Dene Carter

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This page contains information regarding the development of the Fable series, people and/or companies directly or indirectly involved in it.

Dene T. Carter is a British game designer, programmer, developer, writer, sound designer, graphic designer and musician. He initially started his career as a video game developer by creating his very own games by himself on the ZX Spectrum. After honing his skills as both a designer and a developer, Dene would eventually spend many of his years as an additional programmer for Bullfrog Productions and then later became a creative director for his own company called Big Blue Box Studios. He is considered a veteran of the video game industry, having worked on and developed games for over 30 years now.

After the departure of Peter Molyneux from Bullfrog Productions to setup Lionhead Studios, Dene and his brother Simon Carter (along with Ian Lovett), founded Big Blue Box Studios and began development on the game that would eventually become known as Fable. Dene and Simon's company 'Big Blue Box' was the primary developer of the original game, with its inspiration partially influenced by a ridiculously ambitious Role-playing game concept that they began back in 1985 (then simply known as 'The Game').

Dene would serve as a creative director for the franchise and was a part of the senior management team for Fable II, until part way through Fable III which is when he left Lionhead Studios to start another company with his brother, called Another Place Productions. Along with the Fable series, Dene and his brother Simon Carter are also credited as a co-creator of the Dungeon Keeper series. Dene Carter is also known for working on other games, such as Rockman, Druid and Druid II: Enlightenment, Cloud Kingdoms, Warlock: The Avenger, Populous 3, West of Dead and many others.

Dene has been a solo indie developer since 2009 as Fluttermind Ltd/LLC, where he created the games Flaboo!, The Horns, Spellrazor and the BAFTA nonimated game known as Incoboto.

Appearance[]

Dene Carter has green eyes and naturally brown hair. He has often stated that he rocked more of a "gothic appearance" when he was younger.

2004[]

Back in 2004, Dene is seen in plenty of images during Fable's development with long hair that is tied up in a ponytail, which is very similar to the hairstyle that is available in Fable and Fable: The Lost Chapters.

2017[]

In 2017 he made a public appearance at a GDC Presentation where he had shorter brown hair, a thick grey beard and a slightly curly dark grey moustache which some fans also compare to the Trader Moustache from Fable.

Personality[]

Unlike the likes of Peter Molyneux or his brother, Simon Carter, Dene Carter doesn't really appear in many of the presentations or documentaries involving Fable, with one exception being the Fable Developer Interview from 2004 (he has stated that he hates public speaking). During some public appearances, including a presentation at GDC in 2017 for the Independent Games Summit, Dene often reveals his whimsically animated personality through jokes and gestures to express his point of view, whilst also maintaining a stoic disposition.

Modelling[]

Dene Carter was once a model for a gothic catalogue called Black Rose which dealt with a lot of gothic clothing and Alchemy Metalwear.

Music[]

Dene likes to play the clarinet and even messes around with Synthesizers, to create his own music. He even has a Soundcloud account where he posts some of his creations.

Writing[]

In 2010, Dene Carter was a co-writer on a multi-award winning short film known as Sign Language.

History[]

Dene T. Carter was born on the 1st of December, 1969 in Gibraltar. He is the older brother of sibling, Simon Carter.

Smiling Assassin[]

When he was just 15 years old, Dene Carter created his very first video game called Rockman. Dene would design the game, code it (in BASIC) and produce the sound and graphics. The game was originally named 'Gonk', but the publisher suggested renaming it to the same name as another release for the C64. Dene's coding moniker at the time was "Smiling Assassin". The game would end up being published by Mastertronic Ltd in 1984 for the ZX Spectrum personal computer. According to Dene Carter, he managed to earn around $7500 in profit from two weeks of work on this game. Since Dene was both young and poor at the time, Rockman was originally designed with black and white graphics in mind, despite the fact that the ZX Spectrum was able to render graphics in colour. This is because unlike some of the people who would go onto play the game, Dene couldn't actually afford a coloured TV during its development. This lead to negative criticism on the game's colour palette of choice, which he didn't really have any control over.

Dene mentions that the first thing he learned through this experience of creating a game was that he was "An Idiot" for his sheer ignorance and optimistic views on game development. Using the time it took to make Rockman as a basis for all of this, he claimed that he could see himself making around 26 games a year, which he would later realise was not possible. He also goes onto say that it is lessons like this which improved his skills as a solo game developer.

