Before it was closed, Lionhead Studios was secretly developing a free-to-play, Fable-branded digital card game called Fable Fortune. Now, Flaming Fowl Studios—an independent developer co-founded by Lionhead veterans Craig Oman, Mike West, and Marcus Lynn—are taking the game to Kickstarter to crowdfund the project, with Microsoft’s permission to use the Fable license.
The Kickstarter campaign will launch tomorrow, May 31, at 7 a.m. PT / 10 a.m. ET. Flaming Fowl is hoping to raise £250,000 to fund the game, with multiple stretch goals planned. A closed beta is planned within a few weeks of the end of the campaign, an open beta on PC and Xbox One in October, and a full release in 2017.
Fable Fortune sees players choose from eight planned deck-altering heroes and aim to reduce their opponents’ health to zero using a variety of spell types. It offers a 3D art style, full online co-op mode against AI “bosses” using themed decks, a leveling system for regularly used cards, and Trophy Cards, which are extra units or spells offered to the player who plays second. There are also mid-match “quests” like casting certain types of card, and spending enough mana will allow you to make a good or evil choice, transforming your hero, their powers, and morphing certain cards into new forms.
“We’re looking to build this game with the fans,” West told IGN, “and then potentially morph and change things about the game over time. This is our starting position – we need to find out what people want from a CCG, and we’re ready to talk to them.”
Fable Fortune was in development for 18 months before Lionhead Studios’ closure, but it was originally pitched by West eight years ago to be part of Fable 2. It began development in 2014 in partnership with London developer Mediatonic.
“I think this is something that Fable fans are going to enjoy,” Oman told IGN. “We’re definitely very keen to keep giving them new and interesting things. We have the ability to add new creatures and characters to this game and the world of Albion. I think we can certainly give them that Fable fix that they’ll be looking for.”
Watch a full Fable Fortune match below.
Visit Flaming Fowl Studios’ official website here.