sfroggy1 Interviews Ted Timmins from Lionhead

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sfroggy1 Interviews Ted Timmins from Lionhead

Hello all ! sfroggy1 here, your regular news updater for projectego forums and all around nice guy . Not too long back I got the opportunity to meet Ted Timmins from Lionhead, when I went to the Eurogamer Expo. This kind chap agreed to do a small interview with me for the forums and here it is for all you lovely members at projectego. I got to exchange a few questions and some were answered, and some not but hopefully they are all to your liking! I asked a few general questions that wouldn't spoil any of the gameplay but still shed some light on Lionheads next upcoming game that some of us will get to experience in less than a week !

Unfortunately I couldn't be too specific but I hope you guys like it anyway !

Again I hope you enjoy it and expect to see a thread in the next day or two where I outline what I got to experience at the Eurogamer Expo. Better late than never I suppose !

So here we go!

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sfroggy1: So while I played the demo of Fable III I noticed the dog hadn't really changed from how it was in Fable II. Is it simply a case of if it ain't broke don't fix it?

Ted: One of the most well received features of Fable II was the dog, so it wasn't
something that the design team felt needed a revolution - but instead more of an
evolution. To start with, the dog in Fable III is a different breed to that of the
Fable II dog and with a different personality. Also, if you pre-order the Limited
Collector's Edition you unlock an additional dog breed - the Boxer (and also my
personal favourite - he seems to be more... cheeky!). There have been background
changes that have gone into his AI, but one of the more visible changes that you'll
see is that he will help you more with some of our optional quests. A prime example
is when you need to find some lost Chickens for a farmer in one of our brand new
regions - "Brightwall". The dog will help lead you to them, which makes the task
more fun and really gives the dog a sense of purpose. Another change, is that we use
the dog a lot more in our animatic scenes to really try and get across it's
personality, but I won't go into these in detail for fear of spoilers! Of course you
can still re-name the dog to anything of your choosing, and we have brand new
animations for interacting with the dog too.

sfroggy1: How long will it roughly take players to complete Fable III depending on whether they speed run the core missions or try to complete and collect everything?

Ted: This is the question that we probably get asked more than any other question!
It always strikes me by surprise as to how important this question is seen by some,
as a few of my personal favourite games of all time ("Shadow of the Colossus", "Ico"
or even "Flower") are all relatively 'short' games - but their immersion and quality
is really superior, in my opinion, to something that is seemingly endless like
"Morrowind" (not to say that it's a bad game!). Going back to the original question,
it's tricky to answer as everyone plays Fable differently. I played Fable II at home
for over 45 hours, and as Fable III is without question the bigger and better game,
at a guess if you wanted to do everything I'd imagine you'd be looking at 55+ hours
to do everything (or at least, that's the amount of time that I'll be setting aside
). If doing a speed-run is your thing however, i.e. where when you play "Super
Mario World" all you care about is the time on the clock as you cross the level end
checkpoint, I'd guess you'd be looking at around 15 hours. And just to give some
clarity on that number in comparison to Fable II, with Fable II I'd guess that it
could be speed-run completed in around 10 hours. I'm much more of a collectables
person though, and we have more collectables (and secrets!) than in any Fable
before!

sfroggy1: How many core missions are there to complete in Fable III ?

Ted: I'd rather not put a number on this, as we don't number the quests in Fable III
to try and keep the player immersed - so I don't want to ruin that by players
counting them! What I will say though, is that the core story is bigger, better and
of a much higher quality than in any previous Fable. We still haven't (and won't!)
speak about the final 1/3 of the game, which is very exciting! I can't wait to hear
reviewers and gamers feedback on this portion of the game in particular!

sfroggy1: Will there be side quests like assassination contracts or bounty hunting returning in Fable III? Have they been tweaked at all and will we see any new additions?

