Today it has been announced that Fable II's lead designer, Richard Ham, has been appointed creative director of Splash Damage. Richard Ham has over 15 years experience in game development including leading on the original Playstation's title Syphon Filter. He has also spent time adapting EA's The Sims to consoles and working on Fable: The Lost Chapters as well as The Movies. In contrast to Richard Ham's past experience Splash Damage are best known for the massively multiplayer shooter Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.
Now, at first glance, this might seem a strange partnership but Splash Damage are looking to expand into the console market and Richard Ham has plenty of experience of that. Another reason Splash Damage were eager to appoint a new creative director is the recently announced partnership with Bethesda Softworks. Bethesda, who recently released Fallout 3, are working with Splash Damage on an unnamed multi-platform title.
There are, as yet, very few details on this combined project. Reason would dictate that the new title would be a shooter due to Splash Damage's recent success with Enemy Territory. I still felt this news deserved a mention on here because it combines the lead designer of one of the biggest RPGs of the last few months with the developers of the other. I'm crossing my fingers that Splash Damage are branching out and that this project will have strong RPG elements. A mix between the two would be extremely interesting and whatever the direction this project takes I'm sure it will be successful.
News from Splash Damage official website and Develop Mag
