During his 28-year-old career, Peter Molinjo managed to create a new game genre, come up with several brilliant games, get a bunch of awards, repeatedly collect the deafening ovations of the crowded halls, and also to establish and unwind several studios.
In March, Molinya left Lionhead created in 1997 and immediately took up independent games in the new small company 22 cans. Such a care is quite expected from the developer, whose long career has always consisted of unexpected falls and sudden take -offs.
Prince on beans
Peter Douglas Molnieo was born on May 5, 1959 in the small British city of Gilford in the family of the owner of the factory of children's toys. Our hero loved to disassemble his cars and pistols to figure out how they work (the future “father was fond of the same occupation PlayStation »Ken Kutaragi). At school, Molinjo was not particularly popular. Children considered him a nearby.
[[Bullet]] In this modest house, all the genius game projects Lionhead were born.
Then there was a college, from where the young man was seriously going to steal an expensive computer Apple 2e. He never reached the case, but to criticize the administration of the educational institution for the fact that students were not allowed to use the computing system, Mr. Molinya never ceased. Around the same time, the future designer began to wash the dishes in the snacks and create the first games.
Molinjo graduated from the University of Southampton. Peter seriously believes that education helped him become who he is now (the university, in turn, thanked the developer for his contribution to the degree of Doctor of Sciences in 2007).
In 1982, the young man began to sell disks with recorded computers Atari And Commodore 64. Molinjo created his first serious development – Entrepreneur – In 1984. In this project, you were offered to get used to the skin of a novice businessman and spend your own company through the Boring Ocean of Entrepreneurship. There were no graphs in the game at all – only the text. Peter hoped for deafening sales, but there were only two orders, while the second – from his mother.
[Bullet]] “I like to work in such small studios, and corporations are not for me”-as Peter Molinjo tells us from this picture.
The next attempt to get rich was more successful. After the failure of Entrepreneur, Molinjo created the company Taurus Impex Limited Together with the Forest partner, Edgar took up the export of bobs of bobs to Central Asia.
One fine day, Taurus IMPEX received an order to adapt network software for the operating system Commodore amiga. By the happy chance of the bosses of the famous computers developer Commodore International The word “Taurus” with the word “Torus” was confused – this was the name of a popular office engaged in the development of network software.
As you know, the client cannot speak no. Molinjo shook his hand in the representative of Commodore, took the Amiga computers proposed for experiments and began to develop the necessary software, forgetting about his bobs. The application later appeared Acquisition For computers Amiga 1000 , gaining widespread.
The beginning was laid. The money paid by Commodore after clarifying all muddy circumstances was enough to create the first big business – the legendary studio Bullfrog Productions. In the yard was 1987.
Doubles
Peter Molinjo reached such an incredible popularity that his own doubles even began to appear – real and virtual.
A man under the nickname Peter Molidier came up with the virtual twin of the gameparator ( Twitter.COM/Petermolydeux ), which generates very funny, in many ways crazy, but almost always interesting ideas for games.
In different periods, this secret double advised to make a version Guitar Hero , Where people would play for street musicians, and the city changed under the influence of music. Another time, Molidia came up with the idea of supplying NPC game with new functionality and turn them into conservation points. At the same time, the player should remain in good relations with the computer character so that he would allow to record progress. And how do you like the next game sketch: the pigeon flies around the city and convinces the businessmen businessmen not to jump from the roofs.
Simple sketches of Molidia are interspersed with quite productive ideas for creating new projects. For example, a three -dimensional quest: the hero wakes up with amnesia in the museum, where each room is dedicated to the year of his life. Or horror, where enemies are visible only in the mirrors.
Journalists of the main gaming publications and industry experts have more than once advised Molidia to unite forces with real moisture and create a joint project. The case moved from the dead point when the programmer Double Fine Anna Kipnis suggested that they wish to arrange a competition based on sarcastic ideas of a double. There were those who supported the idea! The real jam on the development will take place in San Francisco, and the real Peter Molinjo will take part in the competition.