Ted: Yes! More side-quests than ever before! We've changed the entire side quest
system, which has allowed us to make more than we've ever made before and it's
really helped us improve the quality of them. We have everything from Assassinations
all the way through to having to take someone on a date! I think people will be
really impressed with just how deep the optional quest system is in Fable III, and
it's pretty cool with the way that any villager in the world can give you a quest!

sfroggy1: You told me at the Expo that you helped design the Mourningwood Fort defense quest. What other missions have you helped design and which one is your favourite?

Ted: Just to clarify (and so that I don't get in trouble!), my role with the
"Mourningwood Fort Battle" quest was to work with the Josh Atkins (Lead Designer)
and Alex Skidmore (Lead Scripter) to take the quest from a paper document through to
a final quality quest. On the long journey this takes, I worked with every other
department in the Fable Team, so that's; Audio, Art, Animation, Code, Design,
Production and Test. My job is to work with all of these various departments, and to
gel everything together in all of the quests that I work on. I also have some
creative freedom in the quests, where I can add additional content (or even extra
features!) and then propose them to Josh and Alex where they can then give them the
thumbs up, request changes to be made, or sometimes they might not feel that what I
show them fits with the game (which fortunately didn't happen very often!). Each
quest is a culmination of many months of hard work from everyone across the entire
team, and I really couldn't choose a favourite (although having played "Mourningwood
Fort Battle" a million times, I still love blowing up Hollowmen! It never gets
boring, and it's even more fun over Xbox Live with a friend!). So there's lots of
things that I really enjoy to play in my own work, particularly when you're playing
the ********* quest, and then ********* happens. That's really going to make people
*********

sfroggy1: Who would have to be your most favourite character in the Fable series?

Ted: Mmmmm, can I choose a few - for different reasons? First I would say Scythe
("Fable: The Lost Chapters"). He was just so bad-ass, I hope we can do something
again with him one day... Secondly, I would choose Chesty ("Fable II" and "Fable
III"), as it's a chest. That talks. It's just so bizarre, yet so Fable. Finally, I'd
also choose The Sandgoose (Fable I? Fable II? Fable III?). The Sandgoose has never
been in any of the Fable games officially, but I just love the way the community
still talk about the character. It's nice having a myth like that in a video game.
That's something that's quite rare and I think it really fits with the Fable
franchise. I'd like to give a shout out to the Fable community and Atchoo in
particular for that one!

EDIT: After thinking about this one overnight, it struck me that I hadn't mentioned
arguably the best character that we've ever created; Sir Walter (Fable III).
Everything from Sir Walter's appearance, voice acting (Bernard Hill) and dialogue
are all excellent, and you really feel a bond with him as you play through the game.
So in terms of the best character that we've ever created, he would get my vote.
Obviously because it's Fable, you can also create the best character ever with your
own Hero - just make sure you post a picture of your Hero on the forums so we can
all take a look!

sfroggy1: Are the floating orbs, that represented other players, set for a return in Fable III and why?

Ted: Yes! They're back, and in my opinion they're back because they're awesome! I
had such an amazing experience in Fable II when I played at home. Going around each
region listening to what other people were doing was brilliant. One distinct memory
was when I went into Bowerstone Market and there was an Orb that was offering free
gold to anyone that approached him. There was a crowd of Orbs around him, and he was summoning their gamertags one by one from the crowd to award them gold. It was great fun to watch, and I look forward to seeing this and more in Fable III! The orbs
were, in hindsight, a really under publicised feature in Fable II, and I really hope
that this time we make more people aware of it - as in my opinion, it's an excellent
addition to the franchise and a real selling point.

sfroggy1: The orb feature was a unique feature allowing us to easily trade between friends and random people. However with the excessive amount of items in Fable II the trade system was somewhat lacking for those who were collectors. Will the Fable III trade system be enhanced? And if so, how? Any forethought to prevention of scams or multiple item trading/giving? Thank you if you can answer this question, I am greatly looking forward to Fable III and any other works Lionhead has to offer in the future. (credit to Hermit for this question)

