molyneux
Latest
No, 'Fable' designer Peter Molyneux isn't retiring today
Peter Molyneux is not done making video games. Molyneux appeared to announce his retirement from the video game industry in a series of tweets today, but it turns out his account was hacked. The impersonator also claimed that Molyneux was shutting down his latest game, Godus, but that's not true, either.
Godus Kickstarter concludes at £526K
Peter Molyneux's 22cans studio has completed its Kickstarter for Godus with £526,563 ($852K) in funding, from 17,184 backers. The game, which is a spiritual successor to Molyneux's Populous, reached its Kickstarter goal of £450,000 two days ago.If you'd like to check out some prototypes for Godus, 22cans gave an overview earlier this week, following up with a multiplayer video. The game will be out when Molyneux says it's out.
Molyneux's Project Godus reaches Kickstarter goal
Peter Molyneux's studio 22cans has reached its £450,000 ($730K) Kickstarter goal for Godus, a spiritual successor to Molyneux's classic game Populous. The Project Godus Kickstarter reached its goal with a little under two days to go.The studio has been a PR kick the past couple of days, summoning a pair of prototype videos that helped drive donations for the game's final days on the crowdsourcing site. The first gave a basic overview, while this morning's showed off the prototype for Godus' multiplayer.
We can't tell if Molydeux is doing the work for Molyneux, or it's the other way around
Peter Molyneux's first experimental title with 22 Cans is Curiosity, a potentially million-player title that has people chip away at a cube until one person hits the final piece and uncovers the ultimate secret inside. Peter Molydeux, a digital parody of Molyneux, has created a trailer for Curiosity using a few exaggerated quotes (and some not so hyperbolic)."It will make the God Particle seem smaller than an atom," Molydeux (correctly) states. Molyneux has described Curiosity as something that "is so valuable, and so life-changingly important."Molydeux's trailer posits that this discovery is "about to change life as we know it" and "it will be covered in the media for all eternity," while Molyneux has previously said "It's so amazing I think it will appear on news reports."In response to Molydeux's trailer, Molyneux has offered a few hints as to Curiosity's secret, tweeting that he thinks the parody "is truly amazing. It's not a message, it's not an advert, it's not a job. I am loath to give more clues."Curiosity will support microtransactions, with items ranging from $0.50 to $50,000. The game will be launched on August 22 for iOS, Android and PC.
Molyneux: Microsoft was a 'creative padded cell;' 22 Cans will see his 'best' game ever
Peter Molyneux, creator of Fable and famously parodied developer, left Microsoft and Lionhead Studios last month to establish 22 Cans, a brand new development house. 22 Cans marks Molyneux's fifth studio founding, but there's something different about this one, he told Develop:"I believe it has all led me to this point. I believe the greatest game I've ever made is still ahead of me."Molyneux is adamant that he is building something special with 22 Cans, in both the structure of the company and the games it will produce. So far he has co-founder and former Lionhead programmer Dimitri Mavrikakis, data miner Paul Knight and IT director Tim Rance on board, but Molyneux is looking to have 22 people total from various industries, including architects, veterans, fresh faces and people who know nothing about the video game world.These people will help Molyneux make his "best" game ever; a game he couldn't create while at Microsoft. "I was in a creative padded cell," Molyneux said. "Microsoft was so safe. Microsoft was so nice. You're so supported. Everything I did couldn't hurt me, both creatively and physically. The danger was long gone. I had this huge desire to make something truly special, and I felt like I was being suffocated creatively a little bit."
What Would Molydeux? game jam expands; list of what would Molymake
"What Would Peter Molyduex, if he were here right now? We bet he'd kick an a..." and we'll let your twisted little minds fill in the rest of those lyrics. The What Would Molydeux? game jam has turned from a two-city semi-satirical proposition into a 16-city, truly international game jam, running from March 30-April 1.What Would Molydeux? has developers choose a premise from any of @petermolydeux's brilliant and/or strange game propositions, and create it in 48 hours. It is important to note that Peter Molydeux is not Peter Molyneux, creator of Fable and former Lionhead Studios mastermind, but Molydeux does do a wonderful impression.Molydeux is hopeful these proposals will see creation during the game jam, but anything from his Twitter is up for grabs. What Would Molydeux? begins at 7 p.m. local time around the world on Friday, March 30.
