- Fable Game director Ralph Fulton states that the game is a fairy tale story, explaining that “fairy tale and fantasy probably exist on opposite ends of a spectrum” for Playground Games.
- The game is an open-world game, but Fulton emphasizes that there is no time bomb for players to worry about.
- Fable there will be stakes, but players can explore the open world, and “nothing requires you” along the main path
Managing Director of Playground Games and Fable Game director Ralph Fulton called the upcoming game an open-world fairy tale rather than the “grand and sweeping” fantasy story that players might be accustomed to.
Following the Xbox Developer Direct on January 22, where Playground Games finally announced that Fable will launch in fall 2026 on PC, Xbox Series
When asked what was the essence of Fable East, Fulton explained that Playground borrowed from the original trilogy created by Lionhead Studios and decided to lean heavily on the classic fairy tale style of the series.
“We found a bunch of things – the first of which, I would say, was inherited from Lionhead. When we started working on this project, we got a treasure trove of documents from Lionhead that were in storage,” Fulton said.
“Something I found brilliantly succinct was one of the documents, which said: ‘Fable is a fairy tale, not fantasy, which is just super neat.”
The game director explains that, in Playground’s interpretation, “fairy tale and fantasy likely exist on opposite ends of a spectrum”, suggesting that Fable will deal with small, “intimate” stories instead of something you’d expect from other big fantasy tales.
“I think we all know what fantasy is – it’s The WitcherIt is SkyrimIt is Lord of the RingsIt is Game of Thrones. And I think tonally it’s quite grandiose, it’s radical, it’s geopolitical, it’s serious. You know, you can almost imagine the color palette of fantasy,” he said.
“And then fairy tales exist just on the opposite end of that spectrum. Fairy tales are intimate, they’re little stories about ordinary people; they’re not grandiose and sweeping, they’re very personal and fanciful and, ultimately, they’re about what happens when magic touches the lives of ordinary people. And they also have this kind of moral component to them.
“And I think that’s a brilliant description of what Fable it really does – it comes through in our art style, it runs through our worldbuilding. We really put this fairy tale idea into practice in every part of the game we build. »
Look on it
In FablePlayers will explore the land of Albion, an immersive medieval-style world with choices and consequences, reputation and fairytale endings.
From the new trailer, it’s clear that Albion will be full of new discoveries, but Fulton stressed that players will still be able to take their time enjoying the world, despite the game’s stakes.
He explained that the events of the game begin to unfold after an inciting incident, which he calls the “catalyst” of the story, where the player’s grandmother and everyone in the village they grew up in are turned to stone by a mysterious stranger.
The player is then left alone and forced to venture out into the world, and is suggested to visit Bowerstone, the Heroes’ Guild; However, the game director explained that there is no requirement for players to go this route first.
“So there’s a slight implication that you should head to the Heroes’ Guild, and maybe they can help you,” Fulton said.
“But the nature of our game is that as soon as you leave your village, you can go pretty much anywhere. It’s a truly open world, so the world is yours to explore. And we’ve written the story in such a way that even though there are stakes – your grandmother, your village – there’s no ticking time bomb.
“There’s nothing forcing you to follow the path, because we want to give the player permission to go and do other things in the game. You can go to the northernmost village in Albion, get a job, settle down and get married if you want. The story will be waiting for you, which I think is really important with the very rich side activities that Fable the games come with it.”
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