Peter Molyneux On Developmental Experimentation 55
Gamasutra reports on a talk given at GDC by Peter Molyneux, founder of Lionhead Studios and designer of games such as Black & White and Fable. Molyneux discussed some of the experimentation that went into the development of their various games. Quoting:
"After his overview of the process, Molyneux demonstrated a number of actual experiments. He began by showing an early version of Fable II's dog, which he himself designed and which ended up factoring heavily into the full game. 'This is probably one of the most valuable experiments we ever did,' he said. Using the original Fable engine, the team asked itself, 'Why don't we think how the dog can actually move and be a companion to the player?' They decided to focus on exploring what a dog would do, rather than try to slot a canine into existing typical video game companion tasks. This led to the mechanic of the dog running out in front of the player, rather than beside or behind the player as most game AI companions are positioned, which had a huge impact on the dog's role."
Re:Hilarious (Score:3, Insightful)
GP is a moron. Syndicate and Magic Carpet are other epic Molyneux games. I thought the first Black & White was pretty amazing too.
Theme Park is testament to the fact that some games just work better in 2D... I STILL break it out and play it for hours from time to time. I just wish they would make a properly updated version that runs nicely in XP/Vista.
In fact, I wish Good Old Games would get hold of the Bullfrog catalogue - now THAT would be worth paying for.
Re:Hilarious (Score:5, Insightful)
I disagree. Molyneux does experiment far more than any other major developer, for the most part. Of course, these days video gaming is pretty well established and there isn't quite the room to invent whole new genres like there was back in the 80s and 90s. But even so, he always seems to me to be trying to find new twists on existing genres, or to mesh genres together in a new way. Fable and Black & White are good examples of this.
The problem is that, despite what people like to think, experimentation and innovation don't often make for very good games. These days, making a good game is, like it or not, generally about polish, attention to detail, technical prowess and the shameless lifting of other people's innovations. Molyneux will put out something interesting and different, which fails to provide any kind of fun. Then a year later, somebody else lifts all of the good ideas and puts them into a package that actually works as a game. Look at how Black & White, which was undoubtedly one of the most broken experiences ever to be marketed as a leisure activity, laid down much of the groundwork for the modern virtual pet genre, which is seriously big money now.
I don't like the guy's games, but I think the industry is better for his involvement.
For better of for worse (Score:5, Insightful)
I've always enjoyed Molyneux games for the new ideas he tries to pack in. Black & White for example; a great game in that it provided some genuinely different game-play to anything else ever. A few of us played that game for an entire weekend once; it's slow enough to leave running while eating/drinking/sleeping, but involving enough to play when and if you want.
It was quite funny to wake up to find your creature had randomly taught itself to fling faeces at non-friendly villages and promptly eat all the villagers once this bizarre spectacle had converted the hearts and minds of an opposition village to your cause.
Anyway, the point is, the guy's trying to inject some originality into gameplay at least; some times it works, other times not.
Re:Hilarious (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe, but the means of "tactile" interaction with the pet, which is at the core of most virtual pet games these days, is pure Black & White. When I see Nintendogs, I think of Black & White far more than I do the Tamagotchi.
Re:Hilarious (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't like the guy's games, but I think the industry is better for his involvement.
If on average it takes you 5+ years of development for each title you release, and in doing so you use up all of your own money, and all of the money from VC's, end up filing for bankruptcy, and then hand out P45's to your employees before being rescued at the last minute by Microsoft; I think it's pretty easy to make the case that people working in the industry in the guildford area would be better off without him.
You've got to give the man credit for the early bullfrog games, but to ignore all of his recent failings is taking a slightly blinkered view of the man imho.
Fable and Black & White are good examples of this.
I always read Fable as 'feck, B&W sales are not good, we need to get a more commercial offering out there to start making some money'...
Look at how Black & White, which was undoubtedly one of the most broken experiences ever to be marketed as a leisure activity, laid down much of the groundwork for the modern virtual pet genre, which is seriously big money now.
No, it really didn't [wikipedia.org]. B&W came five years later.
Re:Hype (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Spoiler alert (Score:3, Insightful)
"These sorts of games?" Fallout (and presumably Fable, but I haven't played it) is an RPG, where side quests are the game. The main plot is simply an excuse to get the player wandering. Side quests are where you can "play the role".
These games try to be "sandbox games", but the current limits of AI means that pretty much everything has to be pre-scripted. I wonder how it would go if some real expert at AI would help develop them - would we get some really freeform emergent behaviour? Of course, one might argue that The Sims already does something like this...
The Sims meets SimCity meets Master of Magic meets RPG?
Re:Hilarious (Score:3, Insightful)
Magic carpet's graphics were absolutely sensational when it came. It, Populous, and Dungeon Keeper had great gameplay, too. Where I think things started to go downhill was with Black & White, when PM fell in love with certain AI ideas, and thought a game about toilet training a giant cow would be fun. It was also apparently very buggy - I didn't play it very much, and not many games afterwards.