The Bard's Tale IV - Kickstarter Update #8

Brian Speaks on Saves and More, PayPal Pledging Open, Social Media Achievements

So in case you missed the big news: we fully funded over the weekend, and we couldn’t be happier! You guys have been awesome, helping spread the word and giving us great feedback on both the campaign and the game every step of the way. And on that note, we know you've had some additional questions on The Bard's Tale IV's design. As before, Brian is here to answer! This time, he tackles the hot topics of save games, grid-based vs. free movement, and more!

Click to expand...

PayPal Pledging Open
Now that we’re fully funded on Kickstarter, we’ve opened a page where you can pledge using PayPal. Simply select your desired reward tier from the dropdown menu, select your shipping region if applicable, and then click the reward tier image that appears. You can check our reward matrix on Tumblr for a full overview of all the reward tiers.

Social Media Achievements
Ever since we introduced them last week, you guys have been knocking it out of the park on our social media achievements. As of right now 11 achievements have already been unlocked, with number 12 tantalizingly close! And remember that you can check out the full Enclave of the Fairy Host dungeon story right here!

More information.

Direct link to the Paypal page:
https://bardstale.inxile-entertainment.com/kickstarter/paypal.htm

I'm not surprised they are backpeddling on the save game issue.

forgottenlor said:

I'm not surprised they are backpeddling on the save game issue.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm a bit disappointed by that. I at least hope they will include a "Hardcore" mode, or perhaps an "Original Bard's Tale Mode", which makes saves much harder to come by.

Hardcore modes confirmed - https://twitter.com/BrianFargo/status/610824042589753345

Now excuse me while I do my happy dance.

I really appreciate that Fargo is sensitive to the idea that those of us who grew up playing games like Bard's Tale no longer have all that contiguous free time. As much as I might like the idea of more tension through the strict control of when you can save your game, the truth is that my tween and teenage years are long behind me along with oceans of free time.

TheMadGamer said:

the truth is that my tween and teenage years are long behind me

Click to expand...

Wait… That's not recent photo of you on the avatar?!
:shocked:

I hope they take a look at Frayed Knights for inspiration on ways to get around the save scumming issue...

Unfotunately pledges have somewhat tanked in the past few days - I doubt they have any more interesting footage or special offers, so they really need to put up some more stretch goals, I reckon.

and... What was Frayed Knights answer to save scumming? .

joxer said:

Wait… That's not recent photo of you on the avatar?!
:shocked:

Click to expand...

It's a metaphor for the 'kid in me' combined with the in general entitled attitude of the everyday gamer. I gotta keep up with the times...

Roq said:

Unfotunately pledges have somewhat tanked in the past few days - I doubt they have any more interesting footage or special offers, so they really need to put up some more stretch goals, I reckon.

and… What was Frayed Knights answer to save scumming? .

Click to expand...

Basically you have a growing bonus that you lose when you save. So, you have +10 attack and you're about to face a boss, do you want to save and lose that +10? or risk it and lose your progress if you fail?

wolfing said:

Basically you have a growing bonus that you lose when you save. So, you have +10 attack and you're about to face a boss, do you want to save and lose that +10? or risk it and lose your progress if you fail?

Click to expand...

Oh - that is quite a good idea. If you can find a way to present a stick as a carrot, then people notice much less.

I'm not personally very thrilled about them experimenting with game saving. Save points are ok in some games and I get what Fargo & his team is trying accomplish here, but for me the optimal system is save anytime anywhere expect during combat.

Maybe limit saving based on game difficulty or something? Or the hard core mode.

We have had few intresting polls / discussions about this:

Combat, death and reloading?

Death systems?

Saving in roleplaying games

It's normal that pledges are not as good as the other concepts, the audience that played Bard's Tale was always quite small. Most of the ones on Kickstarter are young kids. They played Fallout and they played Torment but they have no idea what Bard's Tale is. Also many can't stand grid-based games and won't play them no matter what.

Most of the ones who played 80s computer RPGs such as Bard's Tale are not very involved or aware of things like Kickstarter.

Humanity has risen! said:

Most of the ones who played 80s computer RPGs such as Bard's Tale are not very involved or aware of things like Kickstarter.

Click to expand...

Absolute nonsense, would love to know what you based that statement on. They are the exact same people who helped make most of the initial kickstarters like WL2, PoE, Torment etc so successful. It's just there were less people playing games back in those days so naturally it is a smaller market.

Humanity has risen! said:

It's normal that pledges are not as good as the other concepts, the audience that played Bard's Tale was always quite small. Most of the ones on Kickstarter are young kids. They played Fallout and they played Torment but they have no idea what Bard's Tale is. Also many can't stand grid-based games and won't play them no matter what.

Most of the ones who played 80s computer RPGs such as Bard's Tale are not very involved or aware of things like Kickstarter.

Click to expand...

Horse poop.

My first game was Bard's tale 1....it had a very large following at the time....it released on numerous systems, why would it if it was not popular?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bard's_Tale_(1985_video_game)

The Bard's Tale was very successful, and became the first non-Wizardry computer role-playing game to challenge the Ultima series' sales, especially to Commodore 64 users who could not play Wizardry (a Commodore version did not appear until 1987, with inferior graphics to that of The Bard's Tale). They, historian Jimmy Maher wrote in 2014, "set upon The Bard’s Tale like a horde of the mad dogs who are some of the first monsters you encounter in its labyrinths".[6] Computer Gaming World in 1985 described Bard's Tale as "not to be missed!"[7] The game was reviewed in 1986 in Dragon #116 by Hartley and Pattie Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers rated the game well, concluding that "Bard’s Tale, a game of high adventure ... is one we recommend for your software library."[8] The game was revisited in Dragon #120.[9] In a subsequent column, the reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars.[10]