Loinhead

Lionhead have just released the second Dev Diary (available in 720p , ‘high’ to download or to stream). Here’s the unusually PR-like press release. Transcript follows.

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Molyneux will be giving a speech and attending a panel at the GCDC in Leipzig, both on the 21st of August (a change from the original Lionhead retrospective).

Best Selling Games Panel: 10:30 am - 11:20 am.
Molyneux will be on the panel with Daglow, Eggebrecht and Capps.

Life, Death and Love in Computer Games: 04:00 pm - 04:50 pm (via Project Ego).

Following on from last year’s talk at GCDC ['this is not Fable 2'] on new ways of approaching combat in computer games Peter Molyneux will revisit this theme. He will show how Lionhead has evolved combat in Fable 2 building on the ideas he spoke about in 2006 . He will also look at how combat is being blended with emotional gameplay to give gamesplayers a very innovative gaming experience.

In a rare post on the LH forums, Molyneux reveals more details of how ownership will work, in-game.

Buying property in Fable 2 works like this; the player is able to buy any recognisable structure from a hut to a castle. Owning each type of structure brings certain benefits, for example a house can be rented out or you can move your family or friends in there - shops can supply extra revenue for you as you’ll get cut of their profits, owning civic buildings such as churches and cathedrals will increase your renown and if you own a dungeon you can harvest items from them. In addition to this any structure can have small scripts and stories attached to it. So, and this is only an example and not a current in game storyline, if you owned a shop you might be able to sell the heads of Hobbes that you have killed. These scripts and stories potentially could be about anything but will be limited by what you normally do in game so you’ll you won’t find a script or story attached to a building that suddenly transforms Fable 2 into an RTS but you might find that you have to escort an Abbott from the cathedral to a pub (once again an example rather than a confirmed script)

Also ownership changes who you are in the world the more property you acquire, the more of a nobleman you become and if you were able to own enough property (which will be a lot) you end up as the evil emperor of Albion and have domination over all (just to give you an example)

Southampton’s recognised Molyneux‘ many doings over the years and awarded him a Doctor of Science. He’ll be doing a public lecture there on October 17th, too.

Peter Molyneux, Chief Executive of Lionhead Studios, has received the honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Southampton.

Peter Molyneux is one of the UK’s top entrepreneurs in the field of computer games. He has been behind many of the ground-breaking, award-winning computer games of the last 15 years including Populous, Theme Park, Black and White, and Fable. Cumulative sales of these games now top 10 million.

His company Lionhead Studios is one of the leading and most innovative computer game design companies in the UK and was recently bought by Microsoft.

As well as receiving his honorary degree at the University graduation ceremony, Peter Molyneux also toured the School of Electronics and Computer Science. He is pictured here (right) in the undergraduate computing lab with Tony Ambrus, a 2007 graduate, who is joining the games company Rare after completing his degree.

Peter Molyneux will be giving a public lecture at the School of Electronics and Computer Science on 17 October.

Molyneux was at the Develop Conference in Brighton yesterday and talked about Fable 2 combat again in a talk called “Innovations in Game Design”. Next-Gen.biz has some snippets from the talk and a summary of what he said.

A lot of games developers worry about button-mashing and we look down with disdain on it.

I hate that we spend millions of dollars designing our games and only 1 percent of people finish them. If they don’t finish the game, it’s like leaving the movie halfway through, so it’s a rubbish movie to some extent, and that responsibility is on our shoulders.

…We often make casual gamers feel dumb, stupid and intimidated. We want to make those people feel as good as hardcore gamers.

He added that there will be certain ways to finish the game more quickly, depending on the path you choose. You can be a hero and fight a lot and finish quickly, or you can have as much sex as you want and children to build a family and take the game more slowly.

Eurogamer is meeting Molyneux at the Develop conference tomorrow for “tea, chat and maybe more“. If you want to actually be there and ask him your question, tell Eurogamer what you want to ask and you might get to do it.

The Eurogamer TV crew will be catching up with Peter Molyneux for tea, chat and maybe more this Thursday at the Develop Conference in Brighton, and we’re giving you the opportunity to interview the Fable creator as he sweats under the glare of our spotlight.

So if you have a burning question you’d like to ask the Britsoft legend behind the likes of Populous, Theme Park, The Movies, Black & White and the forthcoming Fable 2, now’s your chance.

All you have to do is join up to the Eurogamer TV Show: Ask The Developer Group on Eurogamers, our warm and cosy Internet social club, and post your poser. We’ll pick the best (and least libellous) and put them to the Lionhead boss on Thursday.

If your question is picked, your name will appear in lights and you’ll see Molyneux’s response in an upcoming Episode of The Eurogamer TV Show.

The Lionhead Studios Awards: Fable Edition competition has finally announced its winners!

We’ll start with revealing the three runners-up, who each will get 50MB additional storage space on TMO:

1. The Road Less Traveled by rysto - Good narration and story plot, nice set dressing and examples of modified content. The closing scene could have lasted a little bit longer but overall a very good and touching movie! You can watch the movie here.
2. Lionhead by Dr_House - Quite a long intro sequence but beautifully crafted nevertheless! An extraordinary amount of modding has gone into this movie it seems which makes it refreshing. You can watch the movie here.
3. Trents Fable by biggstrek - Absolutely GREAT camera shots and the way it is edited makes the car chase extremely exciting! Go Rogina! You can watch the movie here.

And finally - the great winner, taking home an Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system, a signed copy of Fable 2 (when it is released) and 100MB additional storage space on TMO:

• A Split Second by kuroken - Rock solid camera work and exciting editing. Lovely story and great voice acting, splendid narration too! A deserving winner of an exciting competition. You can watch the movie here.

IGN has looked at fable on this years E3 again and here’s their second impression of the game.

I enjoyed what I saw, though I admit to having very mixed feelings about the combat. First of all, could it be too simple? As many action-RPG fans will attest to, part of the enjoyment factor in any good RPG is pulling off tricky combat maneuvers that simply aren’t feasible for less skilled players to execute. Will the ease of combat cause some of the hardcore crowd to shy away from Fable 2?

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TgDaily got a interesting article about fable 2’s innovative control experience and more about one-button combat.

Fable is well known for its unique character evolution aspect, and the sequel will follow up with that. The main character ages, shifts from between good and evil depending on the decisions made, and keeps permanent scars from tough battles.

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…because X07 has been cancelled. The X## conferences were hosted yearly by Microsoft for people to talk about stuff happening in the following year, and at X06 for example Molyneux talked about Fable 2 in some depth for the first time. We also know Molyneux isn’t planning to announce anything at Develop or GCDC, so what does that leave him to tell us stuff?

[Update] The UK is going to get its own pre-Christmas event instead, says Microsoft, to replace the European X## events. And who is more UK + Microsoft than Lionhead?