The Bard's Tale IV is the true follow-up to the classic RPG series. The Bard's Tale IV was funded by over 33,000 fans on Kickstarter. Support the game today!
The Bard’s Tale IV Update 30: Character Progression
Howdy citizens of Caith. David here, back to share some juicy details about The Bard's Tale IV. Taking a short break from combat mechanics, during this update we'll be covering a subject that I'm sure is very near and dear to all RPG lovers' hearts - character progression. Specifically, we'll be talking about character advancement: gaining experience, specializing your adventurer, being judged by the Review Board, and lastly the role equipment plays in your character's growth. The details we go over are all subject to change as we continue to playtest and tune the game, but should provide a good sense of the overall direction of The Bard's Tale IV's character progression system.
Experience is a concept that RPG fans should be very accustomed to. Besting foes, solving ancient riddles, and rediscovering forgotten parts of the old world all grant experience, which naturally leads to leveling up. In The Bard's Tale IV, our goal with character advancement is to find a balanced system that always provides a meaningful amount of growth at even its smallest increments, while also being fun to use. For us, this centers around our skill tree.
The original Bard's Tale trilogy had a character progression system closely tied to your starting class, plus the fascinating idea of evolving into different types as you reached higher levels. A budding Conjurer could progress down that track, or change professions and learn to be a Magician, Wizard, Sorcerer, and ultimately an Archmage. We are retaining this strong class-based focus in The Bard's Tale IV. We’re also opening up this more in-depth character progression to all the classes, allowing each class to specialize into their own set of sub-classes. By merging the sub-class concept into a tree structure, we are better able to give each adventurer meaningful and impactful choices each time you level up.
Each class has access to its own unique skill tree. From here, your adventurer is able to learn how to wield new gear, gain attribute points, learn new abilities, and gain passive effects. Basically, your character can be fully described through their skill tree. At a glance, you can tell a Sorcerer from a Wizard, a Thief from an Assassin, and a Vanguard from a Commander, all just by looking at their skill tree. Each time one of your Adventurers levels up, they are granted a single point to spend on their skill tree, with each skill costing exactly one point.
While skill trees can have a lot of options, their complexity grows along with the adventurer. The very first view you might have of your skill tree as a Fighter might look a little something like this, showing only a smaller number of skills to unlock:
The image above is a mockup using placeholder art, but should give you a sense of what this might look like in the game.
In the above image we see the player has a few choices to pick from for their fledgling Fighter: learning to wield more advanced one handed weapons, learning to wield great weapons, gaining access to battle standards, wearing more protective armor, gaining bundles of attribute points, learning a new passive, or learning to craft basic potions. You'll notice that many of those choices also carry along with them some increased attributes as an added bonus.
For those of you thinking that's all there is, don't worry. You'll be able to view your entire skill tree from the get go. For simplicity's sake we set the default view to show you only what you have available at a given level, and what's just beyond the horizon. However, you can always zoom out to see the full number of options available to your adventurers as they grow into heroes of legend.
As you unlock new skills, you'll begin to also unlock the next tier of options in your skill tree. That's displayed by the counter under each tier header, with each tier requiring a total number of skill points spent character-wide. The adventurer above, for example, has so far unlocked seven out of nine skills needed to progress to Tier 3. These tiers play a role in a character's growth in a few ways, some more obvious than others. First, it helps create big milestones in the career of your adventurer. Just as you've advanced your progression towards one or more sub-classes and your options have begun to taper down, you unlock a new tier and your available options explode out again. It also provides incentive to each adventurer to acquire skills they might not have otherwise, encouraging exploration within your build. Lastly, it allows us as designers to deliver a more balanced experience because we can better ensure that at least some minimum number of points were spent towards defensive and offensive skills in one form or another during the early stages of the game. What kind of armor and fighting style you adopt and eventually specialize in later on is entirely up to you.
Once a character has spent the needed number of skill points to reach the next tier within their skill tree, it's time to visit the Review Board. For those of you who are new to The Bard's Tale series, the Review Board is a returning oldie but goodie – it is a milestone in your journey as an adventurer. We ask you to perform a pilgrimage of sorts back to Skara Brae to come before the Review Board and be deemed worthy (or not) of their blessing. If found worthy, the next tier in your skill tree unlocks, and along with it a whole world of new possibilities.
