Loinhead

The magazine 360 interview Lionhead and a few other British game studios. Via Develop. Part 2 is here.

How are UK developers placed in the competitive world of the games industry?

Peter Molyneux: The merger of Activision/Vivendi, and the continual shrinking of the development pool with companies like BioWare/Pandemic, Travellers’ Tales and Bizarre Creations all being snapped up (and if the rumours are true a few more announcements to come) mean the landscape of developers is changing more rapidly than ever before. UK developers need to increase their ability to be competitive and there is a lot of talk about developers in Canada and the Far East who are treated far more sympathetically by their governments in terms of subsidies and tax breaks. Where British developers can still compete is in terms of originality and innovation.

Is there any concern that cheaper production costs abroad will push publishers away from the UK? What can British developers do to make sure they offer more than just cost effectiveness?

What can British developers do to make sure they offer more than just cost effectiveness? I kind of answered this above but we can’t compete on production cost so we have to compete on quality and what UK developers are good at is uniqueness and our ability to solve design problems – UK developers still have a lot to offer.

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gamedeveloper is conducting a survey among game professionals about the top 50 development studios, running until this Wednesday. If you are a “games professional”, you can submit the survey about Lionhead – if not, don’t, because gamedeveloper doesn’t care what you think. Via Gamasutra.

Some people at MTV of all places asked some industry notables about their first time playing games, and who’s more industry notable than Peter Molyneux? A few people, but that’s neither here nor there. (Is that too cheeky? We love you really Peter.) Here’s Peter’s answer:

It would have to be the original “Pong.” I can clearly remember seeing it a shop window on Guildford High Street and being utterly transfixed – I had never wanted anything so much – in fact I stole money from my grandmother’s purse to buy it. I got it home took it apart and never got it to work again but from that moment on I was hooked on all things to do with computer games.

Mortalitis_Infinitas has written an article about dimitri and if really still is in development or if the secret game that lionhead are working on is a whole new game that they haven’t talked about yet.

I think I’ve found something rather…intriguing, to say the least…

We’ve all heard about Dimitri, and we’ve all heard that Lionhead is currently working on two games right now. And yes, we’ve all crossed our fingers that this second title might be Dimitri. Well, by way of a hint in a video diary (check them all out here), I think I’ve found a rather substantial piece of the puzzle. It’s looking more and more like Lionhead is indeed working on Dimitri (Please keep in mind, however, this is mere speculation from a fan. As always, don’t believe it until Lionhead confirms it.)

But first, to get those who aren’t familiar with the project up to speed. Dimitri was first heard of in May, 2001 when Peter mentioned it at that year’s E3. But nothing too official has been mentioned since then.

Read the rest of this fine piece of information here.

After what seems like years of delays the fourth video diary from lionhead has now been put online, this time focusing on world design.

Check it out here.

There’s an small article in the new EGM Magazine about fable 2.

Microsoft game studios - fall 2008

The Agenda: Fable 2 may have a slight image problem when it comes to family values- the action-role-playing game just happens to allow polygomy, unprotected sex, and a deep, meaningful relationship with one’s dog. this sequel, like the first fable, places you in control of a hero who grows from young child through old age.

You’ll visit the usual cities and towns, castles and dungeons. But unlike one dimensional hack-n-slash adventures, in fable, your actions have noticeable consequences in the game world. Polygamists, for instance, had better keep thir various families seperate from-and oblivious of-each other, or divorce (and a ruined reputation) is inevitable.

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Lionhead released 3 new renders for the upcoming fable 2 together with a blog entry called “Simon Says” where lionhead shares some of the email sent around the team.

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In an interview with Joaquin Quiñonero Candela, who seems to be part of the Applied Games group at Microsoft’s Research Labs in Cambridge, Develop find out that the Research Labs are working with Lionhead (and Rare) on the more challenging aspects of their games. Moneyshot:

So you guys have a lot of involvement with Lionhead and Rare?

Yeah, we’re working closely with the both of them. For example, Lionhead are working on the idea of one-button combat in Fable 2, and that’s a fairly ambitious plan. We’re working on applying the same sort of techniques as those I just described in the racing example, where ideally it’d be fun if you could have your character learn and adapt its fighting technique from experience, or even switch between attack and defence mode and realise that the objective now is to minimise damage received.

Joaquin also pointedly says that the Research Labs are pretty much responsible for the whole Silicon Minds idea.