Molyneux admits tinkering with games to match quotes

By Tom Bramwell Published 2 November, 2006

"Sometimes in the past".

Lionhead's Peter Molyneux has admitted that he sometimes changes things in his games to match the things he's been quoted as saying by the press.

"I've come to realise that the way I speak, the things I talk about are going to be interpreted. And that sometimes leads to misquotes," the affable developer told Gamasutra. "I'll be absolutely honest with you, sometimes in the past I've actually changed little bits of the game to match the misquote, however insane that sounds."

"It goes out there, and you can't withdraw the magazine and take down the websites... I always think misquotes are partly my fault as well for not being clear about things," he adds.

Oh well, you live and learn - and something Molyneux's learned more recently is how much of a positive impact middleware can have on next-gen development.

"[The] next generation is going to be all about that technology. It's going to be all about the technology behind faces, and behind animation, and blending," he says. "And that's blending everything - blending the graphics, blending the music, blending the gameplay."

In other words, allowing the designers to get on with things rather than faffing. "You would think that moving a health bar from the left hand side of the screen to the right hand should be a ten-minute piece of work. And it normally takes about a week to do," he jokes.

Fable 2, for example, is already benefiting from this, and Molyneux sounds like he's enjoying "designing properly again" for the game. "I want you to feel real emotions with Fable 2 that you haven't felt before. I want you to experience things like unconditional love - that's what I'm trying to get to," he explains. He also says Lionhead is "experimenting with something else" which "may lead to another game", but isn't going to elaborate yet for obvious reasons.

For more of Molyneux, including his confession that a lot of his drive to develop games comes from "when I was always a failure" and an "idiot" at school, check out the Gamasutra interview in full.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (41) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • lennon #1 6 years ago

    Who owns the rights to Populous 1 and 2? Can we have them on Live Arcade please?

  • brokenkey #2 6 years ago

    what is it with eurogamer's fascination with Molyneux stories. The only way we can hope to stop him is to starve him the publicity he craves!

  • MadMirko #3 6 years ago

    Would Populous be any good with a joypad?

  • spongebob #4 6 years ago

    I like his games but he never says anything interesting apart from "we're working on something mindblowing we can't talk about yet".

  • lennon #5 6 years ago

    Not sure maybe not but I crave to play Populous 2 again.

  • groovychainsaw #6 6 years ago

    Ea have the rights i would imagine...

  • Xerx3s #7 6 years ago

    Who owns the rights to Populous 1 and 2? Can we have them on Live Arcade please?

    EA and no, you don't want to go there.

  • Merlinho #8 6 years ago

    I had Populous on the MS (Yes, I know...). I found it great with a joypad, although of course I didn't know any better. I'd have thought it would be pretty dated now though.

  • President_Weasel #9 6 years ago

    If he tinkers with games to make them match the quotes then how come despite him massively overhyping every single game he makes to magazines and websites that lap up his every grotesquely overblown word, the games never turn out to be all that good?

  • Ecanem #10 6 years ago

    Don't believe the hype!? =P

  • Derblington #11 6 years ago

    I do wonder why he continues to do press. If he just shut up and went and made his games, without hyping constantly about some groundbreaking new feature his team are about to fail at making, his games would be recieved with much highr regard.

    He really loves selling the idea before it's been implemented though and he just looks like a fool.

  • mkreku #12 6 years ago

    I love this guy! He's always full of little tidbits of info that he's not supposed to reveal, but it's almost like he can't help himself. He just has to say it! Of course, 50% of what he says turns out to be complete bollocks, but who cares? I vastly prefer him to, oh, ANY other developer and their tight ass NDA-gagged PR talk.

    Go go Molyneux!

  • El_MUERkO #13 6 years ago

    do people still listen to him, i mean he could say his game would solve world hunger and no one would bat an eye lid, he’s a bullshitter who has long lost any credibility or respect

  • skillian #14 6 years ago

    I want you to experience things like unconditional love - that's what I'm trying to get to

    With a computer game. Yes, OK then.

  • potatoes #15 6 years ago

    you people are far too harsh. is it really that bad if a person is passionate about what he does? his excitement for what he wants to build is obvious, and those features that never quite make it into a game are the only things that keep games moving forward.

    anyone who works in a creative environment knows that you have to aim higher than you can achieve otherwise you wont change anything. that has nothing to do with how good his games are, its all about how much drive and excitement he feels for what he does.

    sometimes i wonder if the whole sequel problem in games is a self fulfilling prophecy - totally fuelled by the kind of comments above.

    let the man get excited, and let him push for bigger and better even if it isnt always achievable.

  • BadBoyBonner #16 6 years ago

    Think he must mean the worm in the apple! lol

  • BadBoyBonner #17 6 years ago

    Everyone knows Pete's a salesman, bad mouthing him is like kicking up a fuss due to your Action man not doing everything you saw in the commercial! lol

    He's great, I do not know anyone who could be so respected and revered, with essentially average games. And I do not mean that in a take the piss kind of way, I really think people buy into him, rather than the product. If I had have been Bill Gates, Peter would have been on my payroll years before he was, he’s like the Max Clifford of the games world!

  • stx #18 6 years ago

    So we need to blame the people that said Black & White looked dull, and not him?

