Lionhead Studios Obtains Capital for Future Games

Thanks to GameGossip for the news that Lionhead studios has obtained investments from several firms. These funds were obtained to fund future games. The studio currently has four titles in the pipe, with two of them due to be released next year.

Comments

Lionhead

[devilsadvoc8]

B&W was a stellar idea that fell flat. Great idea does not equal great gameplay or lasting interest. Hopefully they get it all right this time.

Re:Lionhead

[ckelly5]

This time as in Fable? I'll be the first to admit that while it might not have met the insanely lofty expectations, this game has sold well, and was/ is actually pretty fun to boot.

Re:Lionhead

[unclethursday]

It's fun to some, not to others. I, for instance, pretty muched loathed Fable. It is too short, boring, uninspiring, and has absolutely no challenge.

To each his own, though.

Re:Lionhead

[CaseM]

I wasn't expecting a "life altering" experience from Fable, just one that could alter it a little longer than 9 hours.

Re:Lionhead

[Moby Cock]

Agreed! He is working on The Movies which looks to me one of the more innovative games in recent memory. I am hotly anticipating this one. Check it out...a fansite and Gamespot

RDKF

[HanClinto]

Isn't Lionhead Studios where Rag Doll Kung Fu is being developed? (sweet game, if you haven't seen the videos for it yet).

I couldn't see from the article, does anyone know if RDKF is one of the 4 titles "in the pipe", or is it still just being developed independently by one of the Lionhead programmers?

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/24/ 0550221&tid=127&tid=159&tid=10
is the last article on RDKF (and how I originally became a lurker-fan)

Allright!!!

[hollismb]

Let's starting hyping them now. I'm betting that they'll be the BEST EVER in their respective genres. But what if they're in the same genre? Arrgh!

Lionhead

[aliens]

This is just a general rant, but over the past few weeks with Fable coming out I've seen a lot of posts about Lionhead and Peter Molyneux sucking. Cause B&W wasn't perfect, etc etc, then a in another game thread people bitching about how there is nothing innovative, new in games.

Just want to give some props to Molyneux, ok so all his games aren't going to be life altering experiences that bring the entire world together, but he stretches and reaches for new ground.

Significant

[cgenman]

I'd just like to point out that the money Lionhead gets from VC funding is likely to go into the prototyping phase, and not the development phase of any given game, which is tradtionally funded by the publisher. In other words, Lionhead now has the funds to create quite a few 20% tech demos, which are a good way of selling a game to a publisher. Coming to the table with funding in their pocket gives them the luxury of saying "no," and getting a better deal elsewhere.

While a few million from a publisher means one game made, a few million in VC gives a studio a lot freedom.

Black and White

[obeythefist]

I know there's a new B&W title in the works.

A lot of people complain about B&W because of some of the gameplay - micromanaging the stupid creature and babysitting villagers, it all got a bit awful. But technically, in terms of graphics, sound, and architecture the game worked brilliantly.

People probably complain about it more because it had so much potential that it didn't live up to - maybe that's true, but if they listen to the players and make the second game more of what people want out of this novel game concept, more power to them!

Heaven knows, the PC platform is the gaming platform that attracts the most innovation, and we need every innovative game producer we can get. At least they're not making another "groundbreaking new concept" FPS.

Re:Black and White

[Anonymous Coward]

People complained about Black and White for the obvious and true reason that it was an un-finished game.

Fable, got more polish, but they cut most of the cool features that were supposed to make it such a unique game.

My main complaint about lionhead is that they have such great ideas, hype the crap out of it, then fail to execute them. Irritatingly enough it seems to be more because of bad planning/management than lack of tallent or ideas.

Was populous (3) made by lionhead? or by bullfrog?

Re:Black and White

[FortKnox]

A lot of people complain about B&W because of some of the gameplay - micromanaging the stupid creature and babysitting villagers, it all got a bit awful.

Actually, when people sat down to actually understand the game it was quite brilliant. If you took the time to teach (micromanage) your creature a TON at the beginning, he was intelligent enough to do the micromanaging of the villagers afterward. There were times in the game I'd simply turn the game on at night, let it run through the night, and come back the next day to find out disasters had struck and my animal (good cow) had taken care of everything already.

What I'd like to see is another dungeonkeeper game (yeah, it was bullfrog, but still Molieaux was in charge of it).

Re:Black and White

[pagal_paanda]

I still can't believe that B&W 2 is not coming to PC. B&W revolutionized the way I looked at games. The AI of the game simply amazed me and I was awe struck that anything of such complexity is working right before my eyes. Not to mention, a great story line with no bounds as to how evi.. hum.. hum. I mean, good can one become. I can just imagine Xbox stomping it's big ugly body all over my dreams. Curse you Red Barron!! (Shakes Fist)

Re:Black and White

[obeythefist]

You're joking, right? I mean, the whole B&W interface was entirely mouse driven, right down to using mouse gestures for spells... what are they going to do now? Left right left right a b a b start select?

This is supposed to be surprising?

[Goosey]

Regardless of your opinion on Black and White, or (more recently) Fable, Lion Head's games are selling quite well.

Re: Bullfrog

[MachDelta]

Populous 3 was made by Bullfrog.

I really miss the days of Bullfrog, they made some great fucking games. Populous, Dungeon Keeper, Magic Carpet, Syndicate... games that really stood out from the norm, and did it damn well. Lion Head was supposed to be Bullfrogs successor - someone to continue carrying the torch of innovative and outstanding games - but so far (IMO) they just haven't done it. Mind you, Bullfrog left some MASSIVE shoes to fill, but LHS just doesn't seem to have the magic touch that Bullfrog did. Molyneux's head is still in the right place though, dreaming up fantastic ideas for new games, so I can't fault him there. They just haven't quite gelled for some reason. Maybe games are too different of a beast now to expect the 'good old days' to reappear. Maybe they just need more time. Whatever it is, I sure hope LHS figures it out soon.

(And would they hurry the fuck up and make a Dungeon Keeper 3 already!? I'd sell my soul for that game!
...of course, whoever I sold it to would be locked in my dungeon and tortured, electrocuted, beat up, and slapped daily for my amusement. But they don't need to know that beforehand. Oh how it'd be "good to be bad" again!)

Unity?

[Man In Black]

Does this mean Jeff Minter's new game Unity will be coming out eventually? I've been looking forward to it for quite some time, and the thought of another one of Yak's games coming out was one of the factors that made me buy a Gamecube in the first place.

Fable

[jasko]

The only problem with Fable was that it was too short. I didn't have any problem with the targeting system - in combat you don't *always* hit what you want to. Most of the time it was spot on, though. I've been waiting for BC and The Movies since I first saw previews of them. I hope those are two of the games in the pipeline. Based on Fable, they're going to be a lot of fun!