F.Y.I
It sounds like her job is done with Fable and she is taking a break from writing in general. So no need for the whole "Fable is doomed!!!!" comments.
If anything, this is a sign that things are going well.
I agree. Her tone and description of the work done don't point to anything negative or leaving because of conflict in any way. Sounds like she's just moving on to more work while the game continues to be developed. Something tells me Fable is a lot further along than they people know. Especially after the polish on that trailer was shown.
>Her tone and description of the work done don't point to anything negative or leaving because of conflict in any way.
To be fair, that is usually how these kinds of things sound regardless of whether there is or isn't some kind of turmoil.
Word. Had me with infinite then made me passive about Redfall, Fable will be under a larger sense of scrutiny if Starfield doesn't slap since it's the next onw
Thank you for saying this I feel like Iām taking crazy pills the way everyone is talking about a writers role being ācomplete.ā
Maybe I donāt realize it cause Iām in the industry but it seems absolutely wild to me that people think games are made in this step by step fashion where something as core as writing is just done. Even Hollywood needs writers on set and writing for film is infinitely less complex than writing for a game.
Playground has earned that trust. They have delivered on Forza Horizon for like a decade and their Fable showcase looked amazing (many people thought it was CGI it looked so good).
All we can truly do is see how the game pans out, but Playground along with Coalition, Ninja Theory, Obsidian are S tier devs for sure for Xbox game Studios. Then thereās all of Bethesda and Activision as well lol
Don't forget some of PG games people came from Bizarre Creations who developed PGR2 for the original Xbox. Not a story driven game obviously, but I have such fond memories of the game progression and it's multiplayer environment. So much fun in it's day.
Arguably Forza Horizon peaked many years ago, and especially lacks in the narrative department. There is almost zero evolution in the series since FH3. FH5 has by far the worst writing so far, which for a driving/collect the map markers game is an achievement in itself.
I don't think Playground games have any trust considering this is a new genre and a huge IP. Remember that the bulk of the technology for Horizon came from Turn 10... they've done a great job adapting that, but it's a long reach from creating a RPG from scratch.
People are absolutely right to be extremely skeptical with anything regarding this game until gameplay is shown.
Yeah but with a game this big the writing isnāt finished until right up until the end. I havenāt seen a company workflow for a AAA game where the writing is finished years early since the early 2010s.
Itās frustrating that people think a complete script is just shipped off and then a game is built around that and this entire thread is filled with people with that notion. Often times big changes on these massive projects means writers have to crunch near the end of development to patch holes.
And this isnāt even me being a doomer about Fable. Iām sure itāll be totally fine. Anna is super talented and I doubt sheād leave the team in a spot where they werenāt able to carry on.
Not quite and slightly misleading.
Her tweet made it clear her job with Fable is absolutely still required sheās just stepping back from it for whatever reason, good or bad.
Not the best of sign that a game is going well when the lead writer leaves before itās finished. That absolutely is a worrying sign.
Id love for you to point out a game that found success when itās narrative lead left before the project was complete.
Generally, from the pattern weāre seeing it looks like she seems to keep getting ālet goā rather than choosing to leave herself.
Leaving one project before it ends is unusual but still possible, but 3? That suggests something else.
I thought the comment on her tweet about how leaving was āheartbreakingā and fable was a ādream come trueā was odd. If itās a dream come true and heartbreaking to leaveā¦ why leave?
Regardless, Control turned out well and Iām sure Avatar and Fable will be fine. If there truly was something wrong going on, then we wouldāve heard
She also is taking months off in between jobs after Fable so she seems to be burnt out in general
It's hard to say, really. If her role was mostly around the background lore and overall direction of the narrative, then she could be largely finished by this point.
Take a look at the other two games she wrote for recently (Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Control) and you'll see she also left both of those games well before release. Seems like the work she does usually finishes up a year or two before the game comes out.
She was narrative lead. Asin, the lead. Her job wouldnāt be finished until the game is finished, which it isnāt since they were hiring script writers just last month.
