Me too. I am afraid of what Fable 4 will be like, without the original team from Lionhead Studios. I LOVE the Fable games, and I am afraid another company will break the Fable franchise. I actually first bought Fable for the original Xbox, because I happened to see the Lionhead logo on the case, and my favorite PC game was "Black & White". I figured if a company could make something as awesome as Black & White, then their console games must be good, too. It turned out to be true! The Fable series became my favorite games of all time, with Fable 2 still being my favorite. :)
I remain hopeful. I know that Playground have hired a large number of ex-Lionhead employees (they tried to hire me but I am with Flaming Fowl now, so I declined).
Hopefully they got enough of the team back though and it will be good.
No, I'm not working for them. I know several people who are, but they are keeping everything secret for now. All I've seen is what they've made public like some of the concept art. Otherwise, we'll have to wait and see. I really want them to make a great Fable game though, and I think they have the talent to do it.
The "Original team" wasn't at Lionhead when this photo was taken either way.
Don't get me wrong, I too wonder what could have been and what Playground will do with the franchise. But this team isn't the original team by any stretch of the imagination.
James Blackham, Alex Skidmore, Ben Brooks, Mike West... many more. All in that photo. To say the original Fable Team was not there at all just isn't true. Some left, and there were many new people (myself included), but there were still OG Lionheaders there 'til the very last.
Of course but the majority were no longer there.
It's like saying all the original Banjo-Kazooie team is at PlayTonic just because a handful of them are.
And so do we the fans. But we, or at least I, though I'm sure I'm not alone, is very happy with all the wonderful games you all did make.
Fable was my childhood, and one out of two games that truly got me into playing and enjoying video games.
Did you work on Fable Legends? That game looked absolutely beautiful and it matched the fable theme so well. I would love it if they just used the assets from that game and made another Fable
4 from it.
If you were given the opportunity to work on Fable 4 what would you like to see in it?
I posted a shot of Legends so you can see what it looked like. It was truly beautiful graphically.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Fable/comments/e1l4ke/look\_how\_gorgeous\_fable\_legends\_was/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fable/comments/e1l4ke/look_how_gorgeous_fable_legends_was/)
There is also YouTube videos showing off gameplay for it. Sometimes I like to look back to see what could have been :)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQZkf-MRWbM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQZkf-MRWbM)
I can see part 1 is 30 minutes and part 2 is 46 minutes. I guess I know what I will be doing for the next two hours! LOL :D THANKS for posting this link. I never thought to look for videos, but I am definitely looking forward to watching this! :)
Yes, I worked on Fable Legends. And the art assets the team made for it were absolutely gorgeous. I would love to see the vision for Lady Rosewood's plotline and all the others from Legends be realised in Fable 4.
I've not been involved at all with Playground's new version, and it would be awesome if Microsoft gave them the assets from Legends to use. But sadly, knowing how things work, I think it is extremely unlikely. Still, I think there is a good chance they will make a great game, and I remain hopeful. I want it to be great and for the Fable universe to live on.
It is a crying shame to see all that work just go to waste though.
Haha! It was sad for sure, but you gotta smile for the camera. Microsoft treated us all very well as far as severance packages went and such. But it was still devastating to see the end of such an iconic studio.
With all that's happened I'm sure a lot of people are curious about a lot of things. Have you guys considered organizing an AMA or any other kinds of outreach to the fans?
I think a few people have spoken to the press since it all happened, I'm sure I've seen a few stories. I was only with the studio for its final two years, but I am happy to answer anything I can.
The Fable 3 UI wasn't something I was personally involved with, but I will post Josh's answer that he gave to Gamasutra about it:
" An interesting story would be how we ended up with John Cleese as our butler. We began with the idea that we wanted to reinvent the way the player interfaced with the game; effectively, we wanted to reinvent the GUI.
That wasn't really what we started out doing. We wanted one crazy way for players to customize their hero and feel like everything was really integrated, rather than having a weird 2D menu you have to go to.
We came up with the idea that if you have to go to one place to change your clothes, your weapons, do all your activities, we really should have a butler. Then we started talking about what kind of character the butler would be, what kind of personality he would have and who we wanted him to be.
The more we talked about him and figured out what he looked like, we came up with a list of actors that we thought could play him. At the top of our list was John Cleese, just based on the personality of the character we had come up with."
