Molyneux: Lionhead working on "super secret" second project

What's the hardest job in the games industry? Probably being the person who has to try and control what Peter Molyneux tells the public.

Speaking at Gamelab this afternoon, the Lionhead boss was visibly disappointed when he told the crowd that he had planned to give a detailed demo of his Kinect-enabled Fable: The Journey - except that "the powers that be have decided that it's probably not a good idea."

Molyneux did however manage to restrain his legendary enthusiasm by refusing to tell listeners any details of a "super secret second project" currently underway at Lionhead, only promising that it would be worth waiting for.

Nonetheless, Molyneux was unable to resist spending some of his presentation, which was largely focused on what has inspired him over his long career, talking about Fable: the Journey.

Reiterating, through slides and verbally, that the game "isn't on rails", Molyneux went on to say again that the game can be played entirely sitting down, requiring only hand gestures to control the horse, the "off horse navigation" and a magic "weaving" system which enables players to create objects and weapons.

"Some people in the audience wiill be thinking, I don't want to use Kinect. I don't want to jump around all over the place - I want to sit down. That's only thinking of the negatives. Think about the positives about Kinect. The wonderful, amazing thing about Kinect is that it can see you.

"The most amazing thing about the journey is that you can play it sitting down. If I'm going to tell the most emotional story in the fable saga, you'll have to be relaxed."

After confirming that "huge amounts of technology from cancelled Lionhead title Project Milo was used in the creation of the game, Molyneux was also characteristically wistful about the nature of the horse which will pull players' caravans.

"This horse is one of the most amazing things we've ever created. He's going to have so much feeling for you. Think about combining the creature from Black and White, the dog from Fable and my hamster from when I was a child.

"I definitely want to make you cry. I want there to be a lump in your throat. I want you to remember this for the rest of your life. Why would I want to make a game that didn't do that?"

Answering questions after his speech, Molyneux revealed some of his frustration with the final product which Fable III became, telling the crowd that he would always prefer to work on new IP to a sequel, whenever possible.

"I would always prefer to work on something that's not a sequel. Very often with a sequel you can get very bound up in what's gone before. I think Fable 3 suffered from a bit of that, to be perfectly frank.

"I don't like the idea that people know what to expect from Fable. I hate that idea."