UK-based game maker Playground Games is really, really leaning into the Fable series' signature British wit, even going as far as copying the mockumentary-style interviews pioneered in countless comedy shows like The Office.
Cast your mind back and you'll remember the Fable trailer that follows a giant version of Richard Ayoade (of The IT Crowd fame), while he sits down in an interview and waxes lyrical about the nature of heroes. Another has Matt King (AKA Super Hans from The Peep Show) doing the same as an ex-hero who's been forced out of retirement.
That wasn't just a cheeky quirk used to advertise the upcoming reboot, however. "You've maybe seen in our trailers that we have a sort of mockumentary interview style," Playground Games chief Ralph Fulton told Xbox Wire. "I think a lot of people assume we just did that for those trailers, but it’s actually a device we use throughout the game."
Fulton explained it was something the team "kind of nicked" from The Office, the workplace British comedy that had its dry employees awkwardly talk into the camera. It was, of course, famously adapted into The Office US. "I've never seen it in games before, but it allows you a way to really neatly tell a joke or drop a little bit of character detail in a way that would feel really clunky in a dialogue, but suddenly feels entirely natural when you do it to 'camera'," the studio head continued.
Fable has always been a very quintessentially British series, even down to its cast, and that's something the reboot is holding onto tightly as well. "We have an amazing cast in this game – and we'll talk more about the cast in future," Fulton said. "Again, that's in keeping with the original Fable games. If you go back and read their cast list, it’s a who’s-who. And we felt, OK, that is a challenge for us – we need to go and do something similar.
"We were inspired by the incredibly rich variety of British comedies that have been around over the last 20 years like 'Peep Show,' 'The IT Crowd' and so many others. We started with 'The Office'... Not just that IP, but a lot of the techniques and the devices that it's popularized, you know. It's that really grounded, awkward style of humour which really appeals to us."
I'm not really sure how those in-game interviews will operate since, as far as we know, cameras don't actually exist in the fairytale world of Albion, so how do you rationalize the fact that these characters are essentially talking to something or someone that's not there? But I'm all for seeing big-budget games take wild swings like this, and I'm even more excited to see how it'll all work in the final game when it launches later this year.
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