The Bard's Tale IV - First Song, Lore and Monte Cook

Myrthos

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In this update for The Bard's Tale IV we learn that Monte Cook will join the team at the $1.4 milion stretch goal.

Monte will be taking charge of the design for one of our dungeons with your support. We look forward to working with him to deliver some mind-bending designs!
Furthermore there is this song from Mark Morgan.



And there is some information on the lore.

In a hundred and fifty years even the bravest deeds become nothing more than bard's tales. Most people today in Skara Brae don’t believe Mangar, Lagoth Zanta, Tarjan, or the brave adventurers who defeated them and their horrors were ever more than legends - and those that do still believe keep silent.

Ever since the Church of the Sword Father civilized the land of Caith and chased out the heathen a hundred years ago, the new Skara Brae, built on top of its ruined predecessor, has become a god-fearing town, where it is dangerous to admit to harboring such superstitious notions or knowing anything of the old ways.

Which is unfortunate, because it's starting to look like the trolls and bloodfiends and hobgoblins from all those fairy stories have returned. Terrible things have been happening in Skara Brae - people slaughtered in their beds by unseen beasts, holy sites desecrated, folk disappearing between field and home, statues of the Mad God found in bloodstained back alleys, and the Song of the Maiden heard again for the first time in a generation. And worse, the people most equipped to deal with these old threats have been made outlaws.
More information.
 
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Shame that the Kickstarter is down to a slow crawl.
 
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Nice pick up Asdraguuhl, but it's nothing unusual for Bard's Tale and indeed for video game music back in those days which often "borrowed" from classical music.

Here's the run down on tunes used for the C64 version of the first game alone:
(#2)
TITLE: Hungarian Dance No. 5
ARTIST: Johannes Brahms
(#3)
TITLE: Danse macabre (0:00)
ARTIST: Camille Saint-Saëns
TITLE: Hungarian Dance No. 5 (0:20)
ARTIST: Johannes Brahms
(#4)
TITLE: Hungarian Dance No. 5 (0:17)
ARTIST: Johannes Brahms
(#5)
TITLE: Polovstian Dances No. 1 (Introduction) [from Prince Igor] (0:00)
ARTIST: Alexander Borodin
TITLE: Hungarian Dance No. 5 (0:31)
ARTIST: Johannes Brahms
(#6)
TITLE: Slavonic Dance Number 7 [from Slovanské Tance, Op.46] (0:00)
ARTIST: Antonín Dvorák
TITLE: Hungarian Dance No. 5 (0:27)
ARTIST: Johannes Brahms
(#7)
TITLE: Overture from the Barber of Seville (0:00)
ARTIST: Gioacchino Antonio Rossini
TITLE: Hungarian Dance No. 5 (0:34)
ARTIST: Johannes Brahms

Nice to hear Mark Morgan and Monte Cook joining the team. Mark's little tribute to the original theme was most welcome indeed.
 
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Shame that the Kickstarter is down to a slow crawl.

Yes, less than $4K added yesterday, which is really pathetic.
Here's my advice to Brian Fargo:

  • Don't flaunt your wealth with your hand out.
    It must be nice to be so rich that you let your teenager drive your new Ferrari.
  • You should've led with your in-engine video; Few visitors will see past the first.
  • Schedule your next Kickstarter earlier in the year. E3 draws too much attention away from you game, as well as the cash gamers are using to preorder those games.
  • $215 for your signature is insane… That is more than Yu Suzuki (Shenmue 3), William Shatner and Patrick Stewart combined. On the bright side, you don't have to worry about writer's cramp since only 13 backers have opted for that $400 signed CE.
  • Offer your Ferrari as a prize to one lucky winner who pledges $50+. Each successive tier level gets backers one extra entry. The publicity alone should be worth $200K.
 
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Yes, less than $4K added yesterday, which is really pathetic.
Here's my advice to Brian Fargo:

  • Don't flaunt your wealth with your hand out.
    It must be nice to be so rich that you let your teenager drive your new Ferrari.
  • You should've led with your in-engine video; Few visitors will see past the first.
  • Schedule your next Kickstarter earlier in the year. E3 draws too much attention away from you game, as well as the cash gamers are using to preorder those games.
  • $215 for your signature is insane… That is more than Yu Suzuki (Shenmue 3), William Shatner and Patrick Stewart combined. On the bright side, you don't have to worry about writer's cramp since only 13 backers have opted for that $400 signed CE.
  • Offer your Ferrari as a prize to one lucky winner who pledges $50+. Each successive tier level gets backers one extra entry. The publicity alone should be worth $200K.

Mostly good ideas. The point that they do need better tiers I think is the most salient since they should be able to actually adress that at this point. I expect the Ferrari raffle suggestion was a joke, but just in case I should point out that this would be illegal under the laws of several US states (because of the type of entity holding the raffle and the purposes for which money is being raised) and is also prohibited on kickstarter.

https://www.kickstarter.com/rules/prohibited
 
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Yes, less than $4K added yesterday, which is really pathetic.
Here's my advice to Brian Fargo:

  • Don't flaunt your wealth with your hand out.
    It must be nice to be so rich that you let your teenager drive your new Ferrari.
  • Offer your Ferrari as a prize to one lucky winner who pledges $50+. Each successive tier level gets backers one extra entry. The publicity alone should be worth $200K.

