OK the Journey is out now and to predictably mixed reviews. Regardless of what you think of Fable and Kinect games in general I'm very proud of the visuals in "Fable: The Journey" and to have worked with such an excellent Art/Animation team. I don't think I'd ever had so much fun, satisfaction or success in Art Directing a project so thank you; Annes, Elliot, Tak, Cris, Mark, Bertie, Rich etc (sorry, too many to list).
The Art team and the engine were fresh to the franchise so this was an opportunity do think sideways a bit. From the very beginning we set out to create something that would be familiar to a Fable fan without slavishly following what was there before. Hoping to introduce some unique stylistic elements and freshness to the visuals.
I wanted the visuals to be clean, easy to read and stylish. In this we were broadly successful. In particular, I think the Character treatment was wonderful, having a lovely chiseled and sculpted treatment. This connected well with the deliberate use of simple shapes and clean silhouettes in the landscape.
One of the things I'm most proud of are the 2D storytelling cutscenes (Frescos) prototyped by Annes and Myself and finally realised by Emrah Elmasli, Billy Wimblett and Skaramoosh.
This was my last game at Lionhead. Given the platform it's unlikely to be a big seller but for me, it was a big success and a real pleasure.
If I was to do it again now I think I'd try remove much more of the visual noise and stylise it even more.
P.S. I'm heartened that the stylistic direction was retained and developed further for the awesome looking, but alas never to be released (?) Fable Legends.