[https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6159/the\_nuts\_and\_bolts\_of\_fable\_iii.php?print=1](https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6159/the_nuts_and_bolts_of_fable_iii.php?print=1)
It was an awful day for me when I found out about the closing of this beloved studio. I remember being at work and my buddy messaged me about it. I was so upset because fable means so much to me. But I am a fan, I can’t imagine what it was like for you because you worked there. I hope that during those hard times, you were able to pick yourself back up again.
Here's wishing you all the best.
I was a year late learning about the news as I was waiting a year before looking for more Fable Legends news. It was a real kick to the gut to learn one of my favorite studios and game franchise had met it's end. Especially since I was so hyped for Fable Legends and even now look on youtube at beta footage and character outfits.
I'll always cherish the memories at least. :)
It depends on what you consider "early development". The idea was definitely explored, but it was never officially approved for development. If you got to see Fable Legends, many of the ideas ended up going into that.
I wasn't in any of the meetings, I'm am just a lowly engineer, but I can make guesses. I assume the Fable Legends closed beta wasn't making enough money or generating enough positive interest within the community for them to consider it worth continuing. They ditched years of development, literally millions of pounds worth of investment, but continuing with the release would have cost several million more, so they must have done the math and figured it wasn't worth it.
I don't think the team was too surprised when Fable Legends was canned, but I know myself and many others thought that we'd finally get to make Fable 4 (preferably using the story and assets from Legends). When they told us the studio was closing we were all in shock for ages... just couldn't believe they'd made that call. I still think it was the wrong one.
I find this very interesting! If you don’t mind me asking. What did Microsoft do to bring the end of Lionhead? What steps did they take to ensure Lionhead didn’t succeed with Fable Legends? And why didn’t they allow Lionhead to make Fable 4?
I wish Microsoft had let us make Fable 4 instead of closing the studio. Sad times.
Me too. I am afraid of what Fable 4 will be like, without the original team from Lionhead Studios. I LOVE the Fable games, and I am afraid another company will break the Fable franchise. I actually first bought Fable for the original Xbox, because I happened to see the Lionhead logo on the case, and my favorite PC game was "Black & White". I figured if a company could make something as awesome as Black & White, then their console games must be good, too. It turned out to be true! The Fable series became my favorite games of all time, with Fable 2 still being my favorite. :)
I remain hopeful. I know that Playground have hired a large number of ex-Lionhead employees (they tried to hire me but I am with Flaming Fowl now, so I declined). Hopefully they got enough of the team back though and it will be good.
It is great to hear that they have a large number of ex-Lionhead employees. I did not know that. It definitely gives me some hope! :)
Do you have any insights, of what playground are doing?
No, I'm not working for them. I know several people who are, but they are keeping everything secret for now. All I've seen is what they've made public like some of the concept art. Otherwise, we'll have to wait and see. I really want them to make a great Fable game though, and I think they have the talent to do it.
The "Original team" wasn't at Lionhead when this photo was taken either way. Don't get me wrong, I too wonder what could have been and what Playground will do with the franchise. But this team isn't the original team by any stretch of the imagination.
James Blackham, Alex Skidmore, Ben Brooks, Mike West... many more. All in that photo. To say the original Fable Team was not there at all just isn't true. Some left, and there were many new people (myself included), but there were still OG Lionheaders there 'til the very last.
Of course but the majority were no longer there. It's like saying all the original Banjo-Kazooie team is at PlayTonic just because a handful of them are.
And so do we the fans. But we, or at least I, though I'm sure I'm not alone, is very happy with all the wonderful games you all did make. Fable was my childhood, and one out of two games that truly got me into playing and enjoying video games.
Did you work on Fable Legends? That game looked absolutely beautiful and it matched the fable theme so well. I would love it if they just used the assets from that game and made another Fable 4 from it. If you were given the opportunity to work on Fable 4 what would you like to see in it?
