Game designer Peter Molyneux is known for classic series Black & White (a personal fav), Dungeon Keeper, and Fable, but in the 2000s and 2010s, he also became known for making ambitious promises he couldn’t keep, becoming the quintessential ‘game dev who talks to much.’ This narrative climaxed when Molyneux launched a mobile game about clicking on a cube and promised that whoever got to the center would receive a life-changing prize, which turned out not to be life-changing at all.
The spotlight eventually moved on from Molyneux—in 2016, No Man’s Sky director Sean Murray became the new favorite games industry overpromiser—and although his mobile games studio continued on, it seemed like Molyneux’s legacy as a PC game designer had just about crystallized.
Surprise! He’s not done yet: Molyneux appeared on stage with Geoff Keighley at Gamescom Opening Night Live today to announce a new PC and console game, and I feel like I’ve been transported back to the early 2000s, because, folks, I think it looks pretty darn good. What can I say? The guy makes a great pitch.
The game is called Masters of Albion. It’s a god game with all the classic fixings, including a hand cursor you can use to pick up and fling around your little fantasy citizens. You can also inhabit their bodies and fight monsters in third-person action combat, and then pull back out to the overhead view to zap ’em with your god powers (the monsters, but probably also your citizens, if you want).
The most interesting bit of Masters of Albion is what appears to be a very flexible crafting system. At one point in the trailer, the player equips one of their citizens with a sword made of a loaf of bread.
“You can design anything: the food the people eat, the clothes they wear, the weapons they use, the armor they fight with,” says Molyneux in the trailer. “There is a strategy behind every creation. I can even feed them rats.”
Masters of Albion is being developed by a team of 20, and will release on PC and console. On stage at Opening Night Live, Molyneux chided himself for previously “messing around on mobile.”
“What the hell was I doing? I thought to myself: I need to come home to PC and console,” he said. “So I’ve looked at Dungeon Keeper, I’ve taken some things that I’ve wanted to explore further with Dungeon Keeper. I’ve done the same with Black & White. I’ve done the same with Fable.”
Molyneux has funded the game himself—no Kickstarter this time—and the team of 20 includes developers who worked on those classics. “I think my first realization was that I needed to bring the old team back together again,” Molyneux said.
If Sean Murray could come back from all the discontent around the launch of No Man’s Sky—to the point that fans bought a billboard for him—maybe Molyneux has a redemption story in him, too? (The Kickstarter backers of his last big project might not be so quick to forgive, granted.)
Masters of Albion doesn’t have a release date yet, but does have a Steam page.
