Peter Molyneux Keynote @ GCA

As expected, Peter Molyneux's (Fable, Black & White) keynote at GCA 08 was thoroughly entertaining. And while he made a number of very bold claims about Fable II, you can tell he believes in them - and he's really good at drawing you into his words as well.

Ostensibly titled "Creating Believable Worlds", Molyneux immediately said it was all a cover to just talk about Fable II. And talk he did, for over an hour, on all manner of topics related to the upcoming game.

We'll have a fully fleshed out account of what he said, along with an interview with the man, very shortly. In the meantime, here are some bullet points of what he touched on:

The need for drama. Molyneux says they 'cheated' by adding the dog, and using it blatantly as a means of drawing the player into the world. By getting attached to the dog, you're going to really feel it when the dog gets hurt - something Peter alluded to as happening in the story.

A better story. Peter dismissed the story of the original Fable, saying it was knocked together by himself and another guy "in a matter of hours". This time round, they got together a whole team of script writers, and actually staged the entire story on stage with professional actors, before anything had been coded. They then took many changes into account, and re-staged it until it felt right.

The joys of co-op. Normally, most RPGs are strictly single-player affairs (with the exception of MMORPGs, obviously). Fable II, however, will let a local second player drop in at ANY point in the game as a henchman. The camera adapts accordingly, changing from a typical third-person angle to a more accomodating one that zooms out as players move further from each other.

Online is a similar story, except you can 'drop by' with your own character, and bargain for how you'll be splitting the gold and experience.

Oh, and apparently, every single building in the game can be bought and turned into your house. That's pretty crazy to think about - even in the brief demo, we saw quite a few buildings...

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