In older Bard's Tale games you visited the Review Board each time you wanted to level up. Since we'll be traveling far beyond the borders of Skara Brae, into distant lands and realms far from home, we wanted to keep the game moving forward by requiring you to return to the Review Board less frequently while still staying true to this staple of the series. We also know that when you level up, you generally want to spend your new skill points immediately rather than having to wait till you leave a dungeon to see the Review Board.
As you progress through an adventurer's skill tree you'll encounter an increasing amount of choice, some of which comes in the form of mutually exclusive branching. This is when a pre-requisite line branches and selecting one branch causes the other branch to lock, like so:
Here we see that this Fighter is seeking to continue their training in armored combat. They could continue their training in Medium Armor, or she could choose to begin training in Heavy Armor. Medium Armor tends to provide a well balanced mix of offensive and defensive attributes, while also granting special passive abilities that make you a more flexible and supportive fighter. Heavy Armor, on the other hand, tends to be more defensive than offensive and can provide unique buffs to how you move around the battlefield, even allowing you to push allies and enemies around with your sheer bulk.
Once that choice is made, the remaining branch is locked off and cannot be selected, and as you continue to invest points that will naturally lead you in directions that play towards certain sub-class archetypes. This will encourage you to make your character choices wisely and specialize your roles throughout your entire party, and will mean that even if you have multiple characters of the same class, they will still end up feeling significantly different.
Reaching the end of one of these prerequisite skill tree paths is the goal for many an adventurer. Much like how Conjurers can specialize to become Wizards, Magicians, Sorcerers, and ultimately Archmages in the classic Bard's Tale games, our other classes are also able to specialize and attain titles of their own to evolve their capabilities. The Fighter, for instance, is able to become a Vanguard, Veteran, Commander, Champion, or Defender – each carrying with them their own game-changing abilities, gear, and passives.
We'll have a number of sub-classes for each main character class available on the skill tree. Here's some directions a basic Fighter might be able to evolve.
That said, an adventurer can still be a master of many aspects of their chosen profession. While it's impossible to gain every title and master every skill line, a true adventurer of legend may eventually master two or three. This is one of the many important ways we ensure that even max level characters of the same class feel very different from one another. A fully unlocked skill tree looks like this:
For those of you looking closely at the skill tree descriptions, which I'm confident many of you are, you might be wondering where you get your combat abilities from. Many of them, in fact, do not feature in the skill tree directly – instead, the place you acquire abilities is actually from your equipment. As you progress down the skill tree you unlock the ability to wield new and more exotic weapons, off-hand items, and trinkets. You may unlock access to a single item, such as a battle standard, or an entire category of items, such as Tier 2 great weapons. These items each have a specific ability or abilities. By wielding a great club you'd be able to use Lumbering Strike during battle, while wielding a battle standard would allow you to rally your allies with the ability "To Me, Brothers." As a certain weapon is used, an adventurer will eventually master its abilities, allowing them to keep using those abilities even without needing the weapon equipped. This will let you naturally unlock a vast amount of tactical flexibility over the course of the game.
And lastly, equipment such as your helm, armor, and boots also play a major role in your character's growth and progression. Through the skill tree you're also able gain access to increasingly powerful and exotic armor, robes, costumes, garbs, habits, and accoutrement. Your gear accounts for a major chunk of your adventurer's attributes. How many blows your character can withstand, how able he or she is to focus the eldritch forces, and their mental fortitude is heavily influenced by what mystic equipment they've found and learned to use throughout their journeys. These items can also grant you unique passive abilities that can help you form powerful combos. Itemization is an important aspect of The Bard's Tale IV and we've only given you a cursory glance, so we'll be touching on it more later.
By the good graces of the Review Board, wise choices made in your skill tree, and only the most potent of enchanted war gear, your adventurer can become a one of a kind hero whose deeds will be chronicled through song for an age.
RPGWatch Interview, Necropolis
Since we last spoke, I had an interview at RPGWatch, covering a variety of topics from systems design to dungeon design. Give it a read if you want to know more about the game!
We also wanted to take a moment for our friends at Harebrained Schemes, who you might remember successfully Kickstarted their Shadowrun series of games. Now, they have just released their newest title, Necropolis. This co-op roguelike combines Souls-like combat, dungeon exploration and RPG elements. Is it any surprise we had to struggle to pull ourselves away when we got the chance to check it out? If that sounds interesting to you, you can check Necropolis out on Steam or GOG.
