Playground Studios’ Fable has been in the news quite a bit recently, following rumors of the project scaling down. Senior producer Amie Loake addressed this, discussing scoping and how it’s essential to “make sure the team is focused under one clear vision.” On the XboxTwo Podcast with Rand Al Thor, Windows Central’s Jez Corden said that development is “going fine.”
He also weighed on the scoping aspect and about features seemingly being removed. “It’s funny because I was in a gameplay preview this week where the developer was literally talking about how the game kept getting delayed because they couldn’t stop adding features, you know? And that’s when you have a scoping problem…. they call it feature creep sometimes where you just keep adding features, you keep adding features, and it means your game keeps getting delayed and delayed.
“It can sort of lead to overlapping, cascading problems and you end up in a situation where the game’s just delayed a million years out of you what you originally planned. Scoping isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It just means the game will be more focused and you have to sort of think, like… does every game need every single feature? Does Fable need a player housing system, does it need the ability to fly, does it need this, does it need that?”
“So I don’t know, I don’t think people should be alarmed by the idea of a game having reduced scope. Because having every single feature and the kitchen sink in your game is not necessarily a good thing. But yeah, sometimes less is more.”
Playground Games and Microsoft have yet to showcase gameplay for the title, which is currently in development for Xbox Series X/S and PC. It’s reportedly been in development for four years with the team recruiting talent that worked on Sea of Thieves, Control, Rockstar Games, BioWare, and more. A release date has yet to be announced as well though VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb says not to expect it before 2023.
With the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase on June 12th, perhaps we’ll receive some new details. Stay tuned in the meantime.