Peter Molyneux is returning to game development, and the Fable series, with a new title currently named Project MOAT. On X, the longtime game designer/director revealed the upcoming game would be set in Albion, the primary setting of the Fable games.
He used that news as a gateway to reveal he’d be blogging his thoughts on his career, during which he’ll look back on the development of titles like the Fable and Black & White series.
After a decade of being reclusive from the press, he explained, he “really missed those days of being out, exploring publicly what a game is about. […] Here we are in 2023 and I still would love publicly to share the thought process that goes behind creating a new game.”
“Initially I think this blog will be exploring what inspires me, and when I say me, I really mean us at 22Cans,” he continued.
Molyneux was the lead designer of the Fable trilogy (and its most public figure) back when he worked at Lionhead Studios. After the release of Fable 3 in 2010, he consulted on the 2012 Xbox 360 Kinect game Fable: The Journey before departing Lionhead to start up 22cans.
Looking briefly back on his time at his previous studios, Molyneux revealed that “a lot” of Guildford, Surrey (where he resides) came to inspire the projects he’s worked on over the decades. The first Fable, for example, had “a lot of the graphics, environments and other aspects” inspired by Guildford.
He was also candid in saying he’s faced numerous mental health issues over the last decade, and that he’s now 64 years old. While still being “passionate as ever” about video games, he mused about “how much energy and life I’ve got left to create games.”
Molyneux and Project MOAT
Project MOAT isn’t his final game, Molyneux assured. But he noted that “time was running out” for him, and he wants the game to be important in a very personal way for him. “I feel [MOAT] should be something which represents parts of my career and the many games I’ve been lucky to work on.”
“That is incredibly sad, but that makes this game, in my mind, very, very meaningful,” he wrote. “Hopefully, at the end of this blog, over many months, you’ll have a real insight into the weird way that I work as a designer, and hence how the 22Cans people work.”
Game Developer interviewed Peter Molyneux in 2006, where he gave his thoughts on Lionhead’s history, working on Fable II, and his then-big ambitions for games. That interview can be read here.