Peter Molyneux Interview

The creator of such classic as Populous, Black & White and Fable, was present at the Barcelona Gamelab Conference last week to pick up a 2011 Legend Award, and appeared on stage to give a talk that covered amongst other things, new Kinect title Fable: The Journey and his experience in the industry this far.

Afterwards he sat down with to talk a variety of subjects. He touched upon how Milo could have been a great companion for the elderly, how Ubisoft's From Dust shows how great power comes at a heavy cost, the pain from Fable III reviews, and most interestingly the point when he realised gaming was an outlet for his creativity.

What's the next step with Kinect and Virtual Reality?

Speaking as someone who uses Kinect and designs for it, I think we'll get a huge number of uses for it. Being able to see a human body, being able to recognize a face, being able to hear a voice, that has many, many uses and applications.

Could you please elaborate a bit more?

Yes, but I have to apologize, I have to be careful on not breaking confidentiality deals. But let me give you an example. I was working on a project called Milo, which was a simulation of a human being. An American approached me and said "this would be a wonderful piece of software for people who live alone". Because there are many old people who have no relationship with other people and this would be a wonderful solution.

In videogames, which are the things that you feel that you cannot do right now but you will be able to do in the near future?

There's so much stuff happening... There's the whole social movement, Facebook, friends, there's something called Cloud Computing that is coming along so you will be able to play things everywhere, there are new ways to interact with computer devices... All of these things are fascinating; I feel that in the near future we going to really exploit it. And for me, and this is just a personal view, it is creating an emotional link, a personal emotional link between you, as individual as you are, and the experience that we're creating, which we have never seen in any other place.

Talking about next steps. Maybe your best game, or the best for many gamers, is Populous, the first God Game. Do you think there is a next step in God Games, and if so, how can they evolve?

Well, I think there is a next step. It's hard to tell, because I'm working on ideas at the moment (and that's not me announcing a game). But do I think that on that particular genre, all about you gaining control of something, having power, but realizing that power comes at a cost is something that could be exploited. And I see the game from Ubisoft called From Dust, that really shows you that scope. Also, remember that in a very real sense, a lot of the social games that are around (Farmville, etc) are a form of god games. They are all about you getting control of a lot of stuff, so I think that genre is still being used and getting really rich.

After reviews on Fable III, people may have been a bit harsh on the game. Do you think reviews, score system, etc, should be different?

I think the reviews for Fable III were fair. It hurt me, but that was the best thing that could've happened, though. Because I think when I game like Fable III comes along, you know there were moments in Fable III that were good, but there were a lot of moments that weren't so good. That makes you want to improve so you can make a great game. I love reviews, whether they're user reviews, magazine reviews, Metacritic reviews... I still read them, because you can't ignore them, I think you can't ignore the fact that, especially user reviews, they have very, very good points. And the truth of the matter is, with Fable III, is that we just ran out of time. And we had to cut so much out of our game, that in the end, the overall game did quite well. I totally love reviews and hope they stay, whether I love the score or hate the score.

There were a lot of young developers on your conference. What would you say to young developers after your whole career? What's the correct order, the steps to take?

One thing the computer games industry needs is brilliant people. Talented, passionate, brilliant people. Whether you're a programmer, an artist or a designer, be passionate about what you do. Believing in everything you do must be the best you can. If you have one game in the games industry just to earn money, that's not the way. Step 1 is keep passionate about it. Step 2 is taking a very simple choice, think of something that is very simple. Don't try and make the ultimate game of all time. Think why you would download or buy or enjoy that game, because there must be more people who are like you. Step 3, if you're on a company, never sit back and just leave the problems to other people. If you see any problem, if you don't like a feature in the game, it doesn't matter if you're an artist or a programmer, do something. A lot of people in the industry say "I'm working on this game but I hate it". There's no excuse. If your developing it by yourself, if you like doing your own game, then keep playing it, that's the number one thing, be happy doing it.

Is there any intention of educating players or morals in games where you decide your fate?

For me, there's always a philosophical side to being tempted to be evil or good. This is why I find it so fascinating: we can all say this is evil, this is good, "I would never do this" or "I'd be always doing that". "I'll always be good", "I would never kill someone". But we don't really know, because as a human being put into a situation, you never know who you're going to be. So in the way that what computer games allow you to do is to get yourself into that situation. I did a game called Fable II and in many times it was like "I just didn't realize I would ever do that". So the people could learn something new about themselves.

Are video games a form of art?

Unquestionably, videogames are art. By any definition of the word, any dictionary, any encyclopaedia, they're not only art, but they define art. Because artistically speaking, I could name you some games with the most beautiful artistic efforts. I've been playing a game called Sword and Sworcery, it is a piece of art. It's very unique art; I've never seen anything like it. The musical and the audio side, it is incredibly artistic! Especially when you think that a lot of the music and sounds are triggered by you, the player! Not by a conductor, and that makes a difference. And the stories, which get truly rich deep and meaningful. Unquestionably they're art. Maybe I'm not the best person to ask because I've been saying they're art since Space Invaders.

Considering all your experience, your career, the fans we see here. Along the years you've been sharing ideas from the very beginning of your projects. Do you think it's good to share all the inspiration, the expectations, ideas you have so early on developments? Which is the best strategy after your latest games?

I think that's interesting, because I think that with E3... You know, I'm a terrible PR person. The PR people say "you can't say this about The Journey, you can't say that about The Journey" "We don't want to say much about this feature or that feature". And it was a disaster because people misunderstood what they saw. All I do is I just go and I just say more or less to the press what I say to the team. For me it's more important to communicate the motivation in the game. What I'm trying to achieve than actually the features. When I talking about Fable: The Journey, I'm really trying to get an emotional experience. I think it's better to talk about that at the start rather than talk about that after it's released. Because I find that fascinating... there is so much about "plans" in the world. If you look at film and TV, they don't talk about their ideas. I'm not a great fan of it. I know I get in trouble and I know I talk about games two years before they're finished. I think it's better to try and open the door on development to people. Show them what's in your mind, what you're creating.

As a designer, what about needing more and more new ideas?

I had times when I "had to have an idea". But somehow you just share things with people and always find the idea. I really believe everybody can have great ideas. We all are creative animals. Here's the thing: without computer games, I'd be nothing. I was nothing. I was terrible at art, I was terrible at school, I couldn't play a musical instrument... I had no way of expressing myself creatively. And then I touched a computer and as if some magic came out of it I suddenly realized "I can use this keyboard to take ideas that are trapped inside my mind and use them". Everybody's got ideas trapped inside.

We've been talking about Fable: The Journey and the other three Fable games. In that Universe, there's a historical evolution that you can see in characters and technology, everything evolves with time. Do you think it's possible to have a futuristic setting for Fable? Or as we don't have any reference of the future, would that be possible?

Yeah, I think it's possible to have a futuristic setting. Actually, we did think about a kind of idea for that. I don't see why we can't have the same sort of structure on that game setting. Anyway, it could be Green Gloves in the planet Blue. The question really is: is that something which could make the game better or is it just different? Quite often I think that when you're developing something for quite some time, it's tempting just to do something that is just different.