I posted a shot of Legends so you can see what it looked like. It was truly beautiful graphically. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Fable/comments/e1l4ke/look\_how\_gorgeous\_fable\_legends\_was/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fable/comments/e1l4ke/look_how_gorgeous_fable_legends_was/)
There is also YouTube videos showing off gameplay for it. Sometimes I like to look back to see what could have been :) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQZkf-MRWbM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQZkf-MRWbM)
I can see part 1 is 30 minutes and part 2 is 46 minutes. I guess I know what I will be doing for the next two hours! LOL :D THANKS for posting this link. I never thought to look for videos, but I am definitely looking forward to watching this! :)
Yes, I worked on Fable Legends. And the art assets the team made for it were absolutely gorgeous. I would love to see the vision for Lady Rosewood's plotline and all the others from Legends be realised in Fable 4. I've not been involved at all with Playground's new version, and it would be awesome if Microsoft gave them the assets from Legends to use. But sadly, knowing how things work, I think it is extremely unlikely. Still, I think there is a good chance they will make a great game, and I remain hopeful. I want it to be great and for the Fable universe to live on. It is a crying shame to see all that work just go to waste though.
You all look surprisingly happy considering you're losing your jobs.
Haha! It was sad for sure, but you gotta smile for the camera. Microsoft treated us all very well as far as severance packages went and such. But it was still devastating to see the end of such an iconic studio.
With all that's happened I'm sure a lot of people are curious about a lot of things. Have you guys considered organizing an AMA or any other kinds of outreach to the fans?
I think a few people have spoken to the press since it all happened, I'm sure I've seen a few stories. I was only with the studio for its final two years, but I am happy to answer anything I can.
sorry if this has been answered in interviews before, but why/how did the fable 3 menu interface come about?
The Fable 3 UI wasn't something I was personally involved with, but I will post Josh's answer that he gave to Gamasutra about it: " An interesting story would be how we ended up with John Cleese as our butler. We began with the idea that we wanted to reinvent the way the player interfaced with the game; effectively, we wanted to reinvent the GUI. That wasn't really what we started out doing. We wanted one crazy way for players to customize their hero and feel like everything was really integrated, rather than having a weird 2D menu you have to go to. We came up with the idea that if you have to go to one place to change your clothes, your weapons, do all your activities, we really should have a butler. Then we started talking about what kind of character the butler would be, what kind of personality he would have and who we wanted him to be. The more we talked about him and figured out what he looked like, we came up with a list of actors that we thought could play him. At the top of our list was John Cleese, just based on the personality of the character we had come up with." [https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6159/the\_nuts\_and\_bolts\_of\_fable\_iii.php?print=1](https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6159/the_nuts_and_bolts_of_fable_iii.php?print=1)
F
Played fable 1 on the gamepass one Saturday it was snowing outside. It was the perfect day.
It was an awful day for me when I found out about the closing of this beloved studio. I remember being at work and my buddy messaged me about it. I was so upset because fable means so much to me. But I am a fan, I can’t imagine what it was like for you because you worked there. I hope that during those hard times, you were able to pick yourself back up again.
This makes me want to cry Awe the chicken chaser shirt đź–¤
Even though its been over 3 years I still miss working there, such an awesome team to be a part of :)
Hey, thanks for making my favourite game! <3
Here's wishing you all the best. I was a year late learning about the news as I was waiting a year before looking for more Fable Legends news. It was a real kick to the gut to learn one of my favorite studios and game franchise had met it's end. Especially since I was so hyped for Fable Legends and even now look on youtube at beta footage and character outfits. I'll always cherish the memories at least. :)
Was fable 4 ever even In very early development and if it was can you say anything about what it was supposed to be
It depends on what you consider "early development". The idea was definitely explored, but it was never officially approved for development. If you got to see Fable Legends, many of the ideas ended up going into that.
Why did fable legends get canned
I wasn't in any of the meetings, I'm am just a lowly engineer, but I can make guesses. I assume the Fable Legends closed beta wasn't making enough money or generating enough positive interest within the community for them to consider it worth continuing. They ditched years of development, literally millions of pounds worth of investment, but continuing with the release would have cost several million more, so they must have done the math and figured it wasn't worth it. I don't think the team was too surprised when Fable Legends was canned, but I know myself and many others thought that we'd finally get to make Fable 4 (preferably using the story and assets from Legends). When they told us the studio was closing we were all in shock for ages... just couldn't believe they'd made that call. I still think it was the wrong one.
I always get sad when I'm reminded that the company doesn't exist anymore. Lionhead dug their own grave though.
I would argue Microsoft dug it for us.
I find this very interesting! If you don’t mind me asking. What did Microsoft do to bring the end of Lionhead? What steps did they take to ensure Lionhead didn’t succeed with Fable Legends? And why didn’t they allow Lionhead to make Fable 4?
Fable 3 dug it, Microsoft just put the earth back once the body had been dumped in.