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Lionhead wants to talk about The Journey, not Kinect

"You don't talk about your control pad when you're making Halo," says Lionhead creative director.

Lionhead wants to stop talking about its upcoming title Fable: The Journey only in terms of the Kinect, and focus on the game itself: "the biggest Fable game we've ever made by far." Speaking at industry conference Develop in Brighton, England, Lionhead creative director Gary Carr reflected on the long-running scepticism around its all-Kinect Fable game.

Fable: The Journey had a cool reception initially, said Carr. "The controversy started out of E3 last year. Usually, in your first year, you get a good time. This seemed to be pretty negative from the beginning."

The Guildford studio addressed the negativity by "doing something we don't normally do--we went quiet for a while, and that's quite difficult for Peter [Molyneux] to do."

Now the game has returned with extended hands-on demonstrations, the perception has improved, said Carr, and the studio wants to talk about the game itself, rather than just its Kinect controls. "You don't talk about your control pad when you're making Halo."

Carr also confirmed that former Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux has now fully parted ways with the studio, after a period in which he consulted on Fable: The Journey while also working at his new independent venture, 22 Cans. "Peter's consultation role ended in June," said Carr. "He's busy making cubes now."

Jane Douglas
By Jane Douglas, Section Editor

Jane rejoices in the title of Section Editor, GameSpot UK. Fears: spiders, oblivion.

143 comments
redness19
redness19

I thought Fable jumped the shark when I was playing pattycake with men in Fable 3...apparently I was wrong.

 

This franchise desperately needs to return to what made the first 2 games great or they might as well pull the plug on it entirely.

Ch4osKev
Ch4osKev

Wow, this game must be really bad since there's now reviews..... not surprised since fable has gone down hill since the first one..... they need a reboot badly they need to go back to what made fable lost chapters so good and have updated graphics like skyrim... The journey's graphics look so childish and out of date.

BeatMastaFlex
BeatMastaFlex like.author.displayName 1 Like

the last good fable game was fable: lost chapters, the other 2 were not even half as good and i dont even know what the hell fable the journey is. the only way they could redeem themselves is to remake fable lost chapters for current systems, tweek/expand the story, add new armor, weapons, spells, and areas. if they did this i would buy another fable game but until then ill just keep playing fable: lost chapters. 

rhymesmatter
rhymesmatter

You are making a KINECT Only "Fable" (Not to mention that once again you exclude PC like you you did with Fable 2 which was moronic and made you lose lots of fans) AND you are making it without Peter Molyneux?hahahahahha oh boy it's gonna be so hilarious seeing Lionhead Studios biting the pavement hard after the release of this game...Let us see then how fondly will you think of Developing games with a crappy piece of hardware as the only means of playing the game!

naryanrobinson
naryanrobinson like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

"You don't talk about your control pad when you're making Halo," says Lionhead creative director.

 

"That's cause it isn't shit," says gamers.

malp123
malp123 like.author.displayName 1 Like

Gary Carr should also realise therefore that you don't develop a game specifically with the controller in mind either. This point works both ways and I am dissapointed to see what Fable has become!

Awful_Cleric
Awful_Cleric like.author.displayName 1 Like

"You don't talk about your control pad when you're making Halo," Yes but a controller does not hamper or kill gameplay of said games. Kinect has a bad reputation of taking games that might have been viable and turns them into a big clunky waving-fest of mediocrity. 

PrpleTrtleBuBum
PrpleTrtleBuBum

Then talk about something else. Molyneux sure managed to talk all about the NPC interaction, city dynamics and everything. I don't even know will this game have any of that.

Plus I'm pretty sure it was the devs who started it "We embrace Kinect because it's the way to do Fable" or something like that. "Look how you can spam magic bolts with your own hands"...

megakick
megakick like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

You do when the controller is crap...

Mabrry
Mabrry

Now is this the Fable game where the trailer had a guy doing dragon ball z stuff on the tv screen? Afraid i'll have to pass on this wonderful game. 

armedvigilante
armedvigilante like.author.displayName 1 Like

So you want to focus on the gameplay and not Kinect, Eh? well you should've thought of that before you made it a kinect game

jalaz_1970
jalaz_1970

I have to say looking back on the Fable game franchise and all it's game depth and role playing game complexity it is a bad idea to have a kinnect only game.  Now don't get me wrong I have been playing rpg games since the late eighties, and feel that players should not be restricted to playing a certain way.  In Mass Effect 3 players had the choice to use kinnect or not.  What about handicapped gamers?.  The Fable core fanbase who at the very least would like to choose either or?  Consider the horrible review of Sorcery for the PS/3 got for being entirely motion based.

