'Fable' unexpectedly returns as a virtual card game
Lionhead Studios is gone, but that hasn't stopped a group of ex-Fable developers from finishing work on one of their former team's last projects: Fable Fortune.
It's a virtual card game in the spirit of games like Hearthstone or Magic: The Gathering. Lionhead was working on Fable Fortune during the 18 months before it closed, and the game is now in the hands of Flaming Fowl Studios, founded by a group of Fable veterans.
The game's announcement, via IGN, comes with news of a just-launched Kickstarter campaign, with a £250,000 target (approximately $365,000). Flaming Fowl plans to use the money generated to complete the game as a fully indie studio.
You May Also Like
Fable Fortune isn't expected to be completed until early 2017, though a closed beta test is expected to open for backers in August 2016. It might be helpful to view the Kickstarter as an elaborate pre-order program, given that the game is almost complete.
Fable Fortune compares most directly to Hearthstone. They're fundamentally card games, but both let players choose a "hero" character that adds strategy-defining abilities to whatever's printed on the cards in your custom-built deck.
That's not to say Flaming Fowl is making a direct copy. Fable Fortune tweaks the Hearthstone formula with planned features like cooperative modes against AI-controlled bosses and a level progression system for regularly used cards.
The biggest challenge Flaming Fowl faces is an increasingly crowded market for virtual card games. Fable Fortune arrives in a post-Hearthstone world, after competitors based on Elder Scrolls and Skylanders (among others) have surfaced.
You can learn more about Fable Fortune -- including specifics about how it plays -- on the Kickstarter page right here.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
Topics Gaming
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