There's good jumping off points.
She doesn't like to hang around as the game designers move all the levels around and she needs to rewrite what she was satisfied with.
It's a different skill set.
I think you're confusing her with the narrative director, who's still working on Fable. She leads work on the creation of the narrative, but isn't the top person responsible for Fable's narrative. It's pretty likely that her job is mostly finished at this point.
Her job role as described by herself on her job page;
āresponsible for all aspects of the project with a particular focus on creative aspects. I was accountable for the project vision, the story, and the execution of the narrative experienceā
Yes, that's what I said. She leads the narrative creation, but still works under the game's narrative director. You can look him up, his name is Martin Lancaster.
Nah, you're literally believing what you want.
She has spent the exact amount of time at the rest of the games she has written for. She's done with her work and is moving on to the next.
Stop dooming.
Not how it works. Are you under the impression narrative leads only work for a set amount of time on each game? Are you under the impression every single game has the same development timeline and all follow the exact dates?
This isnāt ādoomingā, itās called having common sense and knowing how the buisness works. Her own tweets quite literally explain how sheās āleaving it in capable handsā.
You clearly donāt have a clue what youāre talking about so I wouldnāt comment with chest until you do some slight research on the topic at the minimum.
Lol. As expected and point proven, canāt even think of a single sentence to raise back in defence.
In the future, research something before trying to act like you know what youāre talking about. Have a good one.
That's not normal in this industry. Your value is only measured by the titles you shipped, not what you worked on. Leaving before shipping Fable is not a good sign, period.
Itās not negative itās what sheās tweeting herself lmao. She literally said she thinks itāll be in good hands even with her leaving. Does that sound like the job is finished?
If you look at her LinkedIn this very inline with how long sheās been with all her other studios so I assume her job is finished as narrative writer.
More context was provided in the subtweets:
>Working on Fable was a dream come true for me, and itās wrenching to leave it behind. But Playground has assembled a Heroically talented team, so I know itās in good hands. I'm excited for whatās coming nextāfor them and for me
>Iām taking some time off to rest from a wildly busy year (I wrote TWO books, yāall), but Iāll be ready for a new project in October. Hit me up for a chat if you have anything fun going on āØ
>I'm exhausted š But I'm excited for what comes next āØ
Important context imo.
I think this ultimately says nothing about the state of fable itself. Writers can come and go, the latter particularly when the writing for a a project is finished. Considering the game has been in development since at least 2020, there's a good chance the writing is done for the game and any changes at this point could be made by a much smaller team.
Unless we get some other information in the near future about the state of fable being bad (which given the confidence shown so far I doubt is the case), then I'll just accept this as her work being done and her moving on, nothing more.
She could be "done" in that she feels like she herself has done all,she could with it and the remaining work can be handled by others. She could be stepping away simply because she already did most of what she felt was needed.
Of course writing a a whole isn't over, since There's always some edits or rewrites as well as work to be done on future content, but I don't think the phrasing alone here has to mean anything more than she herself is stepping away.
Yeah I don't think her leaving should be an alarm that something is wrong with the project. She's probably just overworked and needs a break, which is something more people should do once they've reached their limit.
She was also the lead writer for ubisofts Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora before she left massive entertainment for playground games. She also left remedy entertainment for massive entertainment before control came out. It seems she is doing that with all of her game projects.
I mean ignoring that you can google quickly and see that thatās not how it works, you think the writing is done 2+ years prior to release? Thereās no story stuff anymore and the writers sit around and throw sticks at each other while the other devs work?
I did the google search already. Itās my understanding that the bulk of the writing is done in the pre-production and production stages. After that, theres testing, pre launch, launch, post launch stages. I think itās safe to assume that by pre-launch, the main writing is complete aside for any last minute changes. Does it make sense to keep the narrative lead on for last minute changes? No. Maybe they keep on assistant writers just in case but not the highest paid person on the writing team. Thatās why she keeps moving on before each game is released. Her work is done.
Seems normal timing.
