Fable 2: The Next Milestone! (Friday, 17th November 2006)

Making games isn’t easy! There are schedules to consider, huge design documents to read, write and update, libraries to be programmed, big decisions to be made and fans to be looked after, and even then I’ve only scratched the surface of game development…

The year is drawing to a close and we are getting ready for the Holidays. Not just yet of course as there is at least one more Fable 2 milestone coming up! The previous milestone was delivered on time to our publisher and only last week we gave a big presentation to some Very Important People at MGS.

Meanwhile, while they were deliberating and discussing outstanding issues in the boardroom (read: “bored room”) Iain Wright (Fable's lead level designer) walked me through the latest changes that are taking place in Albion, the engine and well, anything that’s related to the design of Fable 2. I know I get excited quite easily (or so people tell me) but what he showed me really made my jaw drop to the floor. Man this game is already starting to look better than anything I’ve seen in the teaser trailer. It would be like comparing apples and oranges, but Fable 2 is looking hot! And with all the time the team has left, things are only going to look even more stunning. If only I could show you all these screenshots I have ready but sadly enough I’d get the sack if I did. So you'll just have to take my word for it: this game is looking absolutely beautiful and stunning.

On a slightly different topic I’d like to tell you a small anecdote. One of our designers: Charlton Edwards (also see this community update) was driving all the way from Leeds to Guildford last weekend, which isn’t really a newsworthy item if you ask me. However, Woody pointed out to me that he made a rather funny picture of his car: Charlie had actually forgotten to put the cap on his oil reservoir and thus drove all the way without it. By the time he arrived back in Guildford his car had literally turned into a mobile oil platform! I think the following picture speaks for itself, but who’s to say that game developers are technical people too?

This will be my last community milestone for this year; but I’ll be back from January onwards with more updates on Fable 2 and hopefully something new to show you. It is very likely that the January milestone will be a fairly important one as we will be aiming to get to the next level of production. However, the next most important milestone will be at the end of February.

Meanwhile, Dene Carter will be spending much of his time this week contemplating the bizarre array of British cheeses in the game. "How many do we really need?" He was also asking this is after reviewing the areas of Fable 2 last week: “How many do we really need?”. I think he will be asking this question quite a lot in the next few weeks.

So what’s been happening in Albion then? First of all a lot of new features and content flowed into the game build, both in-game and behind-the-scenes. The biggest changes I noticed when sitting together with Iain were trees gently waving in the wind. This wasn't done with rotating sprites like most games, but by actually animating the entire tree, leaf by leaf! Next-generation doesn’t come any better then this guys. There were also a lot of improvements in the look of [CENSOR]wood and Bowerstone M[CENSOR]. They are getting to a stage now where you can truly get an idea of what the final game is going to look like. And have I already told you it’s looking stunning? Bowerstone has really grown in those five hundred years since the last time you visited! Sadly enough you won’t be seeing it for a while. Oh if only I could show it to you…Wait…This piece of concept art might actually give you an impression of what it will look like…

One of the other things I noticed when looking at the build was the use of the height maps. We touched on this subject previously when I sat together with Charlie and talked about the world design. It’s now becoming clear to me what this adds to a game like Fable: think of water levels rising and opening new (higher positioned) locations that were inaccessible earlier. Or think a big hole in the ground that you can fall into. Its stuff like that which really gets me excited, especially when they showed me one of the (many) dungeons they’ve been working on! In actual fact, Iain mentioned to me that maybe (just maybe) I should try to design a dungeon myself with feedback from the Fable 2 community in mind. According to him no one knows what the gamers want more then I do and this could mean something unique. Probably, but I’m not sure if it will happen, or if the schedule even allows for me to dive into dungeon-making. Expect me to mention it on our boards if they do decide I should make a dungeon, but don't see this as an official contest or competition please!

I'd like to finish with a small update from the animators and artists. Every now and again an email gets send around with the latest on Fable 2. Yesterday was comedy Hero video time! The facial animation fine tuning went haywire and when he was given a test bandit to react to, or ogle at, the results were terrifying: facial animations completely gone mad! The Hero’s face looked like an exploded toad! If we’re ever going to release an artwork book we’ve got our cover I reckon.

Speak to you all again in 2007!

- Sam -

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