This has come up before and that's not Fargo's kid or Ferrari.

That's the same kid from the last two kickstarters, he's nobody's kid, he's a paid actor. Several people asked about that after their other pitch videos. The Ferrari was probably rented for the afternoon, google it, there's several exotic rental companies blocks from their office.

That same video that he "flaunts his wealth" in with his rented Ferrari shows the shit hole office they work out of. Yeah, they sure looked like they were living the good life....Ha!

I will agree their timing could have been a lot better. I can't think of a worse time to be running a kickstarter than over E3. Even before E3 started they had the wind taken out of their sails from the pre-E3 videos.
 
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This has come up before and that's not Fargo's kid or Ferrari.

Does it really matter? Everyone assumed it was his kid and Ferrari.

I expect the Ferrari raffle suggestion was a joke… prohibited on kickstarter.

Yeah, I was half joking about that one… I suspected contests were prohibited.
 
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Nice pick up Asdraguuhl, but it's nothing unusual for Bard's Tale and indeed for video game music back in those days which often "borrowed" from classical music.

Here's the run down on tunes used for the C64 version of the first game alone:
(#2)
TITLE: Hungarian Dance No. 5
ARTIST: Johannes Brahms
(#3)
TITLE: Danse macabre (0:00)
ARTIST: Camille Saint-Saëns
TITLE: Hungarian Dance No. 5 (0:20)
ARTIST: Johannes Brahms
(#4)
TITLE: Hungarian Dance No. 5 (0:17)
ARTIST: Johannes Brahms
(#5)
TITLE: Polovstian Dances No. 1 (Introduction) [from Prince Igor] (0:00)
ARTIST: Alexander Borodin
TITLE: Hungarian Dance No. 5 (0:31)
ARTIST: Johannes Brahms
(#6)
TITLE: Slavonic Dance Number 7 [from Slovanské Tance, Op.46] (0:00)
ARTIST: Antonín Dvorák
TITLE: Hungarian Dance No. 5 (0:27)
ARTIST: Johannes Brahms
(#7)
TITLE: Overture from the Barber of Seville (0:00)
ARTIST: Gioacchino Antonio Rossini
TITLE: Hungarian Dance No. 5 (0:34)
ARTIST: Johannes Brahms

Nice to hear Mark Morgan and Monte Cook joining the team. Mark's little tribute to the original theme was most welcome indeed.
I find that a rather odd selection as I don't find these pieces to be well suited as a score for a video game. Then again, I guess that any tune would suffice in the old days considering the limited means to reproduce sounds :).

Anyway, it is indeed good to see Morgan again.
 
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That a kickstarter slows down in the middle is nothing unusual. At least they've already funded. They're certainly a lot better off than Underworld was. They'll also get a spurt at the end. I'm betting they end between 2 and 2.5 million.
 
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.
 
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As I said it's mostly young adults who are on Kickstarter, who had heard of Fallout and Torment, but who never heard of the Bard's Tale. The audience for a dungeon crawler based on a 30 years old game is very small in comparison.

Also I don't like they made a kid swear in the original video.
 
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We've got more cool stuff coming… we don't want to play all our cards at once. ;)

Yeah, it's probably a good idea to hold some stuff back and let the E3 mania calm down before beginning the final push. We all want this project to succeed beyond expectations.

I might suggest some physical add-ons such as a T-Shirt for $25-30, a custom mouse pad for $20, a signed piece of production art for $50, or better yet… the ultimate add-on for any Bard's Tale fan… a Pan-Flute! Here's one I found for $55… Just slap "The Bard's Tale IV" on it and offer it as a $200 add-on. Seriously, I'd buy one!

Pocket-Pipes pan-flute
Pan-Pipes Video
 
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Shame that the Kickstarter is down to a slow crawl.
It's sad, but I think it is the wrong IP. The Bard is some software from the past we've never waited for. Wasteland 2 at least was a game to attract fans of the original Fallout, a game from the 90s. But there really is no shortage of Dungeon Crawler experiences (Legend of Grimrock, Might & Magic X) and this Kickstarter is mostly based on nostalgia of the IP. But how do you get the attention of today's gamers for a game that came out long time before they were born? Descent had the same problem. And of course there was Sony and Shenmue 3. That's really drawing attention of the Kickstarter crowd.

On the other hand, it might be no overwhelming success, but it still is a success. How many Kickstarter games achieve 1.25 million dollar? It's only dissappointing if compared to Torment.

Does it really matter? Everyone assumed it was his kid and Ferrari.
Nope. I don't think that anyone, who doesn't know he is related to the Wells Fargo family, would ever seriously think so. Renting a sports car or oldtimer for special occasions (e.g. weddings) is quite common, even (or especially?) in Good Old Europe.
 
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Does anyone care about the Monte Cook thing? I don't. There is almost nothing that would make me up my bid, but this doesn't come close.
 
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