Lionhead developer gives NowGamer the lowdown on his Kinect adventure.
Vapourware can end up being the stuff of legend, like Rockstar's Agent, Star Wars 1313, or StarCraft: Ghost. Without ever seeing the light of day, these games never risked the possibility of being played and forgotten, and instead live on forever as the subjects of lengthy YouTube essays.
Still, Molyneux's most notable lost game (or tech demo, depending on who you asked at the time) was arguably Project Milo.
I can see the potential of the kinect hardware... its rather impressive tech, but it was just not meant to be for gaming. If anything, MS had a huge missed opportunity to have used it for the AR/VR projects.
You can use the Kinect as an SLS camera for paranormal investigations. So it wasn’t a complete failure.
Remember Star Wars Kinect announcement? Biggest laughable acting seen
"Unfortunately, as we were developing Milo, so the Kinect device was being developed. And they realised that the device that Alex Kipman first showed off would cost $5,000 for consumers to buy.
"So they cost-reduced that device down to such a point, where the field-of-view...I think it was a minuscule field-of-view. In other words, it could only just see what's straight in front of you."
Hmm, exactly what tech was in it, that was cut, affected the development? It was only ever interpreting visual and audio inputs right? The xbox was processing those inputs.
Nor do I see how the field of view thing is relevant to the discussion.
Exactly! Tf kinda BS statement was that? i don't really see how fov is relevant at all, since when do you move all around a room while talking/interacting to someone?
This is entirely untrue. There was never a 5000 dollar Kinect prototype that could somehow use a wider field of view to scan and import generated in-game items and advance AI by over a decade. Anybody that fell for this was a stupid moron child, myself included. Anybody that falls for this lie now is a stupid moron child who doesn't realize that these people *only* know how to lie.
Masters of Albion is already promising, but can we trust Peter Molyneux to not let us down again?
I came here to say that I don't want to hear any grand standing or over promises, and I was not left disappointed when I read: "Molyneux has “kept very quiet” about the project as he wanted to “let the game speak for itself”.
Perfect.
Project Milo could not have been released even if it existed. Why would a grown man want to simulate talking to young kids?
No he hasn't done anything to earn it if he actually delivers a fun competent game that's different
Come on, you can hate him for overpromising, but he made some fun games.
Fable I and II were awesome, as was theme park or Dungeon Keeper.
Unfortunately its the haters who will always set the agenda on any such discussion. Peter is a visionary who delivered some exceptional games and invented genres. I consider myself blessed to have worked at Bullfrog and seen such creativity up close. The fact he over promissed on several projects later in his career is hardly an issue limited to just him, and certainly does not undo the huge legacy he has.
I was impressed by the showing at the event, and Im pleased to see he's learnt to shutup and just deliver a game. Maybe one two people can let go of the hate if he delivers on this project, but I doubt it - people love to hate.
Amen. I respect Peter as a dreamer of interesting and grand ideas. Those who remember the golden years of Bullfrog knows how interesting their games were (and still remain) and the glorious feel of manipulating all the little simulation mechanics. If you understand many of his promises were "wouldn't it be cool if" hypotheticals that were strived for but ultimately not achieved (ie the realities of game dev) it makes far more sense than him being deliberately misleading.
No. Too many other developers who HAVEN’T scammed people and lied to our face for two decades. Don’t have time to listen to this dude anymore. If it’s good, good for those people that like that type of game. I still won’t ever trust him.
One of the dumbest questions I've ever heard. Guy hasn't told the truth in over 20 years
I’m curious who the dislikes are on our comments. Either people old enough to have some deeeeeeep love for Black and White and Populous, or young enough to not know what a massive huckster Molyneux is. He’s the M.Night Shyamalan of game directors. Did a couple good things early on and somehow has managed to ride that for decades.
An independent UK developer says it’s been forced to announce and postpone its game on the same day, and lay off more than half of its staff, due to the sharp downturn in investment in the games industry.
listening to this guy go on and on and on about this horse is giving me nausea. I do not give a multi coloured turd about the horse and how it feels, I want Black and White without kinect
give us a real fable game(no offense kinect users/fans) and this time listen to the feedback from the community. Not only that but give us a good storyline for crying out loud.
I dunno i hate to say it but i get the feeling that this game is gonna reak of mediocrity. Thats a bummer as i was hoping that the next Fable game would be the best one yet as they seem to get better with each new edition. We will see i guess.
Watch the game flop and there will be a load of excuses from him
I wish Lionhead wasn't an exclusive studio, I want to see him make a game for another console and see if it's him or Microsoft not giving them enough freedom that makes his games not live up to his "creative visions".
"This is exactly like the mid-Eighties. When the Amiga came out you were playing with the mouse and people said, ‘Ugh, it’s the worst thing for gaming!’ It took a little while for the developing community as it was then to start experimenting with that, and out of that came Wolfenstein, Doom, RTSs. Before that it was just a joystick and those experiences weren’t possible on that, so it does take a while for us to get our teeth into it. And that’s why some core gamers may be saying they don’t want to play it, as there’s no example like that."