Molyneux: Fable III was a "trainwreck"

Former Lionhead boss on what he'd do differently.

Peter Molyneux has been talking frankly (doesn't he always) about some of this career lows, and in a recent interview the former Lionhead chief explained how Fable III was one such low point.

"I think Fable III was a trainwreck," Molyneux said in an interview with Develop. "It was built to be much bigger than what it was constrained to be and eventually ended up as."

"In my mind, as a designer, whenever I'm making a game I have this perfect jewel in mind," he continued. "Fable for me was this beautiful, incredible, amusing, funny, artistic, wonderful gem of a game that anyone could play, that tugged on the heartstrings and that was instantly engaging."

He then elaborated on the gem metaphor: "The gem that was in my mind has never come to be, it's always flawed in some way. I thought Fable - when you consider that it was the first game I ever did of that type - wasn't bad. It was hugely flawed in some senses, and there were technical issues like the animation didn't work but it wasn't bad."

"I think Fable II was a step in the right direction. If I had my time again, I'd take the advances we made from Fable to Fable II, I'd make the same advances from Fable II to Fable III and spend another entire year working on Fable III. But would it be that perfect gem that's in my mind? No."

Molyneux's new company, 22 Cans, are currently working on Godus, a god-sim in the vein of one of the games that helped launch his career, Populous. In the interview he joked "Saying that, of course, Godus exceeds that gem."