There is also another double – a quite real actor named John Mc Jackson. He was born on June 1, 1950 in the United States and successfully acts in films and on television. His similarity with moisty simply scares. In the film "flickering" of the distant nineties, he played the role of one of the antagonists fighting with the character of Stephen Sigal. The main character defeated in the end, but the scene where Molino's double breaks his nose to the master of eastern martial arts will forever remain in the gold fund of cinema.
Not a bull and a frog
The first project of the studio was a militant Fusion , where players were offered to manage a spaceship or a ground tank. Peter was engaged in graphics and animation. The game received positive reviews of the press, but it was far from the ratings of the next loud hit of the studio – Populous. The novelty was the world's first simulator of God, where the player was offered to influence entrusted civilization indirect way. Before Bullfrog, no one created such games.
[[Bullet]] One of the important projects of Lionhead was considered the demo version of Milo & Kate for Microsoft Kinect.
The project was completed and presented in 1989. The God's simulator instantly attracted public attention and won two important awards from the American magazine VideoGames & Computer Entertainment. The developers sold about four million copies of the game, released several additions and a full -fledged sequel Populous. Remembering those times in an interview with Computer and Video Games magazine, Peter takes his soul – sales of the first simulator of God brought enough money to say: "Let's go to have fun and spend money". But instead, the developers invested funds in expanding the studio. During work on Populous, only five people worked in the company, but already before the release PowerMonger staff increased to 20-25 employees.
Further Bullfrog projects were performed in approximately the same way as Populous. Only settings changed: Theme Park, gloomy dungeons with demons (Dungeon Keeper). Sometimes there were deviations from the well -known formula. So, Syndicate tactical anti -utopia about cyborgs, weapons and bloody wars of corporations was born. More recently, the brand was reborn into a three -dimensional militant of the same name.
[Bullet]] This caricature personifies Mr. Molinjo's enthusiasm during a performance before fans and a press at game conferences: “Here you are a little popcorn, guys”.
In 1994, the developers became interested in the successes Electronic Arts (EA). The company was just preparing to become a game giant and carefully selected candidates for cooperation. Bullfrog management made an offer that cannot be abandoned, and the studio has passed under the full control of EA.
Bullfrog Games still became loud hits, diverged huge circulations, reached the form of collection publications and received continuations, but the atmosphere that was originally created in the team scattered in a monetary fog. There were more people, management switched to production production, the quality quickly fell. It turns out that Peter Molinjo could no longer cherish and bear his projects. In 1997, the “commander” left the company to establish a new enterprise – Lionhead Studios.
[Bullet]] to build an effective hospital in Theme Hospital was far from as easy as it might seem.
Leaving, Mr. Molinjo left several incomplete projects that came out and became mass hits. The ingenious Dungeon Keeper 2 And the best in the world of the Hospital Simulator of the Hospital Theme Hospital They still retain the cult status. Bullfrog finally dissolved in the corporate structure of EA in 2004, when the publisher united several British studios under a single brand EA UK.
EA Director John Rikitello will recall the happy times of Bullfrog with nostalgia and regret. His company has overdid it. The strategy to “conquer and command” unnoticed for everyone went into “strangle and bury”, although everything, as always, was made from good motives. The creator of Bullfrog does not blame EA leadership, but emphasizes that their corporate interests completely destroyed the culture and atmosphere of creativity created by him.
Portrait of the artist
Like many large artists and leaders, in the technical component of his business, Moligneo understands not particularly many. He is an absolutely terrible programmer. Even in ancient times, Bullfrog, Peter barely mastered the C/C ++ language, while real hardcore programmers worked with a machine code, they knew how many processor tactes each instructions were taking away, and learned the magic of mathematical functions. However, now this does not bother anyone, because Molinjo has not been writing code for a long time.
Peter Molino is married, he has a son Lucas (this guy once laid out a video where he asked Valve to release it faster Half-Life 3 (YouTu.Be/zwdh8w8igyo). The head of the family loves fast sports cars like Nissan Skyline GT or Aston Martin DB7 (there are several such monsters in his garage), but is afraid to drive them.
In addition, it is known that Molinjo does not want to wake up early and comes to the office more often for dinner. He has several mansions, among which there is one very unusual house with secret moves, which Peter dreamed about since childhood.
