Peter Molyneux revealed Fable 2’s big new innovation today.
It was a dog.
Which might not sound like much, but it is perhaps the most sophisticated dog to have appeared in a game to date.
A bit of context: originally when they went about designing Fable 2, Lionhead decided that they should take a bit more of a professional approach, so they formed focus groups and took a lot of surveys. They even talked to various online communities about what they wanted (which Molyneux related to “opening the doors of hell”, while mentioning that it did result in some very honest feedback, along with a lot of noise).
So, after doing all that research, they came up with a “Fable shopping list”, which can be pretty much be summarized as “More of the good things in Fable 1.”
However, after thinking about it a bit, they realized that they wanted to do more than simply make a bigger and better Fable. Rather, they wanted a game that would evoke complicated emotions in people besides the ones that most games already have (excitement, fear, and achievement). In particular, they were hoping to evoke a feeling of being loved for the players, which is a rather tall task for a video game.
One way they intend to do this is by allowing the player to have children that grow up to become like them. He also mentioned that your children (and the world in general) will react to what you do, so if you kill a giant monster they might perhaps say “good job on killing that giant monster!” later on in the game.
However, the main way they’re hoping to evoke emotion out of players is through the pet dog. Essentially in the game, your dog acts as your sidekick, scouting ahead to warn you of danger, occasionally acting as a guide, and attacking enemies that you aren’t currently able to deal with, along with a lot of other such things. One thing that Molyneux mentioned is that they feel it’s very important for the dog to never be annoying, so they came up with essentially three laws for the dog: 1. The dog should never annoy the player 2. The dog should always try to act to please the player 3. The dog will act to preserve itself, assuming that doing so doesn’t contradict the two above rules for the dog
In regards to why the third point is necessary, Molyneux related an anecdote about a tester who killed his dog by asking it to fetch something he threw off a cliff, which the dog of course obediently did.
Amusingly, Molyneux was able to draw a bit of an emotional reaction from the crowd during the demonstration of the dog. He went into battle with his dog, showing how the dog was able to fight intelligently by the players side without getting in the way. However, after the fight the dog was rather hurt (it was limping and whimpering.) So, Molyneux said something along the lines of “Well, seeing how this is Fable, you’re free to simply abandon your dog if you choose to do so”, and he made the player run off while the camera sat there focusing on the whimpering dog limping along rather feebly while trying to follow. It was actually a rather powerful scene, which showed off just how well they managed to make the dog a sympathetic (and useful) character in the game.
Molyneux also mentioned that the game will monitor how much you care for you dog, and that depending on that it might have various story line effects. Also, like the player, the dog will of course be morphable, so as the player becomes more good or evil, so will the dog.
Southwest Gaming Expo
