Originality is a vague term in pop culture today. Even remakes of existing properties can contain a degree of originality. Conversely, each new piece of media created followed the path paved by what came before it. Each artist has drawn inspiration or borrowed ideas from another artist before them. While something may seem like a completely new work, it was likely built on the ideas and work of others, and that level of inspiration definitely extends into the world of game development.
Toe Fable and devil may cry for example. They both seem like completely original games in their respective genres, and they both spawned successful franchises. Fable was an RPG on the original Xbox that seemed original in its heavy focus on player choice in gameplay and narrative. On the other side, devil may cry was an action game that mixed gunplay and sword fighting and prided itself on style. Although they may not seem to have anything in common with each other, devil may cry actually played a major role in the development of Fableproving that even the most original games still find inspiration elsewhere.
Fable owes its world to Devil May Cry
In a recent tweetthe co-creator of FableDene Carter, Explains How He ‘Ripped Off’ devil may cry to help create Fablehis world of Albion. They go on to say how the hell Fable became the size that it was: “Because I played [Devil May Cry] and noticed that the world was something like 82 zones. It didn’t seem excessive. It reused and recontextualized areas. It worked for a relatively short but high-quality game.” They counted out the zones more devil may cry and used it as a way to expand Fablehis world. By copying the scope of devil may crywas the team able to create an RPG game in a reasonably sized world.
Dene also states that he did not feel bad about copying the scope of the game. Since he only copied one aspect of the title, he wasn’t worried about any negative implications. The team did not use devil may crytheir themes, ideas or games. Thus, Fable and devil may cry are different in almost every other aspect. They keep comparing it to making a 90-minute movie after discovering that most movies are around 90 minutes long.
Fable also took inspiration from other games
devil may cry was not the only source of inspiration for Dene. He states that the team has borrowed ideas from Way of the Samurai and Silent Hill. This further proves that it’s okay to take inspiration from other works of art, and games are no exception. Another game may have solved a problem that a developer is stuck on, and Dene confirms this when he says, “Not everything in your game is going to be original. In fact, very little will be… Focus on the bits that make your game is yours, not ‘avoid using L3 to run’.”
It is important for any creator to understand that taking inspiration from another work is not the same as copying it. Fable is a good example of this. Not only did it Fable borrow from other games like those mentioned Silent Hill and devil may cry, but it used those ideas to create a game radically different from those that inspired it. This technique allows developers to borrow ideas from games they love and still create unique pieces of work.