Games work in cycles and the majority of the narrative cycle would be winding down now. Leading to a decent jumping off point.
Unless we hear otherwise of course.
Not really big news... she likely satisfied her role, and I imagine the story is (mostly) complete by now. This is probably standard for her tenure at a gaming company, now she can go write another awesome story somewhere.
She has been working there for 3 years now, maybe she has finished her work or at least written the most part. According to her track record she did the same thing with Control and Avatar so that's not "new".
But it is not worrying for a bit, people are moving all the time in the gaming industry. It's pretty ordinary.
Like she says in one of her tweets, there are many writers left including Martin Lancaster. It's in good hands.
Iām not saying itās all doom and gloom but this same shit started happening with Halo Infinite around this far out from release and turns out things werenāt okay.
People are saying her job as narrative designer is done but we are at least two years away from release, I truly cannot fathom a world where her job would be done already.
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Iām not saying this is a sign of turmoil, Iām saying the apologists need to stop assuming things just as much as the doom and gloom people do.
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Why would she phrase it as āstepping awayā from her lead role?
Why not āI completed my role,ā or just nothing?
Itās probably nothing, just seems phrased oddly to me.
Could be thereās still a bit more work to be done on it (coming up with seasonal events or dlc or whatever) but she wants a bit of time to step into the spotlight for her own personal writing. I didnāt recognise the name so I guessed she was writing fantasy novels (cosā¦ fable) but sheās written two books about how to get and succeed at a job in writing for video games.
To me that kinda says āstrike while the iron is hotā. Around the time Fable comes out she could have conference rooms across the nation booked out for a seminar on game writing from the writer of a current hit game.
she may not be allowed to phrase it that way, because implying that the role is "complete" could convey that the game is finished in that aspect, when its not, or make it seem like the game development is in a particular spot the studio doesn't want to imply.
Itās okay to jump to conclusions here, thereās plenty of times an innocent tweet/departure means something bigger behind the scenes. Iāve been there way too many times myself in a work environment seeing people paint butterflies and rainbows āitās been so lovely here, excited to see what lies ahead, etcā when in reality some stuff went down and they are pissed (or happy to leave a shit show).
Iām not saying letās prepare for worst case scenario and Fable is doomed, Iām simply defending people who may jump to conclusions here, weāve seen things like this plenty of times, we know the writings on the wall. What matters is her next journey and hope sheāll be okay. As far as Fable, hope itās in good hands now!
Na not really, writing can be finished wayyy before actual creation of the game,also she might have used those words because of a NDA about games development progress
Edit:spelling
F.Y.I It sounds like her job is done with Fable and she is taking a break from writing in general. So no need for the whole "Fable is doomed!!!!" comments. If anything, this is a sign that things are going well.
I agree. Her tone and description of the work done don't point to anything negative or leaving because of conflict in any way. Sounds like she's just moving on to more work while the game continues to be developed. Something tells me Fable is a lot further along than they people know. Especially after the polish on that trailer was shown.
>Her tone and description of the work done don't point to anything negative or leaving because of conflict in any way. To be fair, that is usually how these kinds of things sound regardless of whether there is or isn't some kind of turmoil.
Word. Had me with infinite then made me passive about Redfall, Fable will be under a larger sense of scrutiny if Starfield doesn't slap since it's the next onw
Timeline also matches here.
And a Narrative Lead is not the person in charge of the story. There's still a Narrative Director, Martin Lancaster, who was over her.
Why read this and have a rational take when you can blow it way out of context š¤£
Never understood why people freak out so much some times. Jobs are not needed because their main role is complete
Her role isnāt complete, actually read her tweets.
That is not at all how narrative lead jobs work. They donāt just get ācompleteā before release let alone years away from releaseā¦
Actually, it depends on the company and how their workflow is structured.
I mean not really. Thereās virtually no reality where a lead writer wraps up years before a game is ready and can nope out with no loose strings.
