Peter Molyneux is a troubled genius. At the long-deceased Bullfrog he was responsible for some of the greatest PC games ever; Theme Park, Populous and Syndicate to name a few. Now celebrating Lionhead's tenth anniversary under the wings of Microsoft Game Studios, he's both proud, and disappointed that he hasn't yet achieved that "landmark" game he's always wanted to create.
In the fourth interview in our Creative Minds series, we find out how the Lionhead boss has adjusted to life under the Xbox banner, his memories and regrets from the earlier days and just what it's like working on the Xbox 360's flasgship title of 2008.
How did it feel to celebrate Lionhead's 10th anniversary?
Molyneux: Well it's a mixture of pride, relief, celebration and disappointment. Pride because it all started out around a pub table ten years ago, where we decided to start a company and maybe make a couple of games. We've achieved so much more than that. Relief because the independent game sector has really gone through the mill with games becoming so much more expensive to make and there have been quite a few casualties because of that. Disappointment because I still believe that Lionhead has a great game within it but that we have yet to fulfil that potential, and celebration because we're still here and now a part of Microsoft and so we can totally focus on being innovative and creative. I think our next game will bear the fruits of this
The company's gone on even longer than Bullfrog did. Can you tell us a bit about what it was like in those Bullfrog days?
Molyneux: Bullfrog went from being a two band in 1989, which had a meteoric rise to success thanks to Populous. It really was a rags to riches story or like an express train journey where we departed at Populous and the journey continued with games like Syndicate, Theme Park and Magic Carpet and which eventually arrived with the sale of Bullfrog to Electronic Arts.
Looking back, it was a really exciting rollercoaster ride up to that point. But then it was a huge culture shock as well; I was a developer who smoked, drank coke and ate pizza at his desk and all of sudden I was caught up in health and safety issues. Its hard to pinpoint specific highs and lows, the realisation that more than two people wanted to play Populous was an incredible high!
Going from Theme Park and populous, Black & White must have been your dream project?
Molyneux: Yes. It was Black & White that came to characterise the Lionhead style; hugely ambitious and packed full of features such as knowing what the weather was like outside when you were playing the game, "real AI", an innovative interface, correct moon cycles etc.
It was a bold approach and an ambition which everyone on the team strove very hard for, but we failed to balance the game - so it wasn't the truly great thing it should have been. Still, when I look back and think of that game which was produced by a small 20 man team, I still feel extremely proud of what we did achieve.
You've expressed disappointment with a number of your other, more acclaimed titles such as The Movies and B&W2. Why is that?
Molyneux: The Movies and Black & White 2 were made under incredible strain. We were a small studio working on four games simultaneously; Fable the Lost Chapters (PC and Xbox), the Movies and Black & White 2 - and they all were finishing together. So I think the quality did suffer.
I now realise it's not enough to finish a game but more a question of finish and then spend a substantial amount of time rebalancing and polishing, which is something we've never had the luxury of until recently. But looking back at The Movies, the sales were not all we'd hoped for and on playing it again I realised that there were too many things to do at the same time, putting too much pressure on the player. It should have been simplified and then would have been more enjoyable.
How has your development mantra changed since those days?
Molyneux: At the moment what I say all the time is LESS features and MORE polish. Lionhead games need less random features, but to refine and hone the core features. Combat is good example of this; we could have thrown in 100's of different spells, moves and effects but I now realise it's better to have fewer really good spells and moves which really work. In other words quality rather than quantity
What are the biggest changes that underwent at Lionhead, going from an independent company to first-party developer?
Molyneux: Firstly don't forget that this is the second time that I and a number of other people at Lionhead have gone through this, so we were more prepared and knew what to expect. Microsoft has great belief in us and has given us massive amount of support, but I also knew that I wanted Lionhead to retain its own culture as I felt very protective of that. So I would say that Lionhead has integrated very well into Microsoft who are very supportive of our aim to make a truly great game - so other than the fact we now have an extremely nice new office I would say that there haven't been many changes at Lionhead.
You've been called too ambitious in the past. Do you think you'll be able to reach those ambitions now that you don't have to worry about paying the bills?
Molyneux: Well Lionhead is as committed as ever to being innovative and creative and that means being ambitious. I want to make a truly great landmark game and we have talent and resources to attain this, so my ambitions are as strong as they ever were.
Fable 2's obviously your main focus at the moment. Could you describe your position on the project, and a typical day shaping Albion?
Molyneux: Well my official position is design director and I head up a great team of designers on Fable 2. At the moment we're working on finalising the core mechanics, meaning we have ten sub teams who are working on areas of the game like levels, combat, GUI, positioning of quests etc. My job every day is to review the work each sub team has done so that we can get these core mechanics locked down and completed in the next few weeks, then we'll have plenty of time to refine and polish the game. Currently we're putting in 10-12 hour days.
It looks like you're going to be the Xbox 360's flagship title next year then. Does that pressure you much these days?
Molyneux: Actually I find that prospect extremely exciting. It is an incredible experience to see the title you're working on up in lights. The idea that our game will be played and critqued by millions of game players is one that I find stimulating as opposed to daunting
What I want to achieve in my career is very simple I really, really want to create a truly great landmark game. I define that as a game that people would put in their all-time top ten and which many of millions of people play and enjoy.
Read the previous Creative Minds interviews with ex-Rare man Martin Hollis, Bioshock's Joe McDonagh and Elite creator David Braben here.
You have to admire Molyneux, he just never gives up and the ideas from Lionhead are always fantastic, even if the final product isn't perfect.
I really enjoyed both B&Ws, but it could very often get frustrating and sometimes a little linear and repetitive. But I think it was the first games to bring us decent learning AI. Likewise, The Movies was a great idea, but (as he said) there was just too much going on sometimes in the campaign mode and it became too difficult to be fun. The Sandbox mode was far more fun, but the limiting factor was just the selection of scenes available. If an updated version was released for the Xbox with better graphics and more scenes I'd probably buy it again.
I waited 4 years for B&W to come out, so I'll always be a great believer in Lionhead's ideas.
It's a shame EA probably own the rights to Syndicate since the sale of Bulfrog. Now there's a game I'd love to see another sequel for.
As for Molyneux, I respect his enthusiasm & intentions, but so often he has a completely misguided approach which sadly seems to be continuing to this day.
I get the feeling Molyneux could make the perfect game, with not a single fault - And still not be 100% happy with it. Which is great, it's the kind of attitude the industry needs - Always striving to do new, different things. Even if the execution of such isn't always perfect.
Strikes me that Peter has decided that the reason his last few games failed was because they were too 'complicated' - and so he's bought into the 'dumb everything down' mantra of console and PC gaming. 'Let's have less freedom - gamers want less freedom'? Oh yea? No. Actually, I think the success of games like Oblivion and STALKER, to name a couple, prove otherwise, and I think Fable was knocked for it's LACK of freedom compared to Oblivion, which gamers associated it with!
Molyneux seems to be jumping on the 'scripted rail' game style just when so many developers are moving away from it with open-world games (Far Cry 2, Crysis, The Precursors, White Gold, Clear Sky, Mass Effect, etc). We need more open world, free-form games that give gamers value for money and replayability, not more 12 hour rail shooters that are totally scripted.
I think you're wrong. He doesn't want a scripted rail game, he just wants to make sure all the features he has in the game, are polished, and don't look tacked on the side.
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