Xbox and Playground Games’ action role-playing game, Fable, is currently in its “Flighting Test” stage of development.
According to the LinkedIn profile of Associate QA Technician at Playground Games, Simon Kent, it appears that Fable is in its “Flighting Test” stage of development.
Among the listed duties performed by Kent, it is mentioned that he performed and developed Test cases for Smoke Testing, Animation and Flighting Testing for Fable.
For the uninitiated, “Flight test” or “flighting” refers to the practice of distributing early or pre-release builds of a game to a select number of testers or players. Before the game is officially released, flighting tests are conducted primarily to gather feedback, find bugs, and enhance the overall gaming experience. This aids developers in fixing any problems, balancing gameplay, and making improvements based on actual user feedback.
Recently, it was reported that Fable has entered full production. During a recent VGC podcast, Editor in Chief Andy Robinson stated Fable is “miles away” from release. Co-host Jordan Miller added that the term “Witcher-like” was often brought up to describe the Playground Games developed title. With regards to Perfect Dark and Everwild, it was said that neither game is anywhere close to release.
It was also revealed that the game is currently in a playable state. According to the LinkedIn profile of Playground Games producer, Vijay Gill, Fable is currently in a playable state. In his profile, Gill states that he is preparing and facilitating regular game playthroughs of the game, alongside build reviews with key stakeholders. This is in line with the flighting test work mentioned in Kent’s Linkedin profile.
Gill is leading production for Fable’s cross-discipline workstream consisting of gameplay design, technical design, gameplay animation, engineering, VFX, SFX, UI, and more. He is the production owner for design teams, defining their key workflows, tracking dependencies, and constructing delivery roadmaps while collaborating closely with design and game directors.