Firebird Software Ltd[]

Dene retired the Smiling Assassin name after the creation of Rockman, and created the development studio 'Electralyte' in its place. Electralyte's output included Druid and Druid II: Enlightenment for both the ZX Spectrum and the Amiga home consoles. He helped create the gauntlet-style game known as Druid in 1986, along with two other developers known as Andrew E. Bailey. He would go onto help create Druid II: Enlightenment in 1987. (Alan Craddock, Brian Pollock and Kevin Wallace produced other variants). These games were initially published by Firebird Software Ltd. The Japanese arcade company Jalecto Ltd. also licensed the game in 1986, though nothing is known of the results of this. In May of 1989, most of Telecomsoft's assets (including Firebird Software) were sold to MicroProse, who shortly afterwards discontinued the studio.

Logotron[]

After working on the Druid series, Dene Carter would continue to work as 'Electralyte'. He would work as both the Lead Designer and a developer for a game known as Cloud Kingdoms which was published by Logotron in 1990. In 1991, he would also work as a designer and artist for another game called Warlock: The Avenger which was also published by Logotron.

Bullfrog Productions[]

At Bullfrog Productions, Dene Carter would go on to contribute to the third Populous game, but his most notable role was as a co-creator, programmer (and occasional vocal talent) for the strategy game Dungeon Keeper.

Dene would join the project in September 1995 and worked on the code for the user interface, parts of the rooms, Imp AI, and the engine for Dungeon Keeper (including the shadows for the creatures). He is responsible for some of the voice-overs for Dungeon Keeper, including the in-game Mentor that helps guide the player during a match.

Big Blue Box Studios[]

After the departure of Peter Molyneux from Bullfrog Productions to setup Lionhead Studios, Dene and his brother Simon Carter, along with Ian Lovett, founded Big Blue Box Studios in 1998 and began development on the game that would eventually become Fable. According to the Lionhead Dev Diaries, the team were struggling to think of a name for his company, created a vast list of company names and picked the one they hated least: 'Big Blue Box'. They were the founders and primary developer of the original Fable, with its inspiration partially influenced by a ridiculously ambitious Role-playing game concept that they began back in 1985 (then simply known as 'The Game'). Since the company was later merged with Lionhead Studios, the only game they were ever known to release was Fable in 2004. The Big Blue Box Studios logo cinematic was removed from the Fable: The Lost Chapters and Fable Anniversary versions of the game.

Lionhead Studios[]

While working on the game that would eventually become Fable, their company Big Blue Box Studios merged with Lionhead Studios to help produce the game. This was following an acquisition where Lionhead was bought out by Microsoft Game Studios, making Lionhead Studios a subsidiary of Microsoft and Big Blue Box became a satellite studio for Lionhead. Dene would continue his role as the Creative Director for the series up until part way through Fable III.

Another Place Productions[]

In 2011, Dene and his brother Simon Carter would leave Lionhead Studios, along with John McCormack, Guillaume Portes and Jeremie Texier to form another company called Another Place Productions. After a year of working there, Dene and Simon left to pursue other ventures.

Fluttermind[]

Dene Carter started up his own company as a solo indie developer, under the name of Fluttermind in 2009. During his time he created games such as Flaboo!, The Horns and Spellrazor. He was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Mobile/Handheld game for Incoboto.

"Dene takes great pride in doing every aspect of game-creation entirely by himself. Nobody knows why." - A quote about Dene Carter from the Fluttermind website.

Easter Eggs[]

There is a character in Fable: The Balverine Order that is named after him and Simon Carter.
There is a character in Dungeon Keeper named Sheriff Dene of Cosyton, which is named after him.
Two characters in Fable II and Fable III named Sam Spade and Max Spade are believed to be a reference to Dene and his brother Simon Carter.

Trivia[]

Dene Carter will sometimes jokingly refer to his creations (music or games) as his "babies".
In an interview with People Make Games, Peter Molyneux praised Dene Carter for his imagination and world development, when coming up with ideas for the Fable series.
Though he says his memory is foggy, Dene is one of the few developers who openly talk to fans about Fable's history and even has an "Ask Me Anything" channel for it on his Fluttermind Discord Server.
When questioned about his knowledge of the modding community, Dene Carter has mentioned that he respects the many communities that are out there which try to understand more about his games. He respects such communites as those who speedrun the games or restore cut content that was intended for those games with one example he mentioned being the "Balverine Transformation" mod.