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Fable 3 was a great game, but like many of Lionhead's previous projects, it never quite lived up to the lofty expectations set out by both gamers and the team behind it, Lionhead Studios. In an interview with Gamasutra, Lionhead's outspoken leader Peter Molyneux talked about the initial vision for Fable 3, and how some aspects of that vision failed to materialize, mainly due to the team's design process.

"The process, the way that we designed, and the way that we crafted -- meant that the game came together very late," said Molyneux. "That is one of the things that we're changing; that is just such an old school way of working."

The Lionhead boss singled out the vision of a graphical user interface-free RPG as one of the ideas that just didn't work out as intended.

"I thought the idea of leveling outside the GUI, but leveling in the environment and the world was actually quite a good one, but I'm not sure," reflected Molyneux. "The real dream of that leveling process was that, as you went through each gate, there would be these tough choices for the player. Which chest should I open? This one or that one? The feeling that you're going through the game at your own pace, but having to make these tough choices, was never actually realized."

The design process left the team with little time to "balance and refine," turning a "great mechanic" into merely a "good idea," admitted Molyneux. The studio will be hoping to use this experience to help improve future games; namely the upcoming Fable Kinect game.

"...now, when we approach development, it's very different, because we want to know precisely how long the experience we're crafting is up front, rather than waiting to the end, so that we have a clear idea how each of these mechanics is used, how they're meted out, how they're exploited, and how they're really used to amplify the whole drama of what that is."

Despite its shortcomings, we still loved Fable 3, and we wait anxiously to see what the creative minds at Lionhead Studios come up with for Fable: The Journey.