When Microsoft made the decision to cancel Fable Legends and shut down Lionhead Studios, fans of the series were no doubt bummed at the proposition that there wouldn't be any more content from the popular franchise. Former Lionhead staffers, however, weren't willing to go quietly into the night.

Several of the studio's key developers have banded together to create Flaming Fowl Studios, a new entity that has turned to Kickstarter to finish a project originally started at Lionhead. It's not Fable Legends (sorry) but instead, a free-to-play collectible card game (think Hearthstone) called Fable Fortune.

A group of veterans at Lionhead had been secretly working on the project for 18 months before Lionhead was shut down. The development team approached Microsoft and surprisingly enough, the Redmond-based company agreed to grant them a license which allows them to complete the game.

Flaming Fowl, led by Creative Director Mike West, says it's close to finishing the game but without a publisher, they had to turn to Kickstarter for funding.

As for the game itself, it leans heavily on familiar aspects of the Fable franchise. For example, all matches take place within an iconic Albion location and players will have to choose between using their powers for good or evil. Humor is also a big part of the game, we're told.

Like other card games, players will be tasked with building decks and using them to reduce their opponent's health to zero. Gamers can play with or against another player.

West said they're looking to build Fable Fortune with the fans and then potentially morph and change things about the game over time. As such, they're structuring the reward tiers accordingly.

The entry-level chicken tier, for example, starts at £5 (around $7) and grants bronze beta access while the silver-level tier begins at £80 (around $117). A pledge of £200 (around $292) gets you gold-level beta access. The higher your beta status, the sooner you'll be invited to play. And if you've got some serious cash burning a hole in your pocket, the jack of blades tier for £5,000 (around $7,308) lets you actually be in the game as a face of one of the cards (plus other perks).

Tiers also come with several other perks (not just beta access) including varying amounts of card packs, wallpaper packs, access to the designer forum, a PDF art book, Kickstarter exclusive cards and more.

Flaming Fowl Studios is seeking to raise $365,385 to help complete Fable Fortune. As of writing, 789 backers have already pledged $37,081 with 27 days remaining in the campaign. The game will initially be released on PC (Steam and Windows Store) and Xbox One with the potential for Android and iOS versions at a later date. There's no mention of a PlayStation 4 version, perhaps a stipulation of Microsoft's licensing agreement.

Closed beta invites should begin rolling out in August.