‘We were bored of traditional fantasy cliches’: inside Playground Games’ 10-year effort to revive Fable
the Guardian
‘We were bored of traditional fantasy cliches’: inside Playground Games’ 10-year effort to revive Fable
The distinctively British RPG is returning courtesy of the makers of Forza Horizon – with comedy talent such as Richard Ayoade and Natasia Demetriou voicing sweary characters. We had our first play and spoke to its developer
I’m a little bit nervous that this loosely translates to “we didn’t really make Fable at all, it’s something else actually.”
They are gonna “subvert expectations” so hard you guys.
For something like the fourth “Fable” game in a row, and it’s definitely going to work this time.
What’s the problem? That’s what all video games from almost every studio has been for the last like, 15 years. A completely different game with a recognizable brand name slapped onto it. Mainstream consumers don’t care apparently.
“and that is why we took on a series that is 95% fantasy tropes by volume”
Yeah that’s not gonna be insufferable at all.
The original Fable did clichés well, though. Like the player is descended from the old royal line of Albion, but it’s so buried in vague hints that you need to read a bunch of lore to find out. It never matters to the story or gameplay until 3, it’s just a cool background fact.
I’m not.
Im not, but also Im not tired of non-traditional fantasy. I love fantasy of most shapes
Am I bored of cliches? Not really. Thankfully there are people who get bored with cliches. This gives us variety and new ideas to explore, even if we are not bored of it.
Sometimes subverting the cliche becomes the cliche to stop repeating.
Usually the sort of phrase that precedes a lot of overhyped bad ideas that happen to be popular in game design circles and nowhere else.
I mean, it’s fair to say it’s a gamble. We just often remember the successes. Team Fortress was known as an intense Quake-style game, and there were some reactions at the time of the TF2 trailer that Valve had lost the sauce. Bioshock followed the future cybernetic style of System Shock. Prey went from native Americans and aliens to being a child predator. wait, might’ve misremembered the last one.
I’ve only played Fable 2 and 3 and the thing that I remember the most was the marriage/family and upgrading business/house systems. And your wife would get mad if you didn’t support the family enough or were cheating around. Simple mechanics but they were there.
I don’t want to sound like a bigot, and I liked almost everything I’ve seen from the game so far. The one thing that is stick like a light in the dark to me is the model walking animation. It looks like it’s the same for both genders, and it feels very off putting, again, it’s only my 2 yens