I hope you enjoyed this look into the character progression system of The Bard's Tale IV. As always, I'll be eager to read your comments. Your feedback is so valuable to us, as is your support. We couldn't, and wouldn't, do any of this without you. Cheers, and until next time!
David Rogers
Lead Systems Designer
inXile Entertainment
Hello Citizens of Caith. My name is David Rogers, and I'm the Systems Designer on The Bard's Tale IV. I know I don't have to tell any of you that combat is a core pillar of The Bard's Tale. It's where all of our choices about race, class, gear, and party composition combine with our own sense of strategy, leading to either glorious victory or humiliating defeat. Combat design is what I've been primarily focused on, and what I'm here to chat with you about. Before we dive into the real meaty bits, I need to give the obligatory disclaimer that what you're about to see is all a work in progress, and changes may occur between now and the final release of the game.
Combat Basics
One of the great things about designing for a dungeon crawler is your ability to quickly build the game on paper before you build it out digitally. We've put a big emphasis on proving out our designs by playing them out on the tabletop. Similar to playing a game of D&D, we're able to play out the bard's tale on the tabletop and make sure what we're doing is fun, strategic, and ticks all the boxes we're looking for in The Bard's Tale IV. We started from a foundation of classic blobber combat, distilling down the parts that truly compel us. But we also make note of missed opportunities for rich strategic decision-making, and brainstorm how to capitalize on them.
One area we really want to improve on is the kind of decisions the player has to make during combat. It was a common trend in older blobbers that most of your decisions were made out of combat and once you entered combat you did the same actions over and over again. That old chestnut of "attack, attack, attack, defend, defend, fireball" is something we want to disrupt. Gaming has come a long way since the heyday of old school dungeon crawlers and we're dead set on bringing the genre back into the spotlight.
We discussed our 4x4 battlefield grid in a previous Kickstarter update. Accentuating the role that the battlefield plays in combat is one element we're focusing on. To briefly recap, during combat our battlefield is a 4x4 grid where the players' party occupies one half of the grid and the enemies' party occupies the other half. Because we want to show your enemies (and the bloody pulp you beat them into) in all of their glory, their half of the grid exists in 3D space. Your party, in classic blobber fashion, lives on your HUD. It looks a little something like this:
This is what our board looks like while we're playtesting our paper prototype. After our art director gave it a little love it started to look a little something like this:
This is an example mockup, not an in-game screenshot, but should ive a sense for our intended combat presentation.
There's a lot to talk about, so let's start with the grid. As you can see, the grid does a great job of blending the 3D space and the HUD together into a single battlefield. Where your character sits on this grid in relation to the enemy is of vital import. For instance, by positioning a resilient warrior in front of your frail conjurer, you can protect him from direct physical attacks, allowing him to spell-sling with relative impunity. Even beyond the classic front row/back row dynamic, characters can generally only attack enemies that are in front of them. Of course, there are exceptions to this, particularly when we start talking about magic. This heavy emphasis on your party's position has a lot of really cool implications that makes each combat a real strategic puzzle to be solved.
Which characters should I use to tank damage from each enemy? If an enemy is charging up a powerful attack, should I try to move someone into position to interrupt him or should I move everyone out of the way? Should I move my character into position to attack a critical target next turn, or should I just stay put and attack whoever is in front of me this turn? Should I cluster my team together to share short range buffs, or should I spread them out to avoid AOE damage?
These are choices we've not been able to present in past Bard's Tale games and we're finding them to be really fun and rewarding.
Designing Attacks
Positioning is one component of combat, but where things really start to get interesting is how attacks can tie into things like battlefield positioning. To give you a better idea of what I'm talking about, let's talk about the anatomy of an attack.
At the core of our design for The Bard's Tale IV is the idea that all attacks and abilities should be interesting to use. We are trying to move away from giving every character the same basicattack ability that just does damage. While doing single target damage is effective, there isn't a lot of strategy revolving around the choice of whether or not to attack your enemy. The answer is generally yes. That's an example of a missed strategic opportunity we wanted to capitalize on. Your weapons, spells, and abilities will offer their own unique attack types that often have different built-in properties to set them apart. You're saving the world, gosh darn it, so you'd better do something heroic! These differences can be minor or major, but the point is that each attack is designed to shine in different scenarios. Throughout your adventure you'll encounter enemies using new abilities and tactics. You'll need to keep evolving your strategy to be victorious.
