Fable Heroes was announced during Microsoft's Spring Showcase last month, and according to designer Ted Timmins, could bode well for future downloadable Fable-inspired titles if it sells well. The project began as a one-day effort borne out of an internal event at Lionhead called "Creative Day," but twenty-person development team was given the green light to further develop the action-strategy-board-game hybrid into a four-player XBLA title.

In the official report by the UK version of OXM, Timmins notes that while it's not unusual for creative ideas that come out of "Creative Day" to be folded into larger games, Fable Heroes is the first time such an idea has been given its own stand-alone scope. "There has been stuff that's come out of Creative Day before, ideas that went into Fable games, but never something like a full game," he said. "Hopefully if this is a success then Lionhead will do this more often."

With soon-to-be former studio head Peter Molyneux's blessing, Timmins and his team were initially given three months to run with the idea. "We came back three months later and said 'This is what we've got,' and they said 'Great - have another five months,'" he said. "The whole of Lionhead's been really supportive, and it's not very often you get to be lead designer on a Fable game. To go from a creative day project to a 4-player XBLA game... it's been quite a turnaround."

Fable Heroes is also a co-op companion to the upcoming Kinect title, Fable: The Journey. The games will share a coin-based currency that can be used to purchase characters, upgrades, and items in either title.

"We're all massive Fable fans, everyone that works at Lionhead, we've lived and breathed it for the last 10 years. To keep expanding it is something that everyone there wants to do," Timmins said.