New Fable 2 Image and Some Info on Work Going On

The Lionhead Studios and Microsoft Game Studios creation, Fable 2, is slated to make its presence felt in the year 2007. Still far from now, and definitely, a lot of work for the game is going on along with the fixing of issues. Recently, the people at Lionhead studios divulged what has been going on with the game. Some of these “big issues” are “the fighting, the back-story, the GUI, Albion and the Bloodline, more milestones and how they were going to tackle the thousands and thousands of animations that are required (again, you donÂ’t want to see Dene Carter in Lycra) were all high on the agenda. Oh yes, and nipples”

Since Fable 2‘s setting should just be beautiful, the team members over at desigining and building are also having a ball creating the beautiful, vast, and interesting world of the game. They would also want to steer away from what they call the “Dungeons and Dragons” theme of RPGs. According to Lionhead “Fable 2 is set in Albion… a fictional world, in which we get to do whatever we want. ItÂ’s something that, during the days of the original Fable, was clear from the beginning and many gamers seemed to enjoy this new and fresh feeling. So weÂ’re sticking to our approach and this time weÂ’re making it bigger. And hopefully better!”

Creating a big, beautiful world is a gargantuan task, that’s why necessary tools and knowledge are needed. Charlton Edwards a level designer on Fable 2 explains– “what I do is help build the world of Albion, aided by SketchUp King Mike Green and Level Design Lead, Iain Wright. That includes placing important gameplay features, prettying the world up to a degree (ready for the artists at a later date), placing creatures, lights, particles emitters and, well, everything basically apart from scripts.” The 2D sketches of Fable 2 is then created into a ‘real’ world in which you could walk around. It took him 2-3 days days to create every area this way.

The created ‘real’ world  gave the design team a chance to have a really good feel of the game and improve all areas even before being able to test them in the Fable 2 engine. Once all of this was done and the programmers and coders finished their initial work everything was transferred to the new Fable 2 engine, including the height fields which are so all-important. Edwards added that “Fable 2 retains the Fable 1 organic, intimate feel, while giving players tons to explore and discover. We are really trying to pack the world with exploration, interaction and secrets.”

The created region is big.  For those of you, who played Fable 1, think of all the Greatwood regions, add them together and you come close to the size of [CENSORwood], and mind you this is only one region. Just imagine how big it’s gonna be once it’s complete. Let’s just hope that the game itself is going to be big hit as well.

Via Lionhead

The Lionhead Studios and Microsoft Game Studios creation, Fable 2, is slated to make its presence felt in the year 2007. Still far from now, and definitely, a lot of work for the game is going on along with the fixing of issues. Recently, the people at Lionhead studios divulged what has been going on with the game. Some of these “big issues” are “the fighting, the back-story, the GUI, Albion and the Bloodline, more milestones and how they were going to tackle the thousands and thousands of animations that are required (again, you donÂ’t want to see Dene Carter in Lycra) were all high on the agenda. Oh yes, and nipples”

Since Fable 2‘s setting should just be beautiful, the team members over at desigining and building are also having a ball creating the beautiful, vast, and interesting world of the game. They would also want to steer away from what they call the “Dungeons and Dragons” theme of RPGs. According to Lionhead “Fable 2 is set in Albion… a fictional world, in which we get to do whatever we want. ItÂ’s something that, during the days of the original Fable, was clear from the beginning and many gamers seemed to enjoy this new and fresh feeling. So weÂ’re sticking to our approach and this time weÂ’re making it bigger. And hopefully better!”

Creating a big, beautiful world is a gargantuan task, that’s why necessary tools and knowledge are needed. Charlton Edwards a level designer on Fable 2 explains– “what I do is help build the world of Albion, aided by SketchUp King Mike Green and Level Design Lead, Iain Wright. That includes placing important gameplay features, prettying the world up to a degree (ready for the artists at a later date), placing creatures, lights, particles emitters and, well, everything basically apart from scripts.” The 2D sketches of Fable 2 is then created into a ‘real’ world in which you could walk around. It took him 2-3 days days to create every area this way.

The created ‘real’ world  gave the design team a chance to have a really good feel of the game and improve all areas even before being able to test them in the Fable 2 engine. Once all of this was done and the programmers and coders finished their initial work everything was transferred to the new Fable 2 engine, including the height fields which are so all-important. Edwards added that “Fable 2 retains the Fable 1 organic, intimate feel, while giving players tons to explore and discover. We are really trying to pack the world with exploration, interaction and secrets.”

The created region is big.  For those of you, who played Fable 1, think of all the Greatwood regions, add them together and you come close to the size of [CENSORwood], and mind you this is only one region. Just imagine how big it’s gonna be once it’s complete. Let’s just hope that the game itself is going to be big hit as well.

Via Lionhead