Fable co-creator Peter Molyneux has been hard at work on a brand new game, after revealing last month that it’s currently in development under the name Project MOAT. He’s keeping pretty quiet about what the game is or what we can expect from it, most likely as a precaution after his overpromising days, but has now managed to confuse everyone by revealing the game will be set in a land called Albion, though seemingly not the one from the Fable series.
Molyneux revealed this little tidbit via a post on Twitter (thanks Eurogamer), in which he also revealed that he’ll be writing regular blog posts about the development process, as well as the experience of developing games like Fable, Black & White, and Dungeon Keeper during his time at both Lionhead Studios and Bullfrog. Oddly enough, he doesn’t go into why this new land is called Albion, or whether it has any connection to the same setting from Fable.
Given that Microsoft owns the rights to Fable and the series’ version of Albion, it’s a little difficult to imagine Molyneux is working with the same setting for his project at 22 Cans. That means Molyneux is more than likely just using the same word again, which is absolutely his right to do seeing as though the term ‘Albion’ isn’t an invented term and is just how Great Britian was referred to before the Romans came along and did all that occupying.
Despite releasing a pretty lengthy blog post, that pretty much all the information we have on this new version of Albion so far. If you’re interested in following Molyneux’s work, as it is quite interesting to get such a close and personal look into a developer’s creative process, you can check out his blog here. Just be aware that you won’t be able to interact with the blog in any way as Molyneux has disabled comments due to “haters and [his] fragile mental state”.
If you want more insights from Molyneux on his past work though, we’ve got you covered. In a report from our very own Rhiannon Bevan, Molyneux recently discussed the development process behind Fable 2, and how he believes that games released in the modern era are far too “risk averse”, and how sequelised franchises play it too safe.
He also revealed that there was a “fight” to keep gay marriage in the Fable series, and that Molyneux had to fly over to Microsoft headquarters and speak to senior management to “justify” keeping it in the game. We do love an ally.