When examining the anatomy of an attack and making it interesting to use, we have a number of qualities at our disposal. These include Attack Pattern, Damage, Damage Type, Special Effect, and Cost (Just to name a few). In this update, we'll cover Attack pattern, Damage, and Special Effects. We'll cover the other elements in a later update. Let's start by breaking these down one at a time.
First is attack pattern. Keeping in mind the influence the battlefield plays on our gameplay, each attack has a pattern associated with it that dictates who the attack will affect. An attack pattern may look something like this:
This attack pattern is something you'd find on a sword thrust attack, and indicates it will attack forward, striking the closest enemy directly in front of it, up to two grid squares away. Other abilities may be able to pierce multiple targets, may strike from different directions, or be able to directly target an opponent regardless of their position (this is especially true of magical attacks). In game, you'd see a helpful targeting indicator show you the range of your attack, along with who'll ultimately be affected.
Once again, example mockup, not an in-game shot.
Our attack shown in the image above has a range of 2. Since our Warrior is in the front row, he can reach all the way to the enemies' back row. That enemy ogre is in for some poking the likes of which he's never seen! Had the Warrior been sitting in his back row, he wouldn't have been able to reach the ogre. The Hunter, positioned behind the Warrior, has long ranged bow attacks that can strike up to three grid squares away and is more than capable of sniping the ogre from relative safety.
Like we've said in previous updates, we want to allow player to experiment with multiple party compositions, including ones that might not conform to the tank + DPS format. One way this grid system supports that goal is evasion based defense and enemy disruption. Evasion based defense is the idea that I can attack with a character and then move that character in such a way that it makes it difficult for my enemy to effectively re-position themselves to mount a concentrated counterattack. Rogues are particularly good at this sort of hit and run tactic. Enemy disruption is similar, in that some classes are capable of throwing their enemies around the battlefield, disrupting their formation and making it difficult for them to effectively strike back in their following turn.
Now that we know who we're attacking, let's talk about the bloody part: Damage. Damage is a pretty simple calculation. Damage comes from the character's stats, which are sourced from a variety of places including gear, skills, level, etc. Most of the time, damage is a fixed amount instead of a random range. This really allows you to plan out the perfect combo, that will for sure take that ogre down before he crushes your skull in. There are some abilities that do random damage, but that random element is something special about the ability that makes it unique.
Once damage is dealt, then we apply any additional effects. This is where attacks start to get more interesting. An effect might knock an enemy to the side, exposing that frail caster he was protecting. Another effect might be a poison that damages an enemy over time. Yet another might be a debuff that reduces a target's armor, softening it up for your allies. You get the idea - effects open up a world of possibilities for us to play with.
To give you a more real-world example of how attacks can synergize in interesting ways, during our playtesting, one of the synergies that the warriors have been using is a bleed and bash combo. Axe-wielding warriors can cause their target to bleed, which causes them to take damage whenever they move around the battlefield. You can imagine them exerting themselves and gushing blood, leaving a red trail behind them as they bleed out. Once that effect has been applied, shield and club wielding warriors get to work. These blunt armaments can often knock an enemy from one grid square to the next, throwing them out of their ideal position and opening up attacks to the more vulnerable glass cannons they've been protecting. The nice thing is, when you forcibly move an enemy, it also triggers the bleeding effect. If done right, you can get a nice ping-pong combo by bashing a bleeding enemy back and forth between warriors, each time causing them to take bonus bleed damage.
Now, hopefully, you can see how all these elements come together into a really fun and thought-provoking combat system rife with opportunities for combos and counter play. We're continuing to tune and iterate on it, of course, making adjustments constantly based on playtesting.
There are a lot of things we didn't go into here that will also play a huge role in combat; things such as Mana management, combat stances, charge up attacks, and more. However, this should give you some insight into the depth we are building into The Bard's Tale IV. Stay tuned for Glorious Combat Part 2, where we'll cover the even more advanced and unique features of the Bard's Tale IV's combat system.
For now, let us know what you think! We've touched on combat before, but this is the first time we've shown anything in this much detail, so we want to hear your ideas. Also, thanks for supporting The Bard's Tale IV. All hail the Sword Father.
