The story of Lionhead Studios

If earlier I could confidently start the article from the words: “Today we will talk about a notorious studio Lionhead Studios“, Then now it will not be enough. Golden years have long passed, a generation has changed, idols who have completely different. This time it is necessary to recall that the studio gave the world two commemorative series: Black & White And Fable, as well as “Sean Murrey” (No Man’s Sky) your time – Peter Moligne.

I talked about how the famous game designer began in the last article about the studio Bullfrog (told in this topic), which, in fact, founded with the forest Edgar. I will not repeat myself, I will only mention that at one point Moligne left his native studio in order to return directly to the development. And it was with this desire that the story of the new studio began.

When EA acquired Bullfrog, there were 35 of us, and for nine months we became 200

Peter Moligne, about the merger with Electronic Arts

Moligne starts all over again

The quote above almost completely describes those metamorphoses because of which the game designer decided to leave the studio. The freedom of creativity has always risked to take the background with the introduction of corporate culture in small studios. And when the decision of Peter to leave was accepted EA not in the best way (Moligne had to remotely finalize Dungeon Keeper, So he was not allowed into the office), the game designer realized that the decision was extremely correct. And no matter how they were afraid there, Peter still managed to take him along Mark Webla, Tim Rans And Steve Jackson. They were four and became the founders of Lionhead Studios.

You think this is a lion? But this is a hamster!
The place of Gilford in the UK has become a new place where the history of video games will be written. Officially, Lionhead Studios was founded in July 1997, and the studio was to be called Red Eye. But after more than a dozen such companies, the founders began to frantically look for a substitute in the reference book. And as in the case of Bullfrog, the animal gave the name, but not a lion (it would seem), but … a hamster Mark Webel.

As soon as we called Lionhead studio, my hamster died. It was his last desire

Mark Webel

To avoid the fate of Bullfrog, Peter again began to assemble the team, based on small number, but experience. Therefore, such developers as AI specialist joined the team Demis Hassabis (Demis hassabis), Mark Khili (Mark Healey) and and Alex Evans (Alex Evans).

Ironically, the first game of the studio was still produced by Electronic Arts, these were the terms of Peter and Mark’s agreements with the publisher. Which, in principle, did not interfere with work, because, finally, Moligne could fully concentrate on the development. In the old style “Bullfrog”, of course.

Studio tour (albeit quite late)
And as far as you might remember under the last article, the first years of work in Bullfrog were similar to preparing for a session in a hostel, provided that everyone is really taught, but do not forget to have fun. The development process of Black & White proceeded in a full -fledged creative chaos, in which everyone was sure of the correctness of their actions.

The flaw of such an approach was that the visible https://froggybet-casino.uk result in the short term was extremely few, because praying Sk In 1998 I had to be sophisticated. There were only a couple of screenshots in the hands, the frame test stand and notes. And all this Peter turned into a 20 -minute story about the game, ending that they could tell a lot more, but so far it is impossible. And it worked, they were waiting for a new game not only because it was a project of the Creator Populous, but because the game itself intrigued no worse.

Speaking the language of business processes, the format for developing a project in Bullfrog had the form of an informalized classical approach to developing an electronic product. And speaking in simple language, it was the method “How to turn out”. At the time of the small number of the studio, it was a good option for doing business. And the employees themselves with fire in their eyes dedicated themselves completely, up to a load of 15 hours a day.

It was like a job in Disneyland. I came there with wide eyes. I remember how the animators made a huge cow, I burned with impatience and desire to join the team

Charlton Edwards, about the development of Black & White

I tell you all this so that you understand the original state of the studio. Team habits, mood, methodology, all this is inherent in small studios. And, as you already understand, such a studio will not be long, because on the campaign was the first game of the team, the idea of ​​which came from Tamagochi.

Black & White developers diary
The development process proceeded extremely intensively, and with such a load in the team there were impudent draws and spontaneous fun. With this pace, it was extremely necessary. Moreover, the terms were settled, and from the project itself the public expected something colossal. After the next transfer, the publisher began to ask uncomfortable questions. This was a sign that it was time to release the game

We did not have a personal life. If I were not in the office, then I slept.
I know that many can call it work for wear. But we really worked with passion. No one had to force. We really felt that we were creating something new, and everyone strove for this all my soul

Peter Moligne, about the development of Black & White

Black & White

March 27, 2001

And the game did not come out raw, no. The studio promised to perform in her corporate genre of “God’s simulator” and she did it. Surprisingly, it was truly new game experience. If Populous limited to a small set of interactions, the new game offered not only a wagon of various features, but also allowed to do this in three -dimensional space. And the giant anthropomorphic creature was the center of this small universe.

