Fable Developers Built Character Generator Manually After Failing to Create Quality Tool

Playground Games abandoned its automated character generator for the new Fable because the tool produced strange and absurd results.

During a recent interview, the game director of the new Fable discussed the studio’s workflow and revealed that the game’s characters were created by hand, despite the development team initially having a different plan.

In an interview with GamesRadar+, Fable game director Ralph Fulton explained that early in development, they built a character generator, but the resulting NPCs sometimes looked a bit strange. The generation process yielded absurd combinations of appearance, behavior, and other traits, such as a hairdresser with a bad haircut or a butcher who works as a vegan.

Playground Games ultimately decided to use a manual approach, hand-crafting roughly a thousand characters. According to the developer, NPC traits will affect how they view the main character. For example, some will be attracted to the protagonist’s wealth, while others will consider the hero a snob.

You can add Fable to your Steam wishlist via this link. The standard release is scheduled for February 23, 2027, but owners of the Premium Edition will receive digital bonuses and premium early access, allowing them to start playing five days earlier. The game will be available on PC, as well as Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 consoles.