Bard's Tale IV - Kickstarter Funded, Raises Over $1.5mil @ TechRaptor

Congrats for InXile - we will see a new Bard's Tale in 2017! TechRaptor on the successful Kickstarter:

InXile Entertainment’s The Bard’s Tale IV Kickstarter has come to a close and has been successfully funded, ensuring that the classic RPG franchise gets it’s first official sequel in almost thirty years. Yes, there was a Bard’s Tale title originally released in 2004 on PS2 and Xbox, that had also been developed by InXile. That, however, was not an official sequel in the franchise, and presented a more humorous, light-hearted tone with more action-focused gameplay that set it apart from it’s more traditional dungeon crawling predecessors, which were explained in detail in Robert Grosso’s recent retrospective of The Bard’s Tale series.

The Bard’s Tale IV managed to rake in just above $1.5 million. While not exactly a paltry amount, this is a considerably smaller sum compared to the $3 million that Wasteland 2 brought in after factoring PayPal donations, along with the massive $4.1 million haul ($4.4 million after Paypal factored in) of Torment: Tides of Numenera, at the time the largest Kickstarter funding in history, which is scheduled for release in December of this year after significant delays. However, like with Wasteland 2, InXile has promised to match the Kickstarter initial goal funding, as well as dedicate revenue from the sales of their other games to ensure that the game has a workable and realistic budget to deliver on their promises.

Despite the smaller haul, The Bard’s Tale IV campaign did manage to pass through a few stretch goals, which will add more complex NPC and crafting systems, as well as bring a few additional designers on board to create more dungeons for the game. The Bard’s Tale IV estimates a delivery date of October 2017, giving it another 2+ years of development time to be worked on. Slacker Backer donations are still open through Paypal, and the possibility remains that they might meet additional stretch goals through that. […]

More information.

Brian Fargo on Twitter:

Thank you once again for helping us to fund Bard's Tale IV. We'll make you proud.

The stream yesterday was awesome but more for the new info about wl2dc and tton.

Hum. Thought they would raise more money.

Originally Posted by you
Hum. Thought they would raise more money.

I really think them matching the kickstarter was a bad idea, people didnt feel like they needed to raise much to see a decent Bards Tales 4 since 1.5 mil x 2 is 3 mil….

Originally Posted by you
Hum. Thought they would raise more money.

1) KS fatigue, which covers a wide array of scenarios. Collective backing isn't new or exciting anymore, at least not like a couple years ago. Also, despite some highly-publicized KS successes recently, there have been enough disappointments to keep some (myself included) from opening up the wallet unless the situation is perfect. Also, due to the sheer amount of projects we're seeing, folks may be more selective with what they support now. For instance: "If they're making all these old RPGs again, I'd rather throw my money at Baldur's Gate 3 than Bard's Tale…"

2) RPG fatigue. We are swamped with good RPGs at the moment and the train runs well into next year for many of us, with backlogged and soon-to-be-released games. PoE, Planescape, etc were Kickstarted during an RPG deadzone, which to me is why they made 4+million. When you're starving and someone offers you cake, you beg for the cake. When you're surrounded by cake and someone offers cake, you "meh".

This is just a really, really bad time to get folks excited about another RPG.

3) I don't think that many gamers, old or new, actually played a Bard's Tale game. They just weren't as mainstream as other RPGs. Going all the way back to my Commodore days, that includes me as well.

I don't think funds-matching hurt them at all. It was a good tactic, and in my opinion, one of the big reasons they were able to get as much as they did under current circumstances.

Bard's tale was as mainstream in the old days as the ultima games….

I disagree with ya all it didn't made much comperd to other ks because it's a blobber and not many care about them.

It didn't help that to this day their design is not clear enough, what is the plan to do regarding the combat camera? How many chars will be in your party? Will there be front line and back line formation? Why MCA and Colin are strechgoals and not part of the core team? And so on…

There's also the factor of 'why do we need to overfund this?'

We know that they're going to funnel the funds from the sales of their games into making this game bigger - we learnt that they'd do that when Wasteland 2 was getting near the end of its development cycle and they confirmed they'd done it there with their funds from their existing library of games (and Brian re-confirmed they'd do it again here in the twitch video for the closing of the Bard's Tale kickstarter). So, once it's funded, I'm sure a lot of people would have held off on putting more money on it, on the presumption that InXile can cover the rest of their development from the console sales of Wasteland 2 and the sales of Torment when they come out. The insta-pledge of an extra 1.25 million if it reached the initial goal even seemed to underline that they didn't really need our additional funds once the initial goal was met.

Originally Posted by Avantre
There's also the factor of 'why do we need to overfund this?'

We know that they're going to funnel the funds from the sales of their games into making this game bigger - we learnt that they'd do that when Wasteland 2 was getting near the end of its development cycle and they confirmed they'd done it there with their funds from their existing library of games (and Brian re-confirmed they'd do it again here in the twitch video for the closing of the Bard's Tale kickstarter). So, once it's funded, I'm sure a lot of people would have held off on putting more money on it, on the presumption that InXile can cover the rest of their development from the console sales of Wasteland 2 and the sales of Torment when they come out. The insta-pledge of an extra 1.25 million if it reached the initial goal even seemed to underline that they didn't really need our additional funds once the initial goal was met.