The Bard’s Tale IV Update 28: Character Art Progress
Hi everyone,
I'm Maxx Kaufman, Art Director on The Bard's Tale IV. The world of Caith is a place of fantasy, adventure, and a bit of mystery and magic as well. In our previous updates and in our original Kickstarter text and touch points document, we've talked a bit about the game's art direction, and how we are building a world that is inspired by Scottish culture.
The Bard's Tale IV is based on legends and folktales, and our artwork and designs are meant to be evocative of all the beauty and artistic traditions of the Celtic and other pre-Christian peoples of the north. This world and its inhabitants are accented everywhere with Celtic elements that we are using to bring a particular personality and design that feels unique to the game, with its own mystical and ancient flair – while also still feeling true to the high fantasy feel of the classic Bard's Tale games.
But you came here for art, so I'd like to share a few new examples of that with you today.
Characters & Monsters
The last few months, we've been churning away on new character art for the game. We've shown you a fair number of environments previously, but now we'd like to show you some of their inhabitants, too. Some of these are familiar to old fans, while others might be new faces.
With all our characters, we're instilling a sense of personality into everything, with ever-so-slightly exaggerated features that touch on their most iconic elements. We're also using things like varied clothing and equipment (with either animation or simulated physics) to avoid repetition and give a sense of physicality to them.
Note that the shots below are renders of our in-game models, but are still works in progress so may change. And, while we are peppering in some hints at gameplay ideas below, bear in mind those details may change as well.
Trow
The Trow are a mainstay of Scottish folklore, and they will be making an appearance in The Bard's Tale IV. Trow are a bit like goblins – short, a bit ugly, and mischievous, with goatlike features. They are most often found in dark places, like mounds, caves and dungeons, far from the light. We're exploring including them as playable characters in your party, but they will also appear throughout the game in other forms, including as enemies.
In gameplay terms, Trow are intended to be lower-level creatures, but still have some tricks up their sleeves. In battle, they will attack with simple weapons like clubs, hammers, and thrown daggers. We want to bring a lot of personality to our creatures in the game, and in the case of the Trow, that means they'll be troublemakers for your average adventuring party. For instance, some of them may be able to cast spells to confuse or charm the player's own summoned creatures, or summon their own magical underlings, making it important for you to deal with them quickly.
Magic Mouths
Almost everyone who played the original Bard's Tale games will remember the Magic Mouths. Found in the dungeon walls, they would speak riddles and hints for you, some more cryptic than others. We offered a glimpse at these in our initial in-engine video, so it's no surprise they will make a return, but we've been testing out a few new designs as well.
The Magic Mouths in The Bard's Tale IV will have a wide variety of styles. Some might appear from within stone blocks, while others have a bit more ornamentation around them. We want their designs to reflect the environments they appear in, rather than using the same everywhere. And like the classic games, their role will be to inform and assist you… but not always in the most helpful or straightforward way.
Ghillie Dhu
The Ghillie Dhu also come from Scottish folklore, but are distinctly more fearsome and mysterious than creatures like the Trow. Ghillie Dhu are large, hulking creatures that are cloaked in roots, grass, leaves and bark – though they share a little bit in common with your traditional ents and other tree-like creatures, they have their own distinct flavor that makes them feel a little bit otherworldly.
In combat, the Ghillie Dhu fight with their heavy fists or tree branches, and use spells related to the natural world, such as roots and vines that will constrict and bind your party members to make them easier targets. The Ghillie Dhu, owing to their appearance, blend into forested environments very well – meaning they might get the jump on the party at the start of combat before you even know they're there.
The Bard’s Tale Update 25: Backer Site is Now Live!
Hello Exiles,
As we mentioned in our last update, one of our big tasks after the Kickstarter wrapped up was getting a backer site together so you guys could register, provide us with your information and claim some of your bonus rewards and goodies for your generous support during the Bard's Tale IV Kickstarter campaign. Good news: the backer site is ready for you right now!
This new backer web site has more features than what we've ever launched a web site with before. For instance, we have an official news section, interactive media galleries, and a more intuitive pledge and rewards management page where you can see images of all the rewards, right down to their individual parts.
Sign Up & Get Your Goodies!
So how do you get your hands on your backer bonus rewards? You will need to create an account on the backer web site, although if you already have a Torment account, you can use that on the Bard's Tale site as well (Ranger Center accounts for Wasteland 2 don't carry over).
