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Are you graduating in 2009, an exceptionally smart cookie and lover of video games, fun, spirited, passionate and bursting with drive and enthusiasm? If so, you might like to consider applying to become a Lionhead Graduate Programmer. Anybody who qualifies with the aforementioned virtues should consider this opportunity. As a guide we are looking for a degree course in maths, physics or computing and strong C++ skills.
You can find more information on the following page.
To apply for a graduate programmer position, please follow the instructions on this page. The software application form will be e-mailed to you. Please complete it and reply to the message with the completed form attached. If successful, you will be invited to attend an assessment day from March 2009 onwards.
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Hi community,
I have not blogged on here for a little while – as you can imagine we have *all* been very busy :-)
A number of times people have asked in the forums about testing Fable II and more technical details about that process. Well our friends in the States at Platform Biased have just done an entire podcast (a podcast is a like a radio show stored as an mp3 you can download over the web) talking about testing and some of the tools they used during the process. Some of those tools originated here at Lionhead, some developed over the water specifically to suit their needs – but the ![G o o d [Good]](/emoticons/g_o_o_d.gif) thing is that they are useful both sides of the ocean. :-)
So Jeff Kafer of Platform Biased interviews with Patrick Barker (Test Lead), Jeff MacDermot (Project SDET), and Rick Martinez (MS Producer). Hint to American readers / listeners… talking about Benny Hill and calling Brits governor might not be the best way to close the culture gap ;-)
Oh, and the content of the show does not necessarily reflect the official opinion of Lionhead or Microsoft.
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Since the last time I’ve blogged, a certain senior developer whom I shall call “Sam” (he blogged a little while back) has had a webcam set up on his desk (Fable 2 Cam).
Now and again it points towards my screens and off in to the distance you can see artists in the gloom, working away making Fable 2 look incredibly cool… surrounded by everything from Star Wars action figures to Pokemon and Scooby Doo. Who wouldn’t want to work in a place where there’s an epic battle between ships of the Empire and Rebel Alliance hanging from the ceiling?
Very recently dev Sam has constructed a tower for that web-cam. In true engineering tradition that of course involves cardboard and sticky tape. I am sure it will not be long before version two of that tower comes along… perhaps it even deserves a little picture somewhere. :0)
If you are lucky and watching the webcams… now and again you might see a test level running on my dev-kit - but luck making anything out with the cam resolution! ;0)
Recently I have continued work on the editor bits of the LHTS (Lionhead Text System), plus some other parts to do with triggers for level exits. Georg checked in gigabytes of final recorded speech to our repository… and on Monday Louise did a little demo to the team with that content in. It is great hearing *actor to be announced* in Fable 2, especially sounding a little corrupt… I didn’t really think of him like that before ;0)
Next up for me is adding extra bits to the stuff that allows the editor to update the game running on the 360 with data live. Should be interesting!
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September 14th was the last time I blogged. Wow that’s been longer then I had hoped. I’ll try and make time to update more often, if anyone out there is actually interested! :0)
I have recently been working on various things for the editor. Right now I tend to work on editor side features concerning the LHTS (Lionhead Text System), something community member Derobrash has had fun with in the past!
The Text System touches many systems… animations, speech, scripts – and of course at some point it has to be localised (translated in to different languages). Parts of it are very old, but have evolved over time and with different game requirements. The people internally that use the LHTS are pretty diverse, so anything that makes the content creators lifes easier while interacting with that system speeds up the development of the game.
There are several tiers to the system… database, server, localisation processes, editor and the game – and they all like to consume that data in different ways. I concentrate on the tools side of things. The LHTS touches so many different parts of the entire game making process that other developers regularly delve in to parts of the LHTS.
The editor tries to make it easy for different people to interact with the dialogue via aspects that mean the most to them... for example the main window supports copy and paste from Office documents. The screenshot below was taken from my development build of the editor looking at a test section of a book, while showing different views on a speech action in the document view...
