Here is an office building in Guildford with demon doors painted on the lifts, a mo-cap studio still haunted by the ghost of Milo (his picture is blu-tacked to the wall) and an office dog called Bumble who seems utterly at ease with the idea of sleeping under a desk during crunch periods. It's almost when we interview them if they've never played Fable, well then, why would you be here?" it's someone's ten year anniversary today, and that's great. "And we've got a nice set of people - Ben and myself have been here going on ten years, there's a number of people. "Having new guys come in with new outlooks, coming from other parts of the industry, online guys and so on, they just keep things fresh," explains Geoff Smith, executive producer. If you don't know what a Hobbe is, there's really no point in applying. He says the integration of new members of staff with new skills in online and such has been smooth, thanks to a shared culture and a love of Fable. I had some ideas for it but he made it come together." All of the guys have changed the game, I can point to any given design element and say 'how set up works for that player when he's placing creatures - that's Lewis '. It's not just my ideas or ideas from Ben. "The kind of studio we're trying to make here is one where ideas from any source are embraced. Eckelberry seems genuinely excited to be here, when he talks about Fable he does it at a hundred words a minute, throwing in accents and jokes whether he's talking about Scottish redcaps or Unreal Engine 4. Both men moved their families to the UK from San Francisco to join Lionhead. He's not the only new addition to the executive team, there's also game director David Eckelberry. So yeah, it's big and ambitious, but it needs to be because it's going to be around a long time." There needs to be a lot of stuff to do, it needs to integrate all the cloud and Xbox One features so we keep our community alive and growing. "This is the next big Fable game that is going to be out for five to ten years so it needs to be big, it needs to be interesting. Hardly surprising, given his background at Gazillion and Cryptic Studios. He's quietly intense during the studio tour, never far from his Windows phone, always keen to point out how important the online component will be. "We're playing the long game with this," says John Needham, head of the studio (and also of Microsoft's new publishing programme). It's great fun and has led to some fantastic ideas that we have then used. Creative Day is an annual event at Lionhead where anyone from the team can present game ideas, services, features or art projects they are working on. However, we have set up an incubation group and we're about to have our third, company-wide, Creative Day this Monday. Q: You mentioned Fable Legends will have a lifespan of 5-10 years, is there a possibility Lionhead will work on any non-Fable stuff in that time too?Ī: Right now we're focussed on Fable Anniversary and Fable Legends and making them both amazing. Lionhead and European publishing actually have a very similar goal: Bring great game services to Microsoft's platforms. Q: How will your work at Lionhead sit alongside your new role in European publishing?Ī: I have two great teams around me, both very driven and excited about the direction of Microsoft. Another new focus of Lionhead has been around community building and all of the great service elements we need to build around our games. The biggest changes in the studio are focusing this innovative spirit on online features in Legends leveraging the power and cloud capabilities of the Xbox One. Q: How do you feel the studio is changing or has changed since you took over?Ī: Lionhead has always made high quality, innovative games and that's still core to our studio values. "This is the next big Fable game that is going to be out for five to ten years" John Needham How does a studio hang on to what made its games so special, and its identity, while faced with updating a classic franchise for the online world? GamesIndustry International took a rare glimpse behind the studio doors in Guildford to meet the people tasked with making it happen. At its home, Lionhead studios, there's a quiet intensity, a new set of faces and a new machine all hard at work trying to make sure that the next game in the series, Fable Legends, is innovative, exciting, ready for an online world, but still all those things that make it Fable. There's a hushed revolution happening in Fable's Albion.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |