 

[Shocksplicer]

Precisely, and he only seems to be getting worse about it with time.

The good news is, he's running out of ways to top his ridiculous claims. I mean, unless he says his next game will bring you to orgasm and let you literally see God....

I don't know, he is literally naming it Godus. Might not be a good sign...