Loinhead

This is the transcript of the Peter Molyneux interview with Game Head’s Geoff Keighley, who insists he’s “hanging out” with Molyneux. Not many new things (everyone seems to ask the same questions …), but there’s a couple: Molyneux feels TM was a waste of great ideas, he says “never say never” about Dimitri and that digging “deeper” on September 23rd ‘05 for that game idea is still worthwhile. There’s also reiteration of some Fable 2 stuff, love is just part of the lineup, how Fable 2 will be great so Molyneux can stay out of Alcatraz etc.

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You saw the first excerpt about Dimitri from it yesterday, now the full thing’s been released. Geoff Keighley interviews Molyneux about just about everything; here’s his introduction.

He’s one of the biggest names in the video game business and tonight on Game Head we’re hanging out with game design legend Peter Molyneux. From Theme Park, Magic Carpet to the epic RPG Fable, Peter’s created some of the classic and most memorable games ever. Tonight we’re gonna here about his philosophy of designing videogames, his thoughts on the state of the industry and what he has planned for Fable 2, which is coming next year to the Xbox 360.

There’s four parts to it: #1, #2, #3, #4, on Gametrailers. Transcript’ll follow soon.

Sam’s “monthly” community update for March will be published on Monday! That makes it April, of course, but close enough … He said:

I’m just quickly posting to let you all know that March’s update will be posted on Monday. I realise that makes it April, but this way you’ll be getting two updates in April.

In case you were wondering;

In the March update I’ll be revealing some of the things we have in store for you in the coming weeks and months. Just wait and see, I think you’ll like it.

Stay tuned.

It’ll also be phat, so, anticipate.

From Gamasutra’s Tooling Around series about middleware we now know that Lionhead licensed Kynapse for Fable 2. Looking back at the original announcement, Tim Rance (Lionhead’s Chief Technology Officer) said:

After a detailed evaluation of the technology, we found that Kynapse provided the necessary levels of performance, robustness and support that we require for a next generation title. The tools and functionalities provided within Kynapse allowed us to concentrate on key elements within the gameplay. In particular, the ability to support large numbers of characters and large environments reliably on next gen platforms was a major factor in our decision.

Does this mean a lot of NPCs at any one time and possibly even freeroaming in Fable 2? It’s not certain (Yes!). The biggest implications this could have would be in towns; so perhaps we shall see some truly busy towns. Bowerstone in the flythrough video from the GDC was empty, so NPC/townspeople aren’t finished yet.

It wasn’t clear if it was licensed for Fable 2 or for the Secret Game or both; now we know it’s definitely in use for Fable 2 and still possibly for the Secret Game. Obviously the Fable 2: Technology page has been updated.

Some guy from Gamehead talked briefly to Molyneux, again trying to get out of him what the secret game’s about. No luck, of course - apart from confirming it’s (shock horror) not based on bisexuality day (our best clue so far is that it’s on based on September 23rd ‘05. More analysis here).

Watch it here.

The competition Lionhead organised at the start of this month is now closed for further submissions. The official polling will start in a few days now.

The competition is now closed, thanks for all your submissions which we will be reviewing in the next few days. Next week PHASE 2 of the competition will start, in the meantime feel free to explore our forums.Sam

We’re still awaiting the possibility of March’s community update coming today - all that’s been said it’s phat and coming soon!

There’s a segment of the talk Molyneux gave to journalists at the GDC up on Game Videos. It seems to be a different talk to all the other videos that are up, and interestingly Molyneux says the dog won’t follow you every time, just a few times. Can you not play with the dog entirely? Seems so. Video here, transcript below.

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Since it doesn’t look like there’ll ever be a video for Molyneux’s main conference at the GDC, I got off my ass and transcribed one of the ones he gave to journalists, all the way up to the Bowerstone fly through (that’ll follow later). This one is from I4U’s video; it’s a good one, covering all the main things. Watch it here or download it there (direct link).

Selected quotes here, full thing after the jump:

We’re going to have a spectacular magic system
he can turn from a vicious doberman into a cute sheepdog
The bomb, I’m building a bomb between you and the dog
Why do I need a follow button, man
he’s having a Wii at the moment
I say we, you notice I’m not saying I, I say we now

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Thanks to that super press strategy and Cathy Campos (Lionhead’s PR organiser), Fable 2 was the GDC’s most popular game. Mass Effect is the most anticipated this year, but most people requested Lionhead and Fable 2.

IGN Entertainment has released its latest GamerMetrics report, showing BioWare’s upcoming Xbox 360 exclusive Mass Effect as the most anticipated title for 2007’s second quarter, and Fable 2 as the most popular title showcased during GDC.

The GamerMetrics list gauges reader interest in games through surveys and user activity on IGN’s sites, including IGN.com, TeamXbox.com and Fileplanet.com. Looking at the 2007 Game Developers Conference, covered in depth by Gamasutra, the GamerMetrics report found that Lionhead and Microsoft’s upcoming Fable 2 was the number one most requested game on IGN during the event, thanks to Peter Molyneux’s talk at the event.

From Gamasutra; if anyone can find that metrics report on IGN give us a shout.

Various Lionhead folks are going to be at the 12th International Conference on Animation, Effects, Realtime and Content (FMX for short), hosted in the Haus der Wirtschaft in Stuttgart, Germany, from the 1st of May to the 4th.

Nannette Kaulig, also hailed a Lead Animator, will be holding a talk entitled Lionhead Animation – Creating Believable Characters for Games. This is going to be talking through development of the “critically acclaimed” [eh? Wasn't that for B&W?] creatures in B&W2 and show some Fable 2 work. She’ll talk aboutmodel sheets, animation creation, implementation, pipeline and tools. This will be on May 4th, from 18.00 to 19.00, in the Meidinger Saal (”Meidinger” hall).

Simon Jacques, Lead Animator for Lionhead, is going to be presenting a Recruiting Panel, which are there for companies to “offer insight into their work and job opportunities.” He’ll be part of Recruiting Panel 2 on the 2nd of May in the Berta-Benz Saal.

There’ll be two Recruiting Desks, where artists can talk on a personal basis to recruiters and show off their portfolios/showreels. There’s one on the 2nd of May, 14.00 - 19.00, and one on the 3rd of May at the same time; both are in the Eyth-Saal.

Event descriptions after the jump.

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