8 Game Designers Who Hated Their Own Creations

8. Peter Molyneux (Fable II)

Veteran game designer Peter Molyneux is a bona-fide legend of the industry, but his well-earned reputation took a sizable buffeting when he promised the planet with Fable II, only to deliver a pebble.

Whilst the sequel to one of the Xbox's most highly regarded exclusives was by no means a terrible game - in actual fact, it was a ruddy bloody good one - it didn't quite alter the industry to the seismic extent its creator's bluster had suggested. The much vaunted dog, as Molyneux later admitted, was "just a dog" after all.

The benefit of hindsight has provided Molyneux with an even greater degree of hitherto unknown humility. Whilst presenting a Fable III demo two years after its predecessor, the distinguished dev candidly stated Fable II's story was "rubbish" - and he extended this opinion to a whole slew of its other features. At the Develop conference in the same year, Molyneux repeated his sentiments, telling attendees that the sequel had "huge design flaws."

Did he learn the lesson from all his hyperbole then? Not at all, again claiming to sweep the stars with Fable III, and most recently, crowd-funded Populous follow-up Godus. Molyneux, to be fair, has since readily conceded that, “The trouble is, I’m a terrible PR person.”