  • BadBoyBonner #19 6 years ago

    Nope people need to blame themselves for getting sucked up in the hype! Even I bought Black & White, god it was like having a second job, an not a very exciting one at that! lol

  • BadBoyBonner #20 6 years ago

    I just thought, yip, fair enough Pete ya got me. That was the best sucker punch I have ever seen, I still wince now when I think about it, seeing all those Black & White boxes filling the shelves!
    Edited by BadBoyBonner at 02/11/06 @ 10:52

  • BadBoyBonner #21 6 years ago

    Although I loved the voice acting/regional accents in it. Almost worth buying for those alone!

  • Tyronne #22 6 years ago

    Blah blah blah please buy my games.

  • Muddtallica #23 6 years ago

    "Unconditional love"? Oh, that's so passe; we've been feeling unconditional love in games for ages. Like the unconditional love I feel for Wind Waker's Tingle.

    Or is that just me?

  • rudedudejude #24 6 years ago

    I had that kind of Love for Alyx in HL2.

    That bitch cheated on me with Gordon.

  • toy_brain #25 6 years ago

    "I want you to feel real emotions with Fable 2 that you haven't felt before"

    Soooo.
    Does that mean Peter is going to be inventing all-new human emotions?
    He's as ambitious as ever..............

  • BadBoyBonner #26 6 years ago

    "I want you to feel real emotions with Fable 2 that you haven't felt before"

    Ripped off but in a lovingly crafty way you have never felt before, wait a minute......isn't that how I felt with fable and black & white! lol

  • BadBoyBonner #27 6 years ago

    I have the ideal title for Peter's New Game

    "Pipe Dreams" lol

  • rinoaMW #28 6 years ago

    oh right. SO how come Fable didn't turn out to be anything like the press statements then, eh Molyneux?

    Does anyone else remember all that hype about cutting down trees and vegetation - only to find it affected as time went by? ppft rubbish.

    Maybe he's just trying to justify the bad design decesions in his games; "honestly the good bits are all mine, the crap bits?..er....well, the press made me do it! blame them!"

  • dredd97 #29 6 years ago

    Love this guy, so sometimes his ideas are way beyond what he can achieve, but at least he's still passionate about games..

    Give the guy a break fellas, you wouldn't hate him if was Japanese / worked for nintendo!

  • glaeken #30 6 years ago

    @rinoaMW

    He has been going on about tree's again with Fable 2. Apparently you will be able to plant tree's and come back later in the game to see how much they have grown.

    I guess with his past failure of delivering on tree based promises this is another must have feature that may not make the cut.

  • Kami #31 6 years ago

    ... a little too much obsession with trees?

  • glaeken #32 6 years ago

    Trees are awesome ;)

  • el_pollo_diablo #33 6 years ago

    I don't remember him saying that Black and White was going to be boring as hell.

  • Feanor #34 6 years ago

    Fable was a good game so nyah.

  • dudefella #35 6 years ago

    Ah, good old Peter, he's quite the conundrum. I hate him for some of the stuff he says, like all he promised before Fable that never came true, yet I love him for his infectious enthusiasm about games. Keep on truckin', Pete...

  • BadBoyBonner #36 6 years ago

    THERE'S A VOICE,
    THAT KEEPS ON CALLING PETE.
    DOWN DEVELOPMENT ROAD,
    IS WHERE HE'LL ALWAYS BE.
    EVERY STOP HE MAKEs,
    HE MAKE'S A NEW GAME.
    NOT FUN FOR LONG, JUST ONE MORE GO AN IT'S CRAP AGAIN.

    MAYBE TOMORROW, HE'LL MAKE A GREAT GAME,
    UNTIL TOMORROW, HE'LL JUST KEEP SPOUTING ON

    DOWN DEVELOPMENT ROAD, THAT NEVER SEEMS TO END,
    WHERE A NEW TITLE, LIES JUST A-ROUND THE BEND

    SO IF YOU WANNA JOIN HIM FOR A WHILE,
    JUST GRAB YOUR PAD, COME GAMING LIGHT,
    THAT'S PETER'S STYLE.
    Edited by BadBoyBonner at 02/11/06 @ 16:05

  • YourMessageHere #37 6 years ago

    Headline: "Famous Games Person Says Stupid Thing"

    Readers: "...uh-huh...we know, idiots make our games, they're good despite, not because of, people like this...so?"

    Once again the cult of personality fails to penetrate the world of gaming. Either they're admitting to having fed us all bullshit or they're speaking in Marketingese.

  • subtlesnake #38 6 years ago

    "oh right. SO how come Fable didn't turn out to be anything like the press statements then, eh Molyneux?

    Does anyone else remember all that hype about cutting down trees and vegetation - only to find it affected as time went by? ppft rubbish. "

    He personally apologised to the Fable community about this. Basically what happened is he talked about features before they'd been implemented. When they did actually get round to adding them, they found out that they weren't worthwhile or were too difficult. He's admitted his guilt (and regret) in countless interviews, and has said that in the future he'll only talk about features after they've been implemented.

  • NegativeZero #39 6 years ago

    "I've come to realise that the way I speak, the things I talk about are going to be interpreted."

    Maybe if you shut the fuck up people will stop doing that, Peter, you blowhard windbag.

  • captain-future #40 6 years ago

    Good chap. Great interview.

  • kangarootoo #41 6 years ago

    "Molyneux admits tinkering with games to match quotes"

    And bears are often to be found in woods "taking care of business".