Ted: I think with Fable II, we were all taken by surprise with just how popular the
orb feature was, and gifting is also a very important part of that. Again, I have
many memories of people just randomly gifting me items - and a note to the guy that
gifted me his "autograph", very funny! As you might have already seen in a lot of
the Fable III previews, we've overhauled the entire menu system - and as a result,
this includes the gifting interface. Gone are lengthy lists and convoluted menu
systems - now when you enter the gifting screen you can see everything in your
inventory that you can gift, and it's as simple as selecting the item and pressing
'Accept' to gift the item. I won't go into too much detail, as I don't want
something that's so simple in practice to be misconstrued by my lengthy explanation
of it, but it's really intuitive and hopefully we'll show more of the online aspects
of Fable III over the coming weeks. From a security standpoint though, we've also
done a lot of work to prevent exploitation of the system by making sure that the
game saves when the gifting takes place, so you don't have to worry about people
cheating!

sfroggy1: The jump to Fable II, from Fable/TLC was quite a surprise a lot was changed, within the mix of the story. Fable II's Story felt slightly less important than that of Fable, albeit the only tie for me personally was Theresa, was this character a significant emphasis on the story? Or merely a piece of content for old fans? If the former then in Fable II Theresa's appearance seemed rather random will her story continue to unfold in Fable III? Will we find out how she came to live the many century's, and be able to uncover her role? (credit to Hermit for this question)

Ted: Wow, lots of questions in one! So to start with what I think is the first
question in regards to Fable II changing a lot and the story of it. With Fable II we
did radically change a lot, and perhaps we didn't have enough resources available at
the time to make the Fable II story as compelling to some as the Fable I story.
What's important to remember is that the Fable I story was in development for over 6
years! That's a long time! What we've been able to do with Fable III, is create the
most compelling story we've ever created, and yet we've done that without the luxury
of 6 years development time, but by understanding what fundamentally makes Fable
what it is at its core. With every iteration of anything, you're always going to
understand where you made mistakes, or where things could be improved. I mean, just
look at the Ferrari's of today compared to 10 years ago! I feel we've really nailed
the story this time, with great writing, incredible voice acting (Simon Pegg! Sir
Ben Kingsley! John Cleese! And many more!) and characters that have real
personalities and who you enjoy spending time with. I think people will be really
happy with just how great the story and the narrative is in Fable III.
Your second point about Theresa is interesting, as she's the only character that's
been present in all 3 Fable's. She's always been mysterious, and I don't want to
ruin any of that mystery. But she will play an important role in Fable III, and
she's still just as mysterious as ever!

sfroggy1: Who is Page? I noticed a WANTED poster for her and Ben Finn mentioned her name in the Bowerstone Docks Demo Quest. Is she a rebel leader and a possible ally in the game?

Ted: She's an ally of yours (you'll also see her in the TV adverts that we've just
launched - http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=INrqSon7COw). I won't go into detail about her character as talking about the story is something that I don't want to spoil for
others (and anyone that knows me will know just how anti-spoiler I am!), but she
does play a pivotal role in the core story.

sfroggy1: Is there any thing you can hint at as to what happens after you 'remove' Logan as king, aside from keeping promises and ruling your kingdom? Is this possibly where the likes of Theresa and Reaver make their return? Can we expect to see Garth and Hammer make a return aswell or have they gone the way of the Hero in Fable II?

Ted: I can't say anything on that unfortunately, but I can say that I can't wait for
people to experience it for the first time. I think it's going to be unexpected, yet
exciting!

sfroggy1: Your hero from Fable II is dead?! I invested so many hours into his life ! Was he murdered or was his death put down to old age? Does Logan or anyone else close to you have a hand in his death?