Molinjo made an amazing one: he showed everyone what huge potential is hidden in the vulgar seemingly idea of ​​Tamagochi. The creature grew up, studied the new, remembered, brought up in the end. And all this interacted very cool at the ecosystem level. However, such a system had the minuses in the form of slowness and some meditativeness of the gameplay.

The latter did not stop many to plunge into the game, because not every day games of such a genre come out.

Moligne is cunning and tries up development options

After such grandiose success at the time, it was to go to expand, but Moligne did not want to allow this at all, so that the story with Bullfrog would not be repeated. They found a slightly different solution, namely the producing of satellite studios that would be the same small, but worked in the general piggy bank Lionhead. There were two such studios: the first Big Blue Box, And the second Intrepid. And cooperation with these two teams became both the way to the triumph and the road to what Moligne was afraid of. But we’ll get it to.

Big Blue Box at that time was engaged in the game under the code name Project Ego. The project was supervised by former Bullfrog employees Dean and Simon Carters (this is one of the reasons for the possibility of such cooperation). From the moment of signing the contract with Lionhead, they could freely saw new games, which, in fact, had been engaged for 4 years. Intrepid created the game IN.WITH. In the genre Survival Horror About the cave person. Lionhead itself took up two ambitious projects at once. The first turned out to be a sequel Black & White, And the second was called The Movies.

The Big Blue Box project has become the same turning point in the fate of the company. Shortly after the start of development, its name was replaced by Fable. And under this name, the game began to show investors and publishers. The project immediately liked the representatives Microsoft Game Studios, They just prepared their first console for release – Xbox, And they needed a role -playing game to promote. Moreover, they were sure that Fable – This is a project of Moligne.

You cannot underestimate the attractiveness of work with Peter. He had a lot of resources. A large number of fans. This instantly won the trust of our new platform. We were fascinated by the concept of Fable, its design and that it promised to become the main franchise of the console. I think it played a role

Shane Kim (Shane KIM), which controlled Microsoft Game Studios at that time

After demonstrating the game behind closed doors Microsoft decided to support and release it. This event was a great impetus for the development of Lionhead as a big studio. In the media sphere, she certainly seemed like this, and in order to support this image in Lionhead decided to enter the securities market. To do this, the studio had to incorporate the satellite studios, which is why Big Blue Box and Interpid became part of Lionhead. But the inevitable happened – the securities market fell after the events September 11, 2001, The studio with five projects shook, but did not fall.

But the association went to Fable for the benefit, a team of 30 people simply would not have taken such a large project on time. There were also disadvantages: not all Lionhead employees wanted to participate in Fable, preferring more experimental ideas. And they had the right to do so, because Lionhead was such a culture, and former Big Blue Box employees could not get along with such an attitude. The benefit was those who were burning the idea of ​​working on the new RPG.

Interview with Moligne about Fable
The game was presented, Moligne sincerely talked about interesting chips that would be implemented in the game. And these chips were really developed! The problem was that Bullfrog and, subsequently, Lionhead never made plot -oriented games with a similar level of interaction with the player. And it was on gameplay and plot that the longest work was carried out.

The graphics was ready for the release of Xbox. The engine was completed and it looked great. And we thought that we have the most beautiful game in the world. And then we had to wait for three years of gameplay and the plot, and this annoyed all, because a whole bunch of games came out with which it was necessary to compete. By the time of release, everyone is already tired.

John McCormak, art director Fable

Settled the deadlines, a Microsoft Surprisingly, they very much believed in the project, in every possible way helping financially, as well as tips on organizing the process. One of the advice was the appointment Louise Murray As a producer of the project. And this move has become decisive for the fate of the game. In the best way, Moligne himself characterized her:

She found a common language with me well. I constantly said that we need to add another function, and it will take even more time to balance it. And she fantastically knew how to answer: “Wait, Peter, but is it really important?“She did better my work and work of the rest. Fable would not have become Fable without her “.