When creating your account, please be aware that we link your pledges up based on your email address. For those of you who sign up under one email and used a different email to pledge, or may have changed your email address since pledging, remember that you can visit the Email Addresses page on your account to add any secondary emails. These will get linked to your account along with any rewards and pledges made under them.
If you have any further questions on our backer web site works, you can consult our backer site FAQ and help section.
Once you've signed up, you will be able to claim any available bonus rewards you qualify for (including the first 48 hour games and the inXile Loyalty Rewards bonus) by clicking the "Bonus" tab near the top of the Rewards page.
For more information on the bonus rewards and promotions available, and how to claim them, please refer to this page.
Please note that while Wasteland 2, The Witcher and The Witcher 2 bonuses are available for applicable backers, unreleased games such as Torment: Tides of Numenera and the emulated and remastered version of The Bard's Tale Classic Trilogy are not ready yet. But, once they are, you won't have to wait until the release of The Bard's Tale IV to get them.
More generally, you can check our Reward Status page for a look at when many of our rewards will be made available to you; this will be kept up to date as we have more information to share.
A Word on Points
Many of you will be familiar with our Torment backer web site, which uses a points system to display pledges. This has not changed for The Bard's Tale IV. When you sign up, your Kickstarter pledge will automatically be converted into XP (inXile Points). We treat this as 1 cent equaling 1 inXile Point, so, for example, a $20 pledge would give you 2,000 XP.
You can still view your full records on the Pledge History page if you want to see it listed in USD instead. For a bigger breakdown of the pledge system and how it works, you can check here.
Remastered Trilogy Progress
Some of you who have been following Rebecca Heineman closely will have seen her posting a few screenshots on social media. These versions, as you might recall, will be native ports rather than run in an emulator, and will be based on the Apple IIgs versions of the games, with a few enhancements and improvements.
One in particular Becky has added is a new automap mode which has been brought into all of the games, as well as a redrawn interface. We think it's looking sharp!
Odds and Ends
Finally, we mentioned our official news system near the top of this update. We will be using it to post news and updates in the future, very similar to how we already used social media such asFacebook and Tumblr. This gives us a way to put all our latest news in one spot, though obviously we will continue to use social media and Kickstarter updates too.
Of course, as we move forward with development we will begin posting more information on the game itself. We know many of you are hungry for more, but as we continue to hammer out the game's details in pre-production, remember that it may take a while yet before we can start pulling back the curtain. We will be sure to provide you with news and information as things begin to solidify in the coming weeks and months!
Thanks,
Eric Schwarz - Line Producer
@searanox
Official site: https://bardstale.inxile-entertainment.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianFargo
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBardsTale
Tumblr: http://thebardstalerpg.tumblr.com/
Join the original team behind Ultima Underworld on a quest to rekindle this legendary fantasy RPG series.
Just a quick reminder that our summer promotion with OtherSide Entertainment and Underworld Ascendant is still live for all Bard's Tale IV Kickstarter backers. Take a look!
GMG & Playfire offer an interview on The Bard's Tale IV immersion, exploration, story and more with Brian Fargo.
In terms of the game's story, will The Bard's Tale IV directly follow on from the previous games? Where do we pick things up in this game?
Yes, The Bard’s Tale IV is a direct follow-up. It is one hundred and fifty years after the destruction of Skara Brae, and a new town has been built on top of the old. The practice of magic is a sin and the old races have been banished, and even the Adventurer’s Guild closed by the Church of the Sword Father. But adventurers still gather in the dungeons beneat Skara Brae, the old city, seeking to survive in a land that now wants them dead.
Reconciling past and present is often a question raised with longstanding series such as TBT, but as Brian's mentioned in previous interviews, you're playing modern games all the time. Is there almost too much choice in determining how to modernise a game such as this, and how do go about reconciling nostalgic experiences that come with decade-old franchises like this with the need to cater to new players and potential fans?
There are definitely a lot of choices but I don’t think you can often have too much choice. The important thing is realizing what the core of the experience that people loved was and then unapologetically embracing it. We don’t really want to cater to anyone other than the hardcore RPG fans that continue to back us on Kickstarter, and that allows us to craft games that take advantage of modern technology and design ideas without ruining what makes these kind of games great.