Ted: This isn't something I've thought about a great deal, and I think it's nice
that it's been left more open - that way people can make up their own minds as what
Logan may or may not have done to your Fable II Hero! In my mind, my Fable II Hero
went on to massacre civilisations across the entire continent with his trusty
sidekick "Jim Bob"! Then when he had his 112th child with his 223rd wife (that
really loved the 'Vulgar Thrust' expression, who sadly had to be beheaded for the
grand treason of not giving me a gift in at least 2 weeks), he raised Logan to be
just like him - which is why Logan is so evil. Important note; this is not actually
what happened - Mark Hill (Writer) would kill me if this was taken as the official
cross-story between Fable II and Fable III!

sfroggy1: Why no childhood sequence in the game? Why the change from past games? Did you feel it wasted time and was unnecessary and why would it not fit into Fable III?

Ted: From a personal perspective, I think we might have struggled to do *another*
Childhood sequence and keep it compelling. It definitely would have been possible,
but would it have been considered to be too similar? Probably. Irrespective of the
age difference, what is really important with the opening of anything, be it a book,
film or game, is that it's immediately gripping and compelling. I know everyone on
the team is really happy with the opening to Fable III, and I think both people new
to the Fable franchise and fans that have followed it since the Project Ego days
will all enjoy it, and as always there's a couple of surprises. The first being; did
the Chicken from the intro die!? Keep your eyes peeled! (Chicken Intro:
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHB6P8IKi9Y)

sfroggy1: Elise or Elliot, depending on what sex you start out as in Fable III, will be apart of a big decision quite early into the game I have come to understand. Are we talking sacrifice?!

Ted: My lips are sealed! Let it be known though, that I was a coward!

sfroggy1: How many new locations are set to appear in Fable III? Can we expect to see old places, like Oakvale, return in some shape of form?

Ted: Bowerstone is back, but has gone through a HUGE industrial revolution in some
parts. It's both significantly different, and the same! There's also Bowerlake from
Fable II (now named "Millfields"), where a very memorable character from Fable II
has had a large impact on the region. Then we have Aurora, which is a brand new
continent with several regions, dungeons etc of its own. On top of all of that, we
have many, many more regions with tonnes of adventure, secrets and exploring to be
had. Will you ever find the elusive Sandgoose though...

sfroggy1: Do you ultimately go to war with Aurora? Can possibly you reveal the reason why, if we do?

Ted: Aurora is something that we'd like you to experience for yourself

sfroggy1: Lieutenant Simmons was a pretty badass boss in the Mourningwood Fort demo at Eurogamer. Is he possibly a tribute to Twinblade from the first game?

Ted: He's actually a tribute to one of our Producers! Whilst he doesn't have a hole
in his stomach, he's huge, and far less mean In all seriousness though, I think
what Simmons shows is just how much the combat has improved since Fable II. It's
still just as intuitive, but deeper and more streamlined. The combat team have
really excelled in this area, and the finishing moves make you totally bad-ass!
There's nothing better than hitting a Hobbe for a home run with a hammer that's
evolved based on your decisions in the game. I'm surprised there isn't a weapon
morphing question in here actually, as it's a really cool feature! (P.S. I loved the
Twinblade fight, but I think we've gone one better this time in a quest that
involves the Mercenary Camp ...)

sfroggy1: I didn't get to play all of the demos could you possibly give a brief outline of what each one entailed?

Ted: Wow, how much room do I have to type!? To summarise for anyone that couldn't
attend the Eurogamer Expo, we took 7 (yes, SEVEN!) demo's with us to the Expo. This
was more than any other developer present at the show, but we felt it was necessary
to do so to convey all of the sides to Fable III. From funny optional quests,
through to serious story quests or just all out combat fun - we had it (and a little
bit of sex thrown in just for fun). I remember there were two gamers that spent the
entirety of the Saturday at the Fable III booth, and repeatedly queued until they'd
played all 7 demo's ... twice! They just couldn't get enough, and feedback like that
makes all the years of late nights and take-aways worth it.

sfroggy1: In terms of size, how many times bigger is the largest region found in Fable III compared to the largest in Fable II?