Peter Molyneux brings Milo, Kinect, and snails to the TED stage
Poor Milo. Our virtual friend has been in our heart for about as long as Kinect (née Project Natal) has been in the public eye, always doodling, always playing with snail, rarely able to escape the confines of dark developer studio. When we talked to Milo's "father" Peter Molyneux at the last Engadget Show, he kept referencing this TED Talk demo he recently gave, and sure enough, video of that speech is now available online. The 11-minute presentation delves into a number of the setups / "magician's tricks" used to make Milo an interactive and at times empathetic character, and how natural voice recognition was implemented (thanks in part to Microsoft's TellMe database) so that the player isn't limited to simple yes and no responses. Curious about the moral ramifications of an artificial adolescent aggressive to mollusk? Definitely worth a look, as is our last Engadget Show episode if you missed it; video after the break.
Be the first to show up at the Engadget Show with Lucky Charms and Peter Molyneux will put you in Fable III! (We've got winners!)
Hey, Peter Molyneux is here at the Engadget Show, and his Fable III demo assistant Dimitri mentioned that he's looking for a box of Lucky Charms, since he can't get it in England. That prompted Peter to make an insane crowd-sourcing offer: the first person to bring a box of Lucky Charms to the Engadget Show will become a character in Fable III. Insane, right? What's more, everyone else who brings a box will get a free signed copy of the game, which is some seriously serious cereal. The show starts in 30 minutes -- we'll see you soon! Updated: See that lucky guy and girl right up there?! Yep, they're going to be characters in Fable III. Congrats, Monica and Jay -- we'll see you in the game.
Peter Molyneux on WoW's reward system
You probably know Peter Molyneux's name if you've been playing video games for any significant amount of time -- he's the mind behind such classics as Populous and Dungeon Keeper, all the way up to Black and White and the current Fable series. He recently gave a talk to the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and early on his talk (part 1 is here, part 2 and part 3 are also online), he speaks out about our favorite game, World of Warcraft. Specifically, he mentions it as an influence on his game design, and says the most brilliant thing about the game are "the steeds," or the mounts you could pick up at level 40 (nowadays, of course, they're available at level 20). He says that in his own games, he tries to give everything out to the player as soon as possible, but the fact that Blizzard made you wait to ride a mount around, made you work up a few levels for it, really stuck with him. Now, of course, he's taking away his own lessons here -- Blizzard's philosophy with the game as a whole seems to reward the player as much as possible, and especially lately, with emblems and the different modes and all of the other daily and weekly quests they've come up with, they're making you do less waiting for prizes than they ever have before (in fact, compared to MMOs when they first started, much, much less waiting). And Molyneux's own games are very "rewarding" -- I don't think more than two minutes went by in Fable without me getting a level or a new spell or a new item to play around with. But his point is still good, even after all that: anticipation of a reward can be just as strong a motivator as the reward itself.
Project Natal: How Dimitri met Milo
In a March 2008 interview with GamersGlobal, renowned designer Peter Molyneux divulged few details on "Dimitri," an "experimental thing" which he claimed was given life by a mysterious discovery. "And then it moved from that experiment to a moment in time that happened six months ago when a discovery was made, and this discovery has been so exciting that it has lead to Lionhead focusing on it and sculpting a game around that," he said at the time. "I think that discovery is so significant ... This discovery has lead us to start a game and that game will be on the front cover of Nature magazines and Science magazines."According to Microsoft Game Studios head Phil Spencer, the discovery was actually "the right platform for an ambitious software idea" -- namely Project Natal, Microsoft's forthcoming motion control system for the Xbox 360. "Peter [Molyneux] and I saw the first [Natal] prototype about 2 years ago," Spencer recently told Develop. "He focused on what people want to do in this environment, and that's where a project of Lionhead's, called Dimitri, become Milo – the team's previous idea took on a whole new lease of life with Natal." Now that we've become acquainted with "Dimitri" in his new, boyish form, we can lay the old codeword to rest and attempt to discern the reality within Molyneux's enthusiastic words. Though we're undecided on Milo's future as a Popular Mechanics cover model, we're fairly confident he'll wind up on Game Informer sooner or later. Shall we file this under Molyknew or Molyno?
