3/22/2004

The birth of a Fable

This is a really badass article about the developers of Fable - the game which... and it pains me to say this... may actually convince me to buy an Xbox.... or at least camp out at the house of someone who has one =P

Although the thought of someone abusing the engine to have your character run around naked through classrooms is entertaining...

and quotes like this are damn entertaining: (on turn based combat) "Often this descends into a situation where you 'Summon the Seventh Demon of Kunarg', spend 3 minutes watching a jaw-dropping spell effect where the earth is ripped in two, a 500 foot monster climbs out of the crack and pisses lava over your enemies. At the end of this, the world magically heals itself and the number '23' rises helpfully from your enemy, the only indicator of the damage that's been done, or indeed what just happened."

I still think that because I can relate to the development nightmares at least a LITTLE, I think my personal favorite part is this: "However, if you'd popped your head into our office yesterday you'd have found Simon chain-smoking menthol cigarettes, Matt's body convulsing with a thousand simultaneous nervous twitches, Julian and Adam shrieking at each other about how the other one shouldn't bother looking the next time he crossed the road, while our lead artist, Ian, was falling on his knees screaming 'Why the rubbery &%*# isn't the &*#%ing Balverine still not working you useless bunch of monkeys', in front of a whiteboard listing the odds on which member of the team was going to 'crack' next."

Fable Developer Diaries

On another note, I visited the Guildhall over the break, and although the 'tour' wasn't really what I expected, it answered a lot of my questions, and at some point during the walk around the building, the epiphane hit me, that although there are a million other things I want to do, being able to create beauty in a game is something I want to be able to do - and so, despite the work and tons of effort it takes, I want to work in the game dev. industry. Now, I also figured out that they accept students in January - so, providing I graduate in Dec, I want to go there. Finally, I am in the process of trying to do art or code (a discussion for another post), but I have given myself this ultimatum:

I will work on both code and art until Oct (applications are due) and if my art talents are up to the skill level necessary to make it in the biz, I'll apply with that - if not, I'll fall back onto code.

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