When Lionhead Studios was shut down in March we feared that we wouldn't hear from the British studio nor the Fable series for a long time. Fortunately that might not be the case.
IGN has revealed that Lionhead was developing a free-to-play, Fable-branded digital card game called Fable Fortune before being shut down. After closing down, Craig Oman, Mike West and Marcus Lynn decided to go on new adventures and started Flaming Fowl Studios. Apparently they really liked the idea of Fable Fortune and asked Microsoft's permission to use the Fable license. Microsoft gave the team its blessing, and the project will now go to Kickstarter for funding.
Fable Fortune will be very familiar to those who play games like Hearthstone, as players choose from eight planned deck-altering heroes and aiming to reduce the opponents' health to zero using a variety of spells. Though Mike West promises a few twists.
He says that the team's ethos is to improve the genre by using a more engaging 3D art style, offering a full online co-op mode against AI "bosses" using themed decks, a leveling system for cards used regularly, and Trophy Cards (extra units or spells offered to the player who plays second).
As if that wasn't enough they also think the game will distinguish itself by having the developers' well known British humour, character and creatures from the Fable universe, and even Good/Evil choices which transforms your hero, their powers, and even morphing certain cards into new forms.
Not enough for you? Fear not. The game's design is far from complete, and Flaming Fowl wants to build the game with the fans. When the Kickstarter campaign start tomorrow at 3 PM GMT backers will get access to a closed forum where they can share their thoughts and ideas.
The team hope to raise at least £250,000 in four weeks, with multiple stretch goals planned beyond that. If they reach this goal they'll have a closed beta within a few weeks, and an open beta on PC and Xbox One in October, with a full release to follow in late 2017.