In several games in Lionhead, the dog became important associates of the player ( Fable 2, Milo & Kate). The developers experimented a lot with the behavior of the dog and even forced her to run ahead of the player so that he feels that he was traveling more than one (in other games, partners usually weave behind). It could be assumed that Peter also started a dog. However, as it turned out, instead of a man’s best friend, he brings up a cat named alien (alien).
Among the favorite games of Molnie – Minecraft, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword , And also The Tiny Band Story And Six-guns For Apple iPad.
The lion's share
In Lionhead, Peter Molinya was going to focus on the gaming design. The pilot and probably the most iconic project of the company was the simulator of the new generation god Black & White. The game has become a stumbling block for human masses and critics around the world. Initially, https://leovegas-casino.co.uk/ the project did not have a publisher. Molnie had to take a risk and allocate money from his own pocket.
Black & White was transferred and finalized several times. Fans interested in fairy -tale promises of developers waited for the release only in 2001. The game has displayed all the characteristics of the Simulator of God to the previously unprecedented level. Virtual gods were offered to make a conscious choice between good and evil: to seize the villages by force or give people gifts, punish his own giant pet because he kills the inhabitants, or, conversely, to praise, entertain subjects with magical spells or impose curses. The ward of the tiger, a monkey or cow could be raised by a smart assistant and cunning magician or stupid mediocre loan.
[[Bullet]] Cover, probably the most famous games of Bullfrog, are still causing bouts of nostalgia for those times when the Hollywood calculation has not yet reigned in games.
The press awarded the game 90 percent ratings. Some critics, however, changed their minds over time. For example, in 2003, Gamespy called Black & White, the most overvalued game of all time due to weak mechanisms of interaction with citizens and the unfinished concept of grown animals.
Judging by the further schedule of Lionhead games, even Peter Molinjo himself counted Black & White, the ideal simulator of God could not figure out how to improve it. First released Black & White 2, then Black & White 2: Battle of the Gods. These games did not become a revelation. At that time, three studios worked at once under the Lionhead's Sample, and only one of them was engaged in “divine” things. The rest of the units worked on other projects, including RPG Fable.
[Bullet]] Playing Syndicate will now be very problematic – mainly due to extremely outdated graphics. The first Fallout compared to it seems to be Crysis 2 in DirectX 11 mode.
Fable concept for a long time found the support of publishers, until one day in touch with Lionhead did not come out Microsoft. At that moment, the company developed its game unit and wanted to get something outstanding for Xbox. Publishers liked the idea according to which the appearance of the Fable character changed depending on the actions of the player. It took about four years of hard work of seventy people to create a new RPG, and in the end it became a bright and sunny hit for Xbox, and later pleased the owners of the PC.
Another significant, but not too popular studio project has become an economic strategy The Movies – tribute to Theme Hospital and Hollywood Mogul. The game proposed to build a Hollywood film studio with actors, operators, directors, cleaners and appropriate rooms. The game collected excellent reviews, but was quickly forgotten.
The title of flagship project and the only business card Lionhead gradually passed to Fable. Microsoft did not want to stop there and ordered two full -fledged continuation of RPG at once. In 2006, the giant bought the developer with all the giblets, so it was impossible to refuse. The company has preserved relative independence from manufacturers of the main operating system. Around the same time, the empire Bill Gates bought Bungie Studios And Rare.
In 2005, Microsoft introduced Xbox 360 And I insisted on Fable 2 became an exclusive for this console. Around the same time, work on Project Natal – The prototype Kinect. Lionhead studio played an important role in developing a device. Microsoft ordered Molinee a demonstration game called Project Milo.
The revolutionary project was supposed to become the visiting card of Project Natal, to make a player with the virtual boy Milo and his dog. Interacting with computer characters, talking and sharing the innermost with them could be at a completely new level. The hero made you compliments, talked to it realistic that sometimes just goosebumps ran through the skin. In demo, the player was supposed to help Milo build a tree house. Unfortunately, it seemed to bosses from Microsoft that the Project Milo could not exist as an independent project. As a result, it was simply closed. In his further comments, Peter Molinjo said that the gaming industry is not yet ready for the emergence of such complex products. Although Milo never reached the shelves, many developments created during the design of this entertainment were moved and used in Fable: The Journey , The debut of which should take place this year.