If it was a van buren MCA or si-fi isometric ks Fargo would have a pool filled up with backers cash by now

Well I wasn't about to back it because the Wasteland 2 reviews weren't all that impressive and Torment still isn't out the door. The graphics look nice on this one but I would rather wait for the reviews so I know what I'm buying.

P.S. Only about $45 per donor on this one. That's pretty low and, IMHO, way more sane.

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory
1) KS fatigue, which covers a wide array of scenarios. Collective backing isn't new or exciting anymore, at least not like a couple years ago. Also, despite some highly-publicized KS successes recently, there have been enough disappointments to keep some (myself included) from opening up the wallet unless the situation is perfect. Also, due to the sheer amount of projects we're seeing, folks may be more selective with what they support now. For instance: "If they're making all these old RPGs again, I'd rather throw my money at Baldur's Gate 3 than Bard's Tale…"

2) RPG fatigue. We are swamped with good RPGs at the moment and the train runs well into next year for many of us, with backlogged and soon-to-be-released games. PoE, Planescape, etc were Kickstarted during an RPG deadzone, which to me is why they made 4+million. When you're starving and someone offers you cake, you beg for the cake. When you're surrounded by cake and someone offers cake, you "meh".

This is just a really, really bad time to get folks excited about another RPG.

3) I don't think that many gamers, old or new, actually played a Bard's Tale game. They just weren't as mainstream as other RPGs. Going all the way back to my Commodore days, that includes me as well.

I don't think funds-matching hurt them at all. It was a good tactic, and in my opinion, one of the big reasons they were able to get as much as they did under current circumstances.

All good points. I would add that inxile showed pretty much all they had right away so it was clear they had done very little work on the game so far. If they would have had more of the game already built so they could show a bit more it would have done much better. More concept art would have helped to. It was basically here is our idea and then updates were just "Were going to bring in this guy and that, etc…"

I backed and am glad its getting made, but I didn't feel there was much meat given out after the initial pitch. Not to mention all the points given above.

Originally Posted by Zloth
Well I wasn't about to back it because the Wasteland 2 reviews weren't all that impressive and Torment still isn't out the door. The graphics look nice on this one but I would rather wait for the reviews so I know what I'm buying.

P.S. Only about $45 per donor on this one. That's pretty low and, IMHO, way more sane.

Wasteland 2 was a great RPG. Stop listening to jerkwads and make your own conclusions. With a statement like that you may have to change your avatar from a sloth to a lemming. jk

Originally Posted by Edgy
I disagree with ya all it didn't made much comperd to other ks because it's a blobber and not many care about them.

It didn't help that to this day their design is not clear enough, what is the plan to do regarding the combat camera? How many chars will be in your party? Will there be front line and back line formation? Why MCA and Colin are strechgoals and not part of the core team? And so on…

This was pretty much my concern. None of the other points raised mattered. Give me this game plus a non-blobber combat, and I'd have been all in.

I am very, very excited for this game because dungeon-crawlers have become some of my favorite games to play in the RPG genre.

I'm sure they will deliver a good game. However, I'm concerned that there is only going to be 25 hours of gameplay in the game! That is way too short. I tweeted Brian for verification on this, and I'm hoping he tells me that they have decided to make it 80+ hours. Dungeon-crawl RPGs need tons of dungeons and tons of hours to absorb yourself in their immersive worlds. 25 hours and it will be over before you even start getting deeply into it, I'm afraid.

Originally Posted by Zloth
Well I wasn't about to back it because the Wasteland 2 reviews weren't all that impressive and Torment still isn't out the door. The graphics look nice on this one but I would rather wait for the reviews so I know what I'm buying.

P.S. Only about $45 per donor on this one. That's pretty low and, IMHO, way more sane.

Man wait for the DC update and then make your decision.

Originally Posted by Edgy
If it was a van buren MCA or si-fi isometric ks Fargo would have a pool filled up with backers cash by now

Yawn.

Originally Posted by Fluent
I am very, very excited for this game because dungeon-crawlers have become some of my favorite games to play in the RPG genre.

I'm sure they will deliver a good game. However, I'm concerned that there is only going to be 25 hours of gameplay in the game! That is way too short. I tweeted Brian for verification on this, and I'm hoping he tells me that they have decided to make it 80+ hours. Dungeon-crawl RPGs need tons of dungeons and tons of hours to absorb yourself in their immersive worlds. 25 hours and it will be over before you even start getting deeply into it, I'm afraid.

I'm excited about it too. I think the 25 hours of gameplay depended on the budget. Smaller budget, shorter game.

First off, wasteland 2 was a good rpg and i'm sure torement will just as good or better. Inxile has proven themselves as a dev house that can deliver good quality ks rpgs. We also know they are backed by a solid team of devs and most of the big names like colin and chris will pitch in at the drop of a hat because they trust brian. Only reasons they didnt raise as much is because its a blobber and everyone knows they are solid probably dont need the funds as desperately as other ks projects. ks fatigue will also play a role in all rpgs that are not as popular like blobbers.

To me, supporting them also has a social message : "Look, THIS is what I want as an future RPG !"
It's also kind of an "open letter to the industry", so to say.