Interviews// Peter Molyneux

SPOnG: What would you say are the reasons for you feeling this way though?

Peter Molyneux: Well, I think you’ve got to take a step back and really analyse it. I could have just accepted that we just aren’t talented enough, or I can look at it and ask why. Why wasn’t it good enough? And I spent the last three months really thinking about it, I’ve become less of a designer and more of a strategist conducting a post-mortem or something.

The truth is, it was a combination of things. We didn’t have time to make good enough tech, and our design process was fundamentally wrong. It was really interesting to note that we designed Fable III the same way we designed Black & White. We’d all go away and think of a grand concept - for Fable III it was all about ruling, being king, making changes to the interface and focusing on emotions - then everyone would just go off and do stuff on their section. About a year, maybe nine months, before we hit our deadline we throw all of our work together and package it. That would be the game you’d get.

Sounds okay. But actually for Fable III it was a disaster, because what happened was that we were stuck with a 40-hour long game that we couldn’t possibly polish in the time we had left. So we ended up cutting bits out here and there - and even removing a few elements would take a month to achieve, when you consider that you have to stitch the game all back together again afterwards...

I mean, that’s not the way to design a game. That’s the way to design a demo. We have got to sit down and look at the way we design games. And in fact we have done that already, and are looking at a completely new way of creating games now.


SPOnG: In your career, you must have seen the industry evolve so many times first-hand. What were the biggest challenges you faced in your career so far?

Peter Molyneux: I think the industry is at a turning point at the moment, but you know this has happened before. The last time a dynamic shift happened was when we were just doing PC games.

Round about 2003, the PC games industry really took a dive - thank God it’s back up again now, but at that time we realised that we had to make the jump to console development. It couldn’t be avoided. To top it off, our first console project was a role-playing game, which we had never done before.

It’s like moving from 2D to 3D graphics - you have to adapt to survive. And you can’t ever rest on your laurels and just believe you know how to make a good game. I’m always fundamentally frightened that I don’t know how to make a good game… and I think that fear drives me on.


SPOnG: Finally, while you’re reminiscing, what has been your fondest memory during your career?

Peter Molyneux: That’s an impossible question. Because there have been so many important memories - from the good to the amazingly tough. Times where I’ve sobbed for hours in desperation, in fact. But you know, it’s a blessed life, it really is. There are wonderful accolades and fond recollections too.

I can remember going down the local cafe - the Wooden Bridge in Guildford - at 6am in the morning eating bacon and egg sandwiches with the team at the end of Black & White, and all of us just breaking into tears. I can remember that, and I can remember winning awards and seeing the sales come in… it’s been a wonderful, amazing life and I could not have hoped to have it any other way.


SPOnG: Peter Molyneux, thank you so much for your time.

Peter Molyneux: Thank you very much!