Loinhead

The Movies On Air’s Roger also got some interviews with Molyneux and Carter and aired them a few days back. (TMOA is organisation of The Movies-related internet radio shows.) There are some interesting things here; Carter and Molyneux have different opinions on whether or not the Fable engine was used as the basis for the Fable 2 engine (Carter: from scratch, Molyneux: every line altered), a lot of new creatures in Fable 2, how much polish will go into Fable 2 (lots) and how much attention they each pay to the forums. Download the show it was broadcast in here - Dene Carter is at the end of part 2, Molyneux near the beginning of part 3. Possibly most interesting is that recently Lionhead have been pushing The Movies community a lot more in their news updates.

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There’s a new competition in TMO — Lionhead Studios Awards: Fable Edition.

The idea is that you make a movie based on Fable’s tag line: “For every choice a consequence.” You’ve also got to include some Fable music and custom content will give you a nice bonus. One entry each, between 5 and 8 minutes long, submitted before Monday 25th of June. One winner could get an Xbox 360 now plus a signed copy of Fable 2 when it’s out!

Naturally, this is The Movies: Online so we are offering movie makers and directors a slightly different take on this pitch and offer them freedom in the creation of their next big flick. We want you to incorporate the Good&Evil choices. You are free in your creative vision but we want you to incorporate different outcomes in your story, where the viewer can see what would have happened if your main character had made a different choice. As a reference we can give you Groundhog Day or The Butterfly Effect, but these are merely an inspiration.

We have one stipulation for this competition; the inclusion of Fable music in your movie. You can download the song here. In addition, we’d also like to encourage you to experiment with custom created content; here is a nice selection of links which should get you started.

From that community visit last week we have another interview! This time with Dene Carter, Creative Director on Fable 2, discussing a lot of things in Fable 2: the style it’s going for, what’s going on with towns and simulation and how they’ll be dealing with different player’s skills. Video here, transcript is not below, no.

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So here’s the usual transcript of the developer’s diary and some nice screenshots. Note that there are still edges to polish - the very ugly mountains behind the beautiful cottage, for example.

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The new Lionhead Developer Video Diary Thing has just launched! It comes in at 6 min 25 s, and is downloadable in massive 720p or “high” resolution, or streamable at high. This one’s a nice follow-up to the GDC. The diary page is here, and they’ll be coming every 6 to 8 weeks! Also available on the marketplace over Xbox Live, of course. Original Newspost.

The main website’s changed to match it, too - there’s some cool new concept art in the background! Interestingly, that seems to confirm (not that it needed it) that magic will still be in: the guy’s holding a staff, leather-bound book and coloured bottles.

This is your chance to win one of three luscious autograffs, signed by Peter Molyneux and a few of the guys at Lionhead! It’s simple. For every day you post on the forums, you get entered once - so post every day and your chances are x14!

1. Register! (Password in the email!)
2. Post!
3. Win! Maybe.

Posts from last Friday to next Sunday 3rd of June inclusive counted, so you’ve got a fortnight! If you’ve posted recently you have a head start. The legal stuff: please don’t sue. Autograffs next to me right now and I’ll post them where-ever you live if you win!

We have an exclusive interview with Peter Molyneux on our hands here, from the community visit on Friday. There’s one going to follow with Dene Carter, Creative Director of Fable 2, in just a couple of days - keep checking back! Peter talks about loads of stuff, including what went wrong with B&W2, reveals what’s going to be the next big thing in combat, prototypes for Fable 2 they worked on, what’s going on with NPCs and expressions vs. dialogue, plus a final bit about the secret game. Video here, transcript below.

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Seems like Lionhead will be in attendance at E3 this year, sometime between the 11th and 13th of July.

No moles were harmed in the making of this story.

Lionhead has picked 20 of the entries from the hero title competition to phase 2, there has been created a poll at lionhead forums with all of the 20 titles and the one that gets the most will be included in the final game.

So what are you waiting for ? Go ahead and cast your vote.

Peter Molyneux’s going to be speaking at Game 07 about Emotions in AI. Game 07 is a day-long games and media conference at Imperial College London on the 17th, mostly on technical problems in the entertainment industry and intends to get academics and game developers working together. More details about the talk, other than the title (yes, Emotions in AI) aren’t given, but it’ll be held at 17:00 in “Clore”; unfortunately registration has already closed. The Game 07 blurb:

The Games and Media Event aims to bring together people from industry and academia in order to discuss some of the technical problems and solutions within the entertainment industry. This year’s event will consist of a day of talks, demonstrations and poster presentations intended to inspire discussion and collaboration between industry and academia.