Fable 2 Interview

CVG brings us an interview with Lionhead Studios' Louise Copley, Ian Wright, and Mike McCarthy about various topics related to the company's upcoming Fable sequel.
How important is that Sandbox-style world to Fable?

Ian Wright, lead level designer: I definitely wanted make sure the world was open and free this time. Which we've done. That was my main thing. Take away the invisible walls and let the players experience it. Another thing was that the world would really change a lot depending on the choices you make in it.

So you can have a drastic effect on a lot of the regions in the game. In some cases, it's like building eight levels that the player will only see in one state.

It was something we were conscious of and something that Peter said from the word go, that while Fable 1 looked amazing and was a beautiful world I think that one of the criticisms was that it was kind of closed. You could see these beautiful views, but couldn't get to it. So it came very early on that we wanted a big open world. If you can see it you can get there.

Mike McCarthy, lead concept artist: There's something new going in everyday. There's more characters, more houses, more life in the streets. You go from running around an empty level to running around with all these people in it. It's great

Ian Wright, lead level designer: Every choice has a consequence. We tried to maximise on that this stuff this time around. It's quite stunning some of the differences you can make. If you choose to be a business minded player you can buy every property. You can be the Emperor of Albion if you own enough property. Certain evil player may choose to live in this strange haunted house in the middle of a graveyard. We support that. We let you do it.

A lot of the buildings will have ownership quests attached to them, so once you've bought one it will open up a series of quests that will take you around the whole of Albion based on the fact that you own this house.