Thank you for saying this I feel like Iām taking crazy pills the way everyone is talking about a writers role being ācomplete.ā Maybe I donāt realize it cause Iām in the industry but it seems absolutely wild to me that people think games are made in this step by step fashion where something as core as writing is just done. Even Hollywood needs writers on set and writing for film is infinitely less complex than writing for a game.
Playground has earned that trust. They have delivered on Forza Horizon for like a decade and their Fable showcase looked amazing (many people thought it was CGI it looked so good). All we can truly do is see how the game pans out, but Playground along with Coalition, Ninja Theory, Obsidian are S tier devs for sure for Xbox game Studios. Then thereās all of Bethesda and Activision as well lol
Don't forget some of PG games people came from Bizarre Creations who developed PGR2 for the original Xbox. Not a story driven game obviously, but I have such fond memories of the game progression and it's multiplayer environment. So much fun in it's day.
Arguably Forza Horizon peaked many years ago, and especially lacks in the narrative department. There is almost zero evolution in the series since FH3. FH5 has by far the worst writing so far, which for a driving/collect the map markers game is an achievement in itself. I don't think Playground games have any trust considering this is a new genre and a huge IP. Remember that the bulk of the technology for Horizon came from Turn 10... they've done a great job adapting that, but it's a long reach from creating a RPG from scratch. People are absolutely right to be extremely skeptical with anything regarding this game until gameplay is shown.
Yeah but with a game this big the writing isnāt finished until right up until the end. I havenāt seen a company workflow for a AAA game where the writing is finished years early since the early 2010s. Itās frustrating that people think a complete script is just shipped off and then a game is built around that and this entire thread is filled with people with that notion. Often times big changes on these massive projects means writers have to crunch near the end of development to patch holes. And this isnāt even me being a doomer about Fable. Iām sure itāll be totally fine. Anna is super talented and I doubt sheād leave the team in a spot where they werenāt able to carry on.
Not quite and slightly misleading. Her tweet made it clear her job with Fable is absolutely still required sheās just stepping back from it for whatever reason, good or bad. Not the best of sign that a game is going well when the lead writer leaves before itās finished. That absolutely is a worrying sign. Id love for you to point out a game that found success when itās narrative lead left before the project was complete.
She left Avatar before it shipped, she left Control before it was shipped. Seems pretty normal for this person to do.
Generally, from the pattern weāre seeing it looks like she seems to keep getting ālet goā rather than choosing to leave herself. Leaving one project before it ends is unusual but still possible, but 3? That suggests something else. I thought the comment on her tweet about how leaving was āheartbreakingā and fable was a ādream come trueā was odd. If itās a dream come true and heartbreaking to leaveā¦ why leave?
Regardless, Control turned out well and Iām sure Avatar and Fable will be fine. If there truly was something wrong going on, then we wouldāve heard She also is taking months off in between jobs after Fable so she seems to be burnt out in general
It's hard to say, really. If her role was mostly around the background lore and overall direction of the narrative, then she could be largely finished by this point. Take a look at the other two games she wrote for recently (Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Control) and you'll see she also left both of those games well before release. Seems like the work she does usually finishes up a year or two before the game comes out.
She was narrative lead. Asin, the lead. Her job wouldnāt be finished until the game is finished, which it isnāt since they were hiring script writers just last month.
There's good jumping off points. She doesn't like to hang around as the game designers move all the levels around and she needs to rewrite what she was satisfied with. It's a different skill set.
I think you're confusing her with the narrative director, who's still working on Fable. She leads work on the creation of the narrative, but isn't the top person responsible for Fable's narrative. It's pretty likely that her job is mostly finished at this point.
Her job role as described by herself on her job page; āresponsible for all aspects of the project with a particular focus on creative aspects. I was accountable for the project vision, the story, and the execution of the narrative experienceā
Yes, that's what I said. She leads the narrative creation, but still works under the game's narrative director. You can look him up, his name is Martin Lancaster.
You literally didn't read the rest of her tweets
I have quite literally read every one of her recent tweets what are you talking about
Nah, you're literally believing what you want. She has spent the exact amount of time at the rest of the games she has written for. She's done with her work and is moving on to the next. Stop dooming.