Ted: Again, I can't really put a number on this, as it doesn't really make much
sense for anyone that hasn't played Fable before. For example, I could say the
largest region is 1.7843 hectares bigger, but who would understand that?! What I
will say, is that the regions are bigger than Fable II for sure, but there are two
other things I'd like to mention that I feel tie in with this question. The first,
is that the game looks so much more vivid and alive than Fable II. The art, level
design and engine teams have really worked so hard on Fable III to make it the best
looking Fable game yet, and it really shows. The world feels and looks bigger and
better than ever because of their hard work. Secondly, I'd like to mention the map.
Fable II didn't have any form of usable map, which never really gave you a sense of
scale or positioning in the world. In Fable III, there is a fully interactive 3D map
where you can see how regions link to each other, and you can zoom in on each region
and do everything from buy and rent houses, to fast travelling and accepting quests.
This map gives the world a much bigger presence, and in my opinion more importantly
a sense of your positioning in the Fable world - which is really important as a
ruler too!

sfroggy1: Peter Molyneux said he hates the term 'Trilogy'. He said the ending of Fable III will leave us with more questions than answers much like the previous game did. So, are we to expect a Fable 4 being announced shortly after the release of Fable III?

Ted: I am certainly not in the position to make any such announcements, and at this
time we as a studio don't have anything to announce, but I will say that Fable is a
great franchise and as a gamer I really hope we see more Fable in the future. I
can't ever get enough Fable, it's great to be able to work on something that you
love and enjoy as a gamer too. If we have anything to announce on this though,
you'll either hear it from Peter himself, or www.Lionhead.com<http/www.lionhead.com/>. So stay tuned!

sfroggy1: And one last serious question. Who is your favourite Muppets Character? *cough*

Ted: Statler and Waldorf (the two old guys on the balcony of the theatre). Genius

sfroggy1: Shame I can't stress enough how much I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions Ted. Myself and the rest of the community at projectego forums can't wait for Fable III to be released !

Ted: My pleasure, thanks for all the questions! I hope you all enjoy playing Fable
III as much as I enjoyed working on it!

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So there you have it folks ! I hope you enjoyed the interview and leave any comments below ! DAMN THE WORD LIMIT PER POST ! LMAO

Good stuff, man.

Not much new, but that thing about the "last 1/3 part" really interests me. I will be reviewing this game for The Gamer Side (down for maintenance at the moment) after the game comes out and I get to play through it all (which will take a while, because I'm also one who loves to go after collectibles and lore--on the other hand, I will be playing it like constantly after its release in less than a week) so I really can't wait! (Don't get me wrong, I'm not getting the game to review it, I just... will.)

EDIT: Only the first post had been posted when I wrote that, but yeah. Great stuff though, man. ^^

Great stuff! Keep doing good Froggah.... And,like always, im excited to see a new and improved dog.

Are you Sergeant Froggy off of MMORPG.com, by the by?

Nope I'm simply sfroggy1 of projectego forums mate

Totally hurghsome, thank you so much for asking my questions froggy.

Damn, I was hoping you'd be him. xD

Very well done, once more sfroggy. Thank you very kindly, my good sir!

Thank you Froggy for taking the time to give us a good read! All my questions where pretty much answered!

Nice is Nice!!

well done, man. only problem is maybe next time you should have links that look a bit happier, yea?

Awesome interview, man! + Like!

Nice! was interested when he said 'will you ever find the elusive sandgoose' xD, im sure we wont though......

Damn.

He avoided one question by not answering it at all [the gifting one] and there was one question I so wished someone would ask these people: Just what the hell is Theresa really up to!? The evidence that she manipulated everything in Fable 2 to get the spire is compelling enough... I wish Lionhead would at least tell us a little bit.