Postmortems from Game Developer

Lionhead Studios’BLACK & WHITE

by peter molyneux

BLACK & WHITE is the game I always wanted to make. From the days of POPULOUS I had been fascinated by the idea of controlling and influencing people in an entire world. I was also interested in the concepts of good and evil as tools the player can use to rule or change the world. These themes crop up regularly in my games, but I realize now that with every game I was heading toward my ultimate goal—the god game BLACK & WHITE.

I wanted the game to be more flexible, more open, and more attractive than anything I'd ever played. I was determined that the player could do almost anything he or she wanted. Instead of leading players deeper into a world of levels and testing them with tougher and tougher ...