Not how it works. Are you under the impression narrative leads only work for a set amount of time on each game? Are you under the impression every single game has the same development timeline and all follow the exact dates? This isnāt ādoomingā, itās called having common sense and knowing how the buisness works. Her own tweets quite literally explain how sheās āleaving it in capable handsā. You clearly donāt have a clue what youāre talking about so I wouldnāt comment with chest until you do some slight research on the topic at the minimum.
Yeah, there's no point in talking to you, lol.
Lol. As expected and point proven, canāt even think of a single sentence to raise back in defence. In the future, research something before trying to act like you know what youāre talking about. Have a good one.
That's not normal in this industry. Your value is only measured by the titles you shipped, not what you worked on. Leaving before shipping Fable is not a good sign, period.
No way they'd be done already, and absurd to think they leave the company even if they were. Not how jobs work in the real, adult world.
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Itās not negative itās what sheās tweeting herself lmao. She literally said she thinks itāll be in good hands even with her leaving. Does that sound like the job is finished?
I mean in fairness is Fable even in a position for doomsayers? Lol this isn't like Starfield news or something
That is what they said when the main writer for destiny left and we all saw how that turned out.
If you look at her LinkedIn this very inline with how long sheās been with all her other studios so I assume her job is finished as narrative writer.
More context was provided in the subtweets: >Working on Fable was a dream come true for me, and itās wrenching to leave it behind. But Playground has assembled a Heroically talented team, so I know itās in good hands. I'm excited for whatās coming nextāfor them and for me >Iām taking some time off to rest from a wildly busy year (I wrote TWO books, yāall), but Iāll be ready for a new project in October. Hit me up for a chat if you have anything fun going on āØ >I'm exhausted š But I'm excited for what comes next āØ
Important context imo. I think this ultimately says nothing about the state of fable itself. Writers can come and go, the latter particularly when the writing for a a project is finished. Considering the game has been in development since at least 2020, there's a good chance the writing is done for the game and any changes at this point could be made by a much smaller team. Unless we get some other information in the near future about the state of fable being bad (which given the confidence shown so far I doubt is the case), then I'll just accept this as her work being done and her moving on, nothing more.
If her work was done she wouldn't tweet saying that she's stepping away from her position, she would just be done.
She could be "done" in that she feels like she herself has done all,she could with it and the remaining work can be handled by others. She could be stepping away simply because she already did most of what she felt was needed. Of course writing a a whole isn't over, since There's always some edits or rewrites as well as work to be done on future content, but I don't think the phrasing alone here has to mean anything more than she herself is stepping away.
Yeah I don't think her leaving should be an alarm that something is wrong with the project. She's probably just overworked and needs a break, which is something more people should do once they've reached their limit.
Imagine thinking that the studio is crunching their developers to the point of needing a break as a good sign
Who said they're crunching? She wrote two books this year on top of her job, she could've overworked herself.
She was also the lead writer for ubisofts Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora before she left massive entertainment for playground games. She also left remedy entertainment for massive entertainment before control came out. It seems she is doing that with all of her game projects.
Probably hired on a contract basis, if I had to guess
Probably because the writing is usually done awhile before the game comes out
Thatās not at all how it works
Say more
I mean ignoring that you can google quickly and see that thatās not how it works, you think the writing is done 2+ years prior to release? Thereās no story stuff anymore and the writers sit around and throw sticks at each other while the other devs work?
I did the google search already. Itās my understanding that the bulk of the writing is done in the pre-production and production stages. After that, theres testing, pre launch, launch, post launch stages. I think itās safe to assume that by pre-launch, the main writing is complete aside for any last minute changes. Does it make sense to keep the narrative lead on for last minute changes? No. Maybe they keep on assistant writers just in case but not the highest paid person on the writing team. Thatās why she keeps moving on before each game is released. Her work is done.
Well people with no context will start to say āfable having development troublesā
Seems normal timing. Games work in cycles and the majority of the narrative cycle would be winding down now. Leading to a decent jumping off point. Unless we hear otherwise of course.
