Playground Games, the developers of the Fable reboot, have posted a job listing that seems to indicate that the game will be made on a new, custom engine. This is the very first news of the Fable 4 title since it was first announced back in July 2020 as an Xbox and Microsoft Windows exclusive.
Fable is a series of fantasy action RPG first developer by Lionhead Studios, with co-founder and Lead designer Peter Molyneux taking the reigns. Each of the games has been set in a different time period in the fictional country of Albion, a medieval fantasy realm where magic and adventure go hand in hand. The protagonist in all the games starts out as a child, with the player’s choices influencing how the character is shaped, with one of the main selling points of the Fable series is allowing players to explore different moral options. Everything a player chooses influences the world around them, with both negative and positive actions changing the story along the way. The first three titles were developed at this studio before Lionhead studios were closed down in 2016 following the cancellation of Fable Legends.
A recent job listing on the Playground Games' official website seems to indicate that the developers working at this studio will be using a custom in-house engine to create the next Fable game, instead of using a third-party program. This job listing states that the potential employee will be “working with a custom engine.” While Fable is not explicitly mentioned as the title being worked on in the posting, it can be assumed that based on the developer’s history of only making car-based driving games, Playground Games will be using a different engine for Fable.
Playground Games is known for making the Forza racing games for Xbox. The British studio is based in England and became a part of Xbox Game Studios back in 2018. Since the studio opened in 2009, it has been responsible for developing the Forza series for Microsoft, only picking up the Fable series in the past few years, having hired a number of new employees to manage the project.
The job listing is for a graduate position with the studio. This is a great opportunity for someone just starting their career in games to find work with an experienced team such as the one at Playground Games. All the other eager players will just have to wait for more news on the next installation in the Fable series. Hopefully, Microsoft will be announcing an update on the game in the upcoming Xbox and Bethesda presentation this summer.
Source: Playground Games