Falcon084
Falcon084

If Peter Molyneux is gone, will this be the the end of the Fable series :( It was his loved creation.

1stormbringer77
1stormbringer77 like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 4 Like

You just watch. Kinect is going to do the same thing to Fable what EA did to Mass Effect 3. It'll suck the Big Kahuna! I've never been a fan of Kinect,even though I do have one it's never been as entertaining as the original controller. Some people may like it,others can't stand it.. It would be nice if they set it up so the game can be played using Kinect or the controller.That would help their sales a lot more than forcing players to use the Kinect only.

GrfxGawd
GrfxGawd like.author.displayName 1 Like

I love the Kinect, and I'm happy I have min, but my gaming space is too limited to actually use it except for voice (and yes I have the Nyko vision thing that makes it like, half the distance). This may well make it so I can't even play this game, though I've completed all the others. This might well be a sad thing for me.

_Roo_
_Roo_ like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

  I want to know how much Microsoft is having to pay them up front to make an all Kinect Fable game.

   I can't believe any developer with a successful franchise would purposely limit their market share this way.  Not just the fact that Kinect doesn't work that well but most XBox owners don't have it and most gamers don't like it.  Lets face it as great as the concept might be the precision gamers require just isn't there even when it does work.  And then to not want to promote this awesome (sarcasm) new gimic.. . I mean controller of the future.

 

   My personal opinion is that the game is turning into an epic failure and they are rethinking the whole thing.

thenephariouson
thenephariouson

Well considering Kinect is an integral part of 'The Journey' i'd say they should talk about it.

rarson
rarson like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 3 Like

I still love the technology behind Kinect, and I'm glad to see that developers are brave enough to try new things with established franchises (and let's be honest, would we really need another rehashed, same-old Fable game anyway?). But Lionhead has to understand that the entire reason the game is getting press in the first place was their decision to focus on Kinect, and given that it hasn't really proven itself to really enhance the gameplay, it's absolutely natural for people to be skeptical.

From what I've heard about Kinect 2, it sounds like it'll be better; higher-quality input, improved tracking, the ability to use it while sitting down. Microsoft seems likely to include it with the next console, so maybe when everyone has one, developers will support it better, but I think the real key to making it truly enhance the gameplay is to use it in tandem with a regular controller. Give it a subtler role in the gameplay instead of making it the main control scheme (I think there's plenty of room for voice-activated controls, for instance). Then people probably wouldn't freak out so much about it.

 

Plus, standing in front of the TV waving your arms around, interacting with objects without anything in your hands just feels stupid.

2x4b96123
2x4b96123 like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 4 Like

Right, because Halo is also controlled by a recently implemented, unproven in the genre, buggy-thus-far interaction medium by developers trying to convince us that an on-rails game is not an on-rails game. =.=

dogman7
dogman7 like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 3 Like

I have to disagree, any Halo veteran ALWAYS wants to know about their control pad layout. I need to know if I can use Boxer, or Bumper Jumper, or Recon. Gary Carr, you are incorrect sir!

00J
00J

 @dogman7 i didn't even think about that... lol

Warlord_Irochi
Warlord_Irochi like.author.displayName 1 Like

The control pad does not have recent background of being inaccurate and poorly implemented in it's core functions Mr. Carr.  You must understand why people is concerned about it.

warhawk-geeby
warhawk-geeby

Even seeing the word 'Kinect' now just makes me cringe..

 

Urggghh.

rrjim1
rrjim1 like.author.displayName 1 Like

I'm not afraid, I will give it a try, I have always liked the Fable series and will most likely enjoy this game also.    

SirNormanislost
SirNormanislost like.author.displayName 1 Like

No you don't talk about your control pad when making a game because with a standard pad it's very hard to make horrid control although it does happen (lair on the ps3 anyone?) kinect is not a tried and trusted game pad it's a montion sensing camera which isn't precise enough yet in its current form for more complex games so if your controls don't work right it's going to drag the while game down no matter how big the world is

001011000101101
001011000101101 like.author.displayName 1 Like

That's because there really isn't much to talk about, since a control pad actually works. 

isshiah
isshiah

i....i.....fffffffff

PS2fweak
PS2fweak like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

That's a pretty idiotic statement Gary Carr, and it's a horrible analogy, because the reason you don't talk about the controller when it comes to other games is because we're completely familiar with a traditional controller.

 

It really bugs me when developers act like they're not working with a bizarre piece of technology that gamers don't want. It's interesting tech, but real gamers want real feedback.

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