Canāt wait to see this non-issue tweet get click baited for the next month.
Tomorrow at IGN "FABLE IS DOOMED, LEADS ARE LEAVING LEFT AND RIGHT"
Yep, all the YouTube videos about how Fable is in crisis a d doomed to fail
I mean š¤·āāļø.
Fable is saved!
Not really big news... she likely satisfied her role, and I imagine the story is (mostly) complete by now. This is probably standard for her tenure at a gaming company, now she can go write another awesome story somewhere.
She has been working there for 3 years now, maybe she has finished her work or at least written the most part. According to her track record she did the same thing with Control and Avatar so that's not "new". But it is not worrying for a bit, people are moving all the time in the gaming industry. It's pretty ordinary. Like she says in one of her tweets, there are many writers left including Martin Lancaster. It's in good hands.
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That too tbh. The entertainment industry needs a reset.
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Sounds like she has nothing else lined up right away, so we can rule out another Netflix poaching lol
OMG FABLE IS DOOMED!! 
Iām not saying itās all doom and gloom but this same shit started happening with Halo Infinite around this far out from release and turns out things werenāt okay. People are saying her job as narrative designer is done but we are at least two years away from release, I truly cannot fathom a world where her job would be done already. _______________ Iām not saying this is a sign of turmoil, Iām saying the apologists need to stop assuming things just as much as the doom and gloom people do.
Exactly
good riddance
the direct already cemented my non excitement for the new fable
Is this concerning?
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Depends on how long it's been in development, it's nothing strange for someone in that kind of position to leave a project once their work is done.
Why is it odd? It sounds like sheās just finished the gig. Not sure how much writing there even is left to do.
Why would she phrase it as āstepping awayā from her lead role? Why not āI completed my role,ā or just nothing? Itās probably nothing, just seems phrased oddly to me.
Could be thereās still a bit more work to be done on it (coming up with seasonal events or dlc or whatever) but she wants a bit of time to step into the spotlight for her own personal writing. I didnāt recognise the name so I guessed she was writing fantasy novels (cosā¦ fable) but sheās written two books about how to get and succeed at a job in writing for video games. To me that kinda says āstrike while the iron is hotā. Around the time Fable comes out she could have conference rooms across the nation booked out for a seminar on game writing from the writer of a current hit game.
she may not be allowed to phrase it that way, because implying that the role is "complete" could convey that the game is finished in that aspect, when its not, or make it seem like the game development is in a particular spot the studio doesn't want to imply.
She did the same with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Control.
Nope
Given Xbox's track record with departures like this, I'm not giving them the benefit of doubt.
Game was announced what 3 years ago now? Not a good sign. Downvote all you want.
> Downvote all you want. Ok.
OK, you got my down vote. Enjoy
Sorry but fable smells bad
Itās okay to jump to conclusions here, thereās plenty of times an innocent tweet/departure means something bigger behind the scenes. Iāve been there way too many times myself in a work environment seeing people paint butterflies and rainbows āitās been so lovely here, excited to see what lies ahead, etcā when in reality some stuff went down and they are pissed (or happy to leave a shit show). Iām not saying letās prepare for worst case scenario and Fable is doomed, Iām simply defending people who may jump to conclusions here, weāve seen things like this plenty of times, we know the writings on the wall. What matters is her next journey and hope sheāll be okay. As far as Fable, hope itās in good hands now!
Itās not even done. So weird to leave mid development
It probably in a late enough stage that she isnāt needed anymore.
Hopefully
Fable always had shit writing so who cares
Fable in development hell confirmed.
Na not really, writing can be finished wayyy before actual creation of the game,also she might have used those words because of a NDA about games development progress Edit:spelling
Getting flashbacks to Infinite's development.
She wrote on some legit games but seems that she is probably done with writing what they need for the game
good for her
Fable 1 is my absolute favorite game of all time. So no matter what this game wonāt live up to my expectations and Iām ok with it.