The Bard's Tale IV - Now on Kickstarter

Myrthos

Myrthos

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The Kickstarter for The Bard's Tale IV has started. A little of a half hour into the race and almost 10% of the amount asked has been covered already.

The Bard's Tale IV Launches on Kickstarter
inXile Entertainment and RPG Fans Go for Three-Peat on Kickstarter - Previously Funded Projects Include Game of the Year Winning Wasteland 2 and Upcoming Torment: Tides of Numenera

Newport Beach, CA - June 2, 2015 - 30 years ago, The Bard's Tale put Interplay on the map and launched Brian Fargo's long and storied career of crafting some of the most beloved cRPGs in gaming's history. Today, inXile entertainment needs your help to return to Skara Brae for the long-awaited dungeon-crawling sequel to the genre-defining Bard's Tale trilogy, and has launched a new Kickstarter campaign looking to raise $1.25 million to make The Bard's Tale IV happen, with plans to invest at least another $1.25 million from their own funds on top.

The Bard's Tale IV will feature labyrinths and dungeons chock-full of dangerous traps, puzzles, and challenges, as well as the winding streets of the city of Skara Brae and its outlying environments. Exploration will take place in the first-person dungeon crawler style of the original trilogy. With full rights to everything from the original games, the story of The Bard's Tale IV will center on a new Skara Brae built upon the ruins of the old, returning familiar gameplay concepts such as No-Magic Zones and Magic Mouths.

Utilizing the Unreal 4 engine, The Bard's Tale IV will also represent a graphical leap forward in the genre, immersing you in a highly detailed and lush world you'll want to map to its farthest reaches. The Bard's Tale IV enriches the setting from the original trilogy with Scottish culture, including a soundtrack inspired by Gaelic music.

inXile plans to use photogrammetry to create in-game 3D objects from photos of architecture, taken right in Scotland. With such detailed assets, The Bard's Tale IV will have intricate interactions, allowing for detailed physical puzzles in the game world, or while inspecting your own items in your inventory to find hidden compartments, latches, and more.

Of course, Skara Brae is not always a friendly place. The Bard's Tale IV will update the classic gameplay of the originals, featuring a dynamic phase based combat system. Combat will utilize the complex decision-making opportunities of traditional phase based combat, but with a constantly evolving enemy strategy and a pacing that keeps you on your toes.

Now in its 12th year of business, inXile entertainment has fully embraced the crowdfunding model, having successfully funded Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera, releasing the first of those to fan and critical acclaim. With those previous successes, inXile will co-fund this game with their fans, matching the $1.25 million goal with their own money if it is met.

"It's been an amazing last 30 years and I feel so fortunate to continue in the games business for this long.", says Brian Fargo, CEO. "And it is only because of the incredible support our fans have given us that I'm still here today working on these great role playing games. After so many years, I couldn't be more excited to revive the classic Bard's Tale."

Check out the Kickstarter now!

About The Bard's Tale IV:

The original The Bard's Tale was a surprise hit in 1985, putting Interplay on the map and launching the career of Brian Fargo. Now, 30 years later, inXile has full access to the name and contents of the original The Bard's Tale, making it possible to make a true sequel to the originals, living up to the rich dungeon crawler heritage it helped build.
Click to expand...


More information.
 
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Pledged on USD 50,0 - I'm crazy about the novellas, they are a must for me.

Never played the originals would be nice reading as it was with Wasteland 1.
 
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Pledged for early bird CE version.

They did a great job with WL2. Not the best game ever, but since FO2 one of the best of that type. And it will be even better after the goty update.

Torment seams to be heading to be the best crpg ever? who knows, but it will be epic it seems.

I didn't play first 3 games in the series, but I will continue to support the studio. They are getting better and better and I want to support them. InXile and Obsidian are worth supporting than any other rpg producer right now. (also CDPR with witcher, but I do not know what they want to do in the future as they said this is the last game in witcher universe I think)
 
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Backed !!
 
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After reading the KS page, I'm really not sure what kind of game this is supposed to be despite the mention of dungeon crawling, party making, Gaelic music and phase-based combat.

I never played the original, but I looked at the old games screenshots and I somehow doubt it's going to be remotely similar with them using Unreal 4 for this new game.
 
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Wonder wether to pledge now at a low tier or next month at a higher tier :juggle:
 
I'm going to do the $50.
 
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Hmm only 65 people on the "Guilt Absolution Tier" :)
 
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Backed at the Early Bird $20 level. If you pledge in the first 24 hours you get a free copy of WL2.
 
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It's really kinda shocking that again, they show off nothing of the game.
But I guess they really don't have to.
And I also had fun with Wasteland, in addition the quality of the physical rewards of the Wasteland 2 KS were great. So I backed this one with 95$+Shipping

I'd really like to see what the visuals and how the combat looks like.

It would also be interesting to know how long the game will be. I don't know how long you would have played on Bards tale Games before if you had automap and stuff like that. But I think most dungeoncrawlers like Eye of the Beholder or Lands of Lore were rather short games with about 20h of gametime if you knew what you were doing. Guess it was more for a Wizardry and Might and Magic.
 
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It's doubly arrogant now because they have made a good deal of money. They can't even be bothered to invest some of it in order to have a playable prototype to show people before they pledge their money? To me this is sheer arrogance. Anyone other than they or Obsidian who would behave like this would get laughed out of Kickstarter.
 
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Backed, backed, backed!

I'm in the early bird tier for now, but I am like 80% positive I'll bump up to at least $50 before the end of the campaign.

Bard's Tale games are some of my fondest early computer gaming memories! So excited for this!
 
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Sure. But can you name other developers who really can effort to present so few infos about the game these days in their initial pitch?
I guess Double Fine, Obsidian and inXile are the big three which did that with every project. They can count on people backing in their names alone.
That said at least Obsidian and inXile properly delivered, while most people are underwehelmed of what Double Fine does with the money.

That said, I really hope that the community commication is better with Bards Tale, as I just mentioned on KS.
Close to release the forums and big discussions were almost uncommented by inXile members. And something like the big combat overhaul should have been things in the initial release. Also feedback about the character system should have been incorporated. With the breaking points in attributes and missing retroactivity it was one of the worst systems in RPGs to date (still far superior to Oblivion of course).
 
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Ahhhh good thing I waited. I normally don't back KS projects since I have to have instant gratification (buy game - play game). I was about to buy when I saw that only the Witcher 1 & 2 keys would be delivered immediately (everyone & their mother has these already though) but the Wasteland 2 key will be a minimum of 38 days wait as it said delivery at the end of the project. Love the game, but I'll wait!
 
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