Also, there are some sheep

Image credit: Playground Games

A bunch of alleged concept art for the Fable reboot has reportedly been unearthed via a developer’s portfolio, ahead of the RPG’s appearance at this week’s Xbox showcase. As of writing, there’s no indication as to what stage of developement the apparent game art could be from. However, if it’s genuine, it does seem to point towards a location from Fable 2 making a return in the reboot.

The alleged art’s been shared by MP1ST, who claim to have pulled it from the portfolio of an unnamed developer who worked on the game at some juncture between right now and the beginning of time.

Taking a look through the gallery of 29 images, a few of which aren’t in colour, a good number appear to reference or depict Bloodstone. Fable 2 frolickers will remember a coastal town of that name being a pirate haven you visit on your quest to recruit Reaver, a tophatted rogue whose help you need to do big spoilery things. Well, if one of these images appearing to show the layout of its market district is to be believed, Bloodstone may now be home to a "pub island".

One of the images which appears to show Fable’s protagonist looking out over a rocky vista also includes a sign with Bloodstone’s name scrawled on it. Though, said sign appears to indicate you can get to Bloodstone both by heading in a certain direction or its complete opposite direction, which has raised my eyebrow slightly. Beyond these, MP1ST claim some of the images show a swampy village filenames suggest to be called The Hamlet, with multiple interprations of its nature-encusted homesteads appearing to show them before and after being abandoned.

There’s also a sequence of sewer exploration, some more of the sort of whimsical fantasy architecture you might expect from Fable, and no less than two shots prominently featuring sheep. All in all, I’d say none of it looks hugely out of line with the pre-alpha gameplay Playground showed off when they announced the game’s delay to 2026 last year - not that this counts for anything in terms of proving the art’s real.

For now, all we can do is wait for that Developer Direct Fable’s set to rock up at on Thursday, January 22nd. There, Xbox have promised, will be Fable things you don’t have to gulp down with a tablespoon of salt. Well, unless you really can’t stand Richard Ayoade.