So that was another quick behind-the-scenes look about what we do here.
Questions and comments welcome :0)
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Hi folks, another CTG member here. I’m Sam (yes, another one) and I'm a senior coder on the central tools team. I've been working on the tools side of the 'Concrete' system since I started at Lionhead over two years ago now. Concrete hasn't been talked about in the press much at all, so hopefully we can remedy this a little via these 'blogs revealing a little more about it and what it means to Fable 2.
Concrete is a philosophy, intended to encourage re-use of code and assets. This takes the form of both game-side and tools-side frameworks on top of which are built many modular plug-in pieces of functionality. I've been tasked with developing the tools side of things to support the tools needed by Fable 2, a lot of these which will ultimately help increase the productivity of the content creation teams. Fable 2 has it's own tools team as well which deals with the specific requirements generated by the game in terms of custom tools and utilities. This includes the teams own customised editor with all the things Fable needs such as height-field editing and entity placement. CTG (normally) just deal with the underlying functionality common to all tools based on the framework.
The Fable 2 level editor ('FablEd') is really an edit 'suite' formed from a large collection of tool plug-ins that provide all the editing facilities needed by the various disciplines (including the likes of level designers, artists, scripters, game-play coders, sound engineers, and animators). The editor maintains a large database of all the game content and provides many ways to edit it. This can be from standard file management and property editing functionality to far more advanced data manipulation such as height-field sculpting and animation time-line tagging. To give you a taster and add more of a talking point, here's a picture of FablEd in action:
I'd also like to use this 'blog to talk (and discuss) a bit about tools technology and philosophy in general from time to time. If there's any specific topics or areas of interest, let me know and I will try to include them in future posts.
Thanks for your time.
Sam
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I'm Adam. I'm part of CTG's Research and Development department.
We deal with lots of exciting stuff, such as prototyping new ideas and developing new technology to help make Lionhead's games as exciting and innovative as possible. I write code mainly, so you'll largely be getting a technical viewpoint from me, but I still get excited about all the cool stuff we do, so I may mention anything I come across here- whether that's design, music, art or technology.
Currently I'm residing in Fable 2, working on a few exciting bits and bobs. It's certainly quite cool to see all the work everyone is doing up here. I've got a view over to the artist's end of the room, so I can see whatever stuff they are doing- making buildings, monsters, creatures weapons etc. - even if it is a bit dark over here...
So, that's the introduction sorted. You may have already seen me in video form asking Neil if he was alright after Dan slammed him into a wall, and you may also see me in the upcoming lionhead diary. I'll write soon to let you know a little about fable 2's development, as well as what I'm up to. I'll also let you in on a personal project of mine that you might be seeing soon...
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Mike West (Gothnak)
excellent blog already answered one of the questions on my last entry– the extension
of the base Concrete Editor used on Fable is called “FablEd”. Geddit?
Fable Editor… Fable Ed. …
Fabled? Ah… nevermind ![Wink [;)]](/emoticons/emotion-5.gif)
Anyway I had some other work stuff to say, but Sam thought
it best to wait until after the diaries come out – and looking back at what I
originally wrote I have to agree… sorry!
Blogs are a personal voice though, so I would like to talk a
little bit about my own opinions on a game I’ve been playing recently called
“Blue Dragon”. It is a game a few of us
here at Lionhead are playing… and keep playing… and we are not all quite
certain WHY. It is a very old school
style of RPG, but the graphics are quite stunning. The game reminds me of certain cartoons from
the 80s… the characterisations and script; the loud impetuous lead, smart and
soft side-kick, love interest with tragic back story, another loud sidekick
that gobbles down food and falls over now and again over-dramatically… etc. Perhaps that is part of its charm. I think it is tapping in to those quite dusty
parts of my brain.