Rare happy to have Molyneux raising its profile
"Once we were bought up by Microsoft obviously things have changed within the top ranks and stuff. And I think over the last few years maybe the awareness of Rare has dropped." That's according to Steve McFarlane, art director for the studio responsible for such titles as, umm ... hang on, we're just checking Wikipedia here. Won't take a moment.Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, Viva Piñata and GoldenEye, it says here. Anyway, according to an interview with OXM, Rare's counting on some revitalized recognition, courtesy of new(ish) Microsoft Games Studios Europe director, Peter Molyneux. "And the idea of Pete coming in and being this new face of Rare it's a great thing for us. It's really just to get us out there a bit more," McFarlane said. Pete's a real pal, having similarly expressed a desire to foster an improved identity for Rare just a few weeks ago. With a hit game and solid promotion, there's no reason the spotlight can't fall back on Rare, even inside Microsoft. We're fairly confident you've all heard of standouts like Lionhead and walkouts like Bungie.
Molyneux would like to see Rare have an identity
Microsoft's European Creative Director Peter Molyneux would like to help fellow UK developer Rare gain an identity. Speaking with GI.biz during E3, the outspoken Lionhead Studios head says he was "totally blown away" by the talent at Rare and he wants to "help them get well known." Not that the studio isn't already known -- for better or worse over the last half decade -- having developed Perfect Dark Zero, Viva Pinata and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts.It's not exactly clear what Molyneux will do to help Rare gain an identity. Overall, Rare has been a disappointment ever since Microsoft bought it for $375 million back in 2002, never achieving the greatness it had while developing titles for Nintendo like Perfect Dark, Donkey Kong 64 and GoldenEye.
Molyneux: Fable destroyed developer lives, Fable II not so much
The original Fable was a home wrecker, according to Lionhead guru Peter Molyneux. The developer with the buttery British voice tells Develop that the first Fable "just burnt people's lives" and "destroyed the team." He says the excessively long work hours ruined marriages, and that the studio just can't do that anymore.Molyneux is happy to report that Fable II wasn't such a demon -- well, not until the "very, very end," when it consumed weekends (which is pretty standard). He states that, for the most part, the studio was empty on Sundays. We'd ask how he knows that, but we feel the answer involves him sadly sitting alone in the office over the weekends. Poor, poor Peter.
Molyneux: Gaming in 2009 'looking a bit dry'
Being brutally honest, Lionhead Studios' own Peter Molyneux gave BBC his industry predictions for 2009 and, truthfully, isn't really all that excited."Next year [2009], well, it's all looking a bit dry," admitted Peter Molyneux, adding that "all the triple A titles came out this Christmas." Continuing his lack of 2009 optimism rant, Molyneux mentioned that "there is stuff in 2010 we can look forward to, off the top of my head I cannot think of anything next year that really excites me." Well sir, with the utmost respect, we do not agree.[Via Joystiq]
Molyneux: 2009 release calender 'all looking a bit dry'
We're less than a week into the new year, and already some people are casting doubting glances at the industry. And by some people, we mean Lionhead's Peter Molyneux, who recently told the BBC that 2009's upcoming slate of game releases is "all looking a bit dry." The face behind our favorite game of 2008 also spoke out against current retail prices, predicting "a lot of price pressure put on games" in the future. Good thing, as we need to buy something to wash all of this down.Noted Molyneux, "All the triple A titles came out this Christmas and while there is stuff in 2010 we can look forward to, off the top of my head I cannot think of anything next year that really excites me." Of the things that get him going, one is likely to be his next "super secret" project, a game that he teased "might" be revealed next year. Dmitri, is that you?
Sir Molyneux set to deliver keynote at GDC '09
The 2009 Game Developers Conference that's set to take place from March 23rd through the 27th at the Moscone Center in San Francisco is going to kick off with a KABOOM! That KABOOM will originate from one Peter Molyneux, Lionhead Studios' big cheese who'll be keynoting the conference during a session called "Lionhead Experiments Revealed." Molyneux's keynote will be followed up with various learning sessions throughout the week, including sessions by developers from Harmonix, Ubisoft, Bungie, Epic and more. Remember too that last year's GDC brought us an official Gears of War 2 reveal, so it would be a fair assumption to believe Microsoft has some gaming goodies planned.
Molyneux & Co. still hyping: 'Big' Fable 2 announcement next week
Oh, Lionhead. The Fable 2 publisher, no stranger to hyping its products (with both good and bad results), is at it again. A posting on the developer's website reveals, "We've got some news [emphasis theirs] for all Fable II fans next week, dare I even say it's quite a big announcement? Yes of course I dare say it's a big announcement regarding Fable II, next week!" We're not quite sure why they felt the need to make "Good" its own image file for emphasis, but it looks like we'll find out soon enough. "," we say, "
Nega-review: Fable II
"While Fable 2 is now 'all grown up,' its new scale and gameplay elements expose some key issues that other RPGs of this scope have spent years ironing out." (9) "There are almost constant niggling annoyances that persist from the very second the disc enters the drive." (5)"Fable II is short and easy, and the plot is mostly boring." (3) "Running through the core missions from start to finish would only take a handful of hours." (6) "You can race through the main storyline in around a dozen hours or so." (7) "There's not an incredibly large amount of content to go through, and it feels like Fable II pads the play experience by requiring you to venture multiple times through the same areas at different times throughout your journey to collect everything there is to find." (6)"The story carries little weight" (2) with a "typical medieval revenge plot" (8) that's "slightly boring and sort of incoherent." (3) "The lack of meaningful character interaction and development is the reason the story often falls flat. ... Because the citizens of Albion are pretty one dimensional, it's difficult to get really attached to any of them. (2) "The simple combat and predictable story make the early moments feel slight." (2) and "the final boss fight is anticlimactic." (3) "If you're buying the game for the main plot, you're going to be disappointed." (3)
Metareview -- Fable 2
We don't know if it was Microsoft's leash on designer Peter Molyneux or if Lionhead Studios finally focused its talent after a decade in existence, but Fable II apparently delivers a solid, enchanting action-RPG experience. X3F has a glowing non-numerical review covering many of the game's big picture concepts without getting into nitty-gritty (possibly spoiler) territory. Our great take away from reading other site's reviews is that Peter Molyneux was apparently spot on when he gave the game a "9 out of 10," saying it's the "best, most complete game" he's done. Eurogamer (100/100): "Inclusive and often thought-provoking, this is a daring portrait of a game-world with all the failure cut out, and it's hard not to love a game that loves you so much in return. Fable II will charm you, thrill you, and leave you very, very happy." CVG (92/100): "It's still not the revolutionary piece of software Mr. M lauded it to be, but Fable II finally sees Lionhead's original concept realised, and all round it's clearly the developer's best game to date. Well done Peter, you finally did it." GameSpy (90/100): "Fable II presents you with difficult, meaningful decisions that shape the development of the world around you. You'll experience life from a young age and see your character grow up to become a powerful force in Albion. Whether or not you become a force for good or for evil is completely up to you. We thoroughly enjoyed Fable II, and heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good role-playing game" IGN (88/100): "The past four years were well spent by Lionhead. Fable II has a great combat system, some excellent atmosphere, a smart experience system, and lots to do. It's only when you start exploring the social aspects that things take a downturn. The expressions system is too goofy for the more serious tone of Fable II and almost every interaction feels artificial. The sandbox elements aren't nearly as enjoyable as the adventure aspects." Gamespot (85/100): "It's hard not to get sucked into Fable II. The world is so charming and your choices so profound, that it's easy to look past the game's shortcomings. The punishment for death is pointless and the story carries little weight, but the experience is still immensely rewarding. ... Your emotional attachment to your virtual dog will be real, making you reliant upon his companionship as you trek through these lands. In a game about choices, the wisest one you can make is to play the game."
Molyneux: Fable 1's moral choices were 'rubbish'
This past May, during Microsoft's Spring Event, Chris "cool dude" Paladino from the Gamerscore Blog had a chance to sit down and interview the man behind Fable 2, Peter Molyneux.During the video interview, Molyneux admits that the moral choices a player made in the original Fable and how they affected the world was complete "rubbish." According to Molyneux, we can expect more than moral choices simply affecting one's appearance, Fable 2's moral choices will change your pet's looks, the community, how people react to you and the scenarios you'll be introduced to.Also, when Molyneux was questioned whether or not he played Fable as good or evil, he responded "when I have bad days, people in my games suffer." We never would have expected our Peter to be such a torturing man, interesting.
