Peter Molyneux on God-Games [extract]

Peter Molyneux and Les Edgar founded Bullfrog Productions in 1987. Molyneux provided the original concept for Populous, the first god game for the personal computer. Released in 1989, Populous was a major success for Bullfrog and went on to sell over 4 million copies.

Electronic Arts, Bullfrog's publisher, acquired the studio in January 1995. Molyneux had become an Electronic Arts vice-president and consultant in 1994, after EA purchased a significant share of Bullfrog. Molyneux's last project at Bullfrog was Dungeon Keeper, which was released in July 1997 to high critical praise.

Molyneux left Bullfrog in August 1997 to found Lionhead Studios. (--Wikipedia)

"Peter Molyneux is one of the best-known names in the international world of computer games. In this lecture on God-games he stressed the importance of belief and peoples need to believe. As designers, particularly with regards to visualisation, the more real a representation does not necessarily mean it is more believable. This is otherwise known as the 'canny valley'. Whats more important then is 'fanning the fires of belief' and creating an unforgettable experience."

The audio is awful and the cut is really short, but he manages to say a couple of interesting things.


And here is another cut of the same lecture, a bit overlapped with the previous, but quickly advances to new parts.



Via Design London