Parts of the game are very rewarding – most of the cut-scenes
are very well done. If things like the “Deevee
Dance of Joy” make you smile rather then vomit candy hearts and rainbows at the
high sugar content, then you will love the cut-scenes. The fight soundtracks can be quite funny; the
singing reminds me of that South Park episode that is/was up on Xbox Video
Marketplace in some regions for free – “ Times With Weapons “.
My main problem with Blue Dragon is what it caused me to do
the other night. Being a developer often
means that some part of you is stubborn and tenacious… and it tapped in to that
side of me… in a negative way.
The Wagon Trail is an escort mission, where a pattern of
creatures come out and attack the wagons you are escorting triggered by things
you do in the field. The action is
scripted, and ignores your field skills like attract, or character status such
as stink… the creatures attack the wagons anyway breaking rules that have
already been established. You have to
guide the Wagons through the section without getting any damage at all. Even if you repair the carts back to 100%,
that still does not count.
The Wagon Trail achievement had me saving and reloading many
times over the evening and I still did achieve it. After that experience I felt rather
negatively towards the game, and even considered not playing it anymore. Instead I made the decision that I won’t go
for any of the Blue Dragon achievements and just play the game through instead
- rather then wasting vast amounts of my precious free time trying to extract miserly
gamerscore from Blue Dragon. After all
there are 3 dvds… not sure how likely it is I’m going to plough through all
that anyway, without the saving and reloading!
Despite what I said above though Blue Dragon is worth trying
out if you like RPGs. Try the demo… it does
not quite do the game justice because you have no idea of the characters
stories – but you’ll get the idea of the voice acting and production
quality. If you want achievements
attainable without a lot of blood, sweat and tears though look elsewhere.
The designers have assured me that our achievements for
Fable 2 are not going to be anything like that… so you can relax there ![Smile [:)]](/emoticons/emotion-1.gif)
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Hello everyone, I’m Paul – a relatively new member of CTG (Central Technology Group). I’ve been recently drafted by the Fable 2
Tools team, who have been making me feel welcome up here on the 1 st
floor.
Peter has mentioned Concrete in the press before and this is
where CTG spends a lot of their time.
Concrete is the technology that the tool team uses and improves daily
via the development of plug-ins and other additional functionality.
Concrete provides the foundation for the Fable Editor, which
provides a single point of access for the content creators to the game’s “database”. It is an important part of getting assets and
scripts in to the game.
Working in the tools team means I have the opportunity to work
with both the content creators and the engine team. The team is constantly trying to improve the editor
and pipeline so things become easier to do… meaning more content for you guys
to enjoy, as it can be crammed in to the game quicker.
Most recently I’ve been working on allowing cameras to be
placed within the editor from several points of view; to allow the scripters to
have greater control over the direction of the action on screen.
In the next Lionhead Diaries episode some of the people working on the tools will
be interviewed about what we do and how we contribute to the game creation
process. Please comment about anything
in particular you might like to know about the tools used to create Fable and
perhaps we’ll be able to answer your questions in the Diary, or another blog
entry
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In a fit of generosity, Sam and Woody gave me a blog to talk about the oft-neglected subject of audio. For those of you who have joined the community since the release of Black & White 2 (which is probably when I last posted on the forums - it's been very busy here!), I (along with Chris Carr, our audio tools guru) have the fantastic job of building the technology behind Fable 2's sound and music. This also means I get to work closely with Russ Shaw, our resident musical genius. Plus I get to play around with our recording studio, which is nice :).
Audio's a huge subject and while I could use this blog to harp on about DSP algorithms, I can't help but feel that most would find that quite boring. Therefore, I'd like to know what you would like me to talk about. Obviously I have an non-disclosure agreement which must be honoured, but Fable 2's audio system is already in a fantastic state and I'll be fairly safe talking about our technology and plans; especially if it's something you've already seen from our demos at GDC and E3.
Toodle pip!
PS: Derobrash - would you please make a move? It's been over a week now and we haven't even broken out of the Ruy Lopez mainline.
PPS: If any of you haven't tried the Bioshock demo, you really should. It's fantastic!
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