[[Bullet]] second part of Black & White introduced a much more progressive graphics compared to the original game, but could not surprise.
For the special achievements of Peter, Molinjo was appointed art director Microsoft Game Studios Europe , But the new position did not bring him special joy. Lionhead introduced Fable 3 In 2010, and began to develop the following episode, but for the creator of the company it is time to move on. March 7, 2012 Peter wrote on Twitter ( Twitter.com/pmolyneux ), announcing the departure from Microsoft and Lionhead. The next destination is studio 22 cans.
Peter Molinjo was far from the only one who left Lionhead. Last year, the brothers Simon and Dean Carters left the team occupied by Fable. The reasons for their dismissal are unknown, but now they work in their own studio Another World and create downloaded games.
The long -standing key employee of Lionhead Mark Webel is going to replace Peter Moliney in Lionhead. Earlier, news resources have read this role to a new high -ranking Microsoft employee – a native of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Phil Harrison. However, according to the official version of the software giant, Mr. Harrison will deal with completely different things and will not deal with the production of games.
A cat in a bag
About the newly made studio is not yet known for absolutely nothing. It can be assumed that in the new team a game designer will cultivate the same atmosphere of creativity that was present in Bullfrog and Lionhead at the very beginning of their creative path.
Press Secretary Peter Molino refuses to give comments and says that future projects are still secret. It is only known that the company is happy to hire talented people. Together with Molinjo at 22 cans, Lionhead co -founder Tim Rans will work.
The press stubbornly calls 22 cans an independent studio. Some sources add that we are talking not so much about independence from large companies as about future games. It is possible that 22 cans will develop entertainment for the next generation platforms, as well as for tablet computers and smartphones running iOS and Android. In many interviews, Peter Molinjo spoke about his love for a mobile format and that he himself plays with pleasure in new mobile products.
On the other hand, design for mobile gadgets is too simple and unlikely to get out of the situation. For Peter Molino, this is shallow.
Today, Peter Molinjo is already in fifty, he has long turned gray, hidden and wiser, but does not think to slow down. Having exchanged half his life, the famous designer does not even remember a middle -aged crisis. He works a lot, is not afraid to get involved in adventures and experiments, plays with pleasure on prefixes and continues to make cozy and interesting games.
Lying disease
During his presentations, Peter Molinjo has not announced the interesting functionality of future games, however, in the final versions of the projects of the promised amenities were not found. As a result, the developer had to apologize repeatedly to the public. He promised not to repeat his mistakes in the future, but then he performed them repeatedly.
The first symptoms of "illness" appeared approximately the same when Molinjo left Bullfrog and created Lionhead. During the development of Black & White Peter promised dynamic weather effects. The essence of the idea was extremely simple: during the launch, the game would be contacted with weather servers, watched the weather in the player region, and then it would turn on the rain if it was cloudy outside your window. In a further interview, Molinjo said that he refused this function simply because he realized her worthlessness (they say, no one would want to rain both in the game and the window).
A real stream of promises began during the first stories about the game world Fable. The main thing that all fans have found fault after the release of the project is the absence of the promised opportunity to have children. It is difficult to say why people needed such functionality so, but the fact remains: the promise was fulfilled only in Fable 2. Another unfulfilled dream of games lovers: in Fable they wanted to allow poisoning water in the river about one of the villages or lock people in the house and set fire to it. All this would come in at the further stages of passage and left its mark in the fate of the character. It did not come true. About small “pranks” like “write your name on a tree and return to it after 10 game years to see the remnants of your graffiti” I don’t even want to remember.
After the second part of Fable, Molinjo openly apologized in all interviews, promised later to announce only already working functions, but still fell victim to his own words during the presentations of Fable 3. The game was supposed to be the first project with this integration of Kinect capabilities and propose detailed micro -study of its own state. As a result, Kinect had to be abandoned, and the means of the micro -study of his world in the end turned out to be the most basic.
At the moment, the Lionhead team is working on the fourth part of Fable – Fable: The Journey. Despite the fact that Moligne has already left Microsoft, he continues to look after the development of the game. And, it seems, the master finally learned to keep his mouth shut: during the demonstration of the project, the developer not only talked about magical functionality, but also showed him.