The Bard’s Tale IV Update 23: Thanks To You, We Are Funded! What's Next?
Hello Exiles,
We did it! Thanks to you, we did not just fund The Bard's Tale IV, but went past the base goal to raise a total of $1.5 million! We can't thank you enough for your backing and your passion for classic RPGs.
So what's next? The Bard's Tale IV can now continue its pre-production stage before moving into full development. Most of the studio is currently working on Torment: Tides of Numenera, and a smaller team is on Wasteland 2 Director's Cut. As those projects wrap up we'll move people on to The Bard's Tale IV. We will of course keep you updated along the way!
Many of you have asked, now that the Kickstarter is over, if we will still be taking ongoing funding. The answer is yes! We will continue to take pledges on our own web site.
Processing Pledges and Rewards
Just like Wasteland 2 and Torment, we will be building our own backer web site where you can manage your pledge and claim your rewards. We will inform you when the site is available.
We've been getting questions about what happens for certain rewards, like the first 48 hour bonus games or the emulated Bard's Tale Trilogy, as well as add-ons. These will be made available once the backer site is online. Keep a close eye on your inbox because we'll be contacting you about these.
If Kickstarter has emailed you warning you of a problem with your pledge, note that it grants a grace period in which you can resolve the issue. If Kickstarter alerts you to any issues, please follow the instructions provided by them. For more information, you can check Kickstarter's Help Center.
Stretch Goals
During the campaign, we hit several, though not all of our stretch goals. The Enhanced CNPC System, Enhanced Crafting, and dungeons from the RPG Super Team of Monte Cook, Bruce Cordell, Wolfgang Baur and Sean K Reynolds will all be included, and for that we are very excited.
Because we have not yet entered full production, we have flexibility on game scope and content. As we continue to raise fund the game through PayPal pledges, as well as other sources like our back catalog, we will be constantly evaluating what we can add. We definitely hope to include some of our other stretch goal content in post-campaign funding and we'll be keeping you advised of our progress.
Of course, that doesn't mean we are looking at a small game. If you've read our touch points document, you'll know The Bard's Tale IV will be a formidably sized experience, and you can bet we will do everything to exceed your expectations.
Friday's Twitch Stream
If you missed Friday's Twitch stream of our Kickstarter wrap party with Quill18, and want to see the full video, you can! Just click here for the full archived stream.
Highlights include Chris Keenan showing off Wasteland 2 Director's Cut for the first time publicly, an extended Torment discussion with Jeremy Kopman, George Ziets and Josh Jertberg, and a chat with me and Michael Cranford, designer and programmer on the original two Bard's Tale games. It was definitely a night we'll remember for a long time to come.
We can't wait to jump into development on The Bard's Tale IV and will be sharing much info with you going forward. Thank you once again to all of you that made this game happen!
Brian Fargo,
Leader in Exile
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianFargo
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBardsTale
Tumblr: http://thebardstalerpg.tumblr.com/
Official forums: https://forums.inxile-entertainment.com/index.php
Gaming Nexus interviews Brian Fargo about kickstarting, the Bard’s Tale franchise and The Bard’s Tale IV.
Will the game mostly take place in Skara Brae or are you going to have areas outside of the city to explore in?
A lot of the game will take place in Skara Brae and in the ancient dungeons and ruins underneath it, but you can also roam into the wilderness, castles and ruins surrounding Skara Brae, as well as towns such as Torr Fion and Fettercain. Finally, we will also let you explore the legendary realms of Elves, Dwarves and Trow,
Is this the same Skara Brae we’ve seen in previous games or has the town changed over the years?
Well, the original Skara Brae was destroyed, but in the hundred and fifty years since people have built a new Skara Brae atop the old. But if you miss the old Skara Brae, you can always go underneath the new city and explore these ancient ruins!
Could you talk about how the classes will evolve as you play?
Evolving classes was a unique concept from the original trilogy, where you could advance your magic users from their basic types into types such as the Geomancer or even the Archmage. Our plan is to not just keep this system but expand it to other classes, so that as you level up your basic Warrior or Hunter will get a new path open to him to evolve into.
The Bard’s Tale IV Update 21: Down to the Wire! Final Stream Reminder, Last Community Fan Works, Bardic Brian Unlocked!
Hey Exiles!
We are down to the wire! With just a