Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/26447
Gaming n n n n their various side missions, you amass follow- ers willing to serve beneath your hand against your wicked brother, all of whom cheer you on along the roadside as you pass through the next gateway, like a narrative threshold, on the Road to Rule. During the game’s second half, you, as king, will have to choose between fulfilling the promises made to the people be- friended along the so-called Road, or risk los- ing Albion’s approval, all the while contending with the possibility of war with the neighbor- ing continent of Aurora. Each location in Fable III has its own look, which is reflected in the texture colors. Above, Brightwall Village, with its yellows and oranges, is warm and inviting. Fable II, Molyneux laments, “More than half the people who played it used less than half the features of the game. Tat’s just bad workman- ship.” Tat’s because those features, he says, were housed in 2D GUIs, which players con- sistently tune out to maintain an uninterrupt- ed immersion in the role-playing experience. In Fable III, those GUIs are gone. Your inventory, wardrobe, and so forth are now housed in the Sanctuary, attended by a butler played by John Cleese. “Because the Sanctuary was a replacement for a standard interface or GUI, it had to be accessed quickly. Terefore, from the outline of the game design, there was always a portion of memory dedicated to it so the loading would be as fast as possible,” says lead animator Si Jacques. In addition, the player’s support by the people of Albion is not measured by the usual faction meters, but by the size of actual crowds of people cheering for you along the roadside. “We look at this as a failure if a majority of our users don’t actually see the set of fea- tures we create for a Fable game,” says Atkins. “Terefore, we knew we wanted to do a better job of both explaining and advertising our fea- tures in the game. In addition, we wanted to make the entire process of interacting with the hero more fun and intuitive. So, we started the project with the idea of a full-3D GUI world and the idea of the Road to Rule, whereby the player felt like the process of leveling up and customization was seamlessly and intuitively integrated into the physical reality of the game world and the narrative.” Te theme of power and choice also extends to the environment. Rule with respect for the environment, and the lakes will scintillate with fresh water, the fields blossom with flowers. Rule with disrespect, and see the rivers mud- died with industrial sludge, and black clouds of filth loom across the skies. From the weap- onry, to the environment, and to the simplest of touches—a handshake or a caress, for in- stance—the game strictly follows Molyneux’s mantra throughout production: “For every choice, a consequence.” The Road to Rule Te game story is set 60 years after Fable II, when the continent of Albion is under the control of the corrupt and tyrannical King Logan. Under his reign, Albion has undergone an industrial revolution; the skyline in the Vic- torian-era inspired Bowerstone is choked with a profusion of smoke stacks, the air gauzed with pollution. Crime, injustice, and poverty run rampant. Te player assumes the role of the king’s sib- ling, either a prince or princess, who suspects that their father was murdered at the king’s hands. Branded a traitor by Logan, you flee the castle and, aided by Jasper (your butler and advisor), Sir Walter (a combat trainer and friend of your father), and your trusted Bor- der collie, you’re forced on a quest to become a revolutionary leader, winning the support of the people en route to overthrowing the king. You begin in the Sanctuary, which includes a walk-in wardrobe and your armory, along with a tabletop map that enables fast travel around Albion. From there, you embark on the Road to Rule, a long, misty path blocked by gate- ways that serve as both a progress indicator and a talent tree. Te gateways, like new levels, are opened by gaining allies along the Road to Rule. In the beginning, after you cross the re- mote, snowy village of Mistpeak and reach the quaint village of Brightwall, these allies are won by literally glad-handing every passerby. As you progress further, however, new and more complex touches are revealed, such as dancing, hugging, and physical forms of teasing. As you befriend the villagers, accepting World Building Fable III’s massive, sprawling maps encompass almost every type of environment imaginable, from mystical and industrial, to frozen barrens and pastoral idylls, all realized with an ethe- real, painterly, and heightened sense of reality. In this respect, Lionhead resisted the current trend toward hyper-realism, represented by games like Heavy Rain, in favor of refining its own more colorful, animated sensibility—an aesthetic that’s on glorious display in the Pixar- like opening cinematic involving a chicken’s harrowing flight through Bowerstone. “Tere was extensive refinement of our ex- isting modeling, texturing, and rigging tech- nology,” says art director John McCormack. “As much as I look at Heavy Rain as a techni- cal marvel and a real step toward bridging the Uncanny Valley, it isn’t something that guided our development; if anything, I’d want us to take our unique stylistic approach even further in the future.” Borrowing architectural cues from the Victorian era, Lionhead had to accurately re- create structures from rustic, period villages, to medieval castles and Dickensian hellholes. “We were lucky in that our studio is a stone’s throw away from London, where there are areas of untouched history and architecture,” says McCormack. In addition, the team con- ducted extensive research from online sources and books. Te artists drew upon all that in- formation for crafting its “Fabled” look—an amalgamation and exaggeration of various threads of British and European visual history combined with the aesthetic rules the studio has built up over previous titles. In contrast to the environmental and ar- chitectural diversity of Albion, Aurora is a desert wilderness that occasionally reveals the last vestiges of an ancient civilization. Accord- ing to lead level designer Mike Green, Albion and Aurora combined span 48 regions; one of the level designers calculated that the playable area of Fable III is 4,463,872 square meters, or 1.72 square miles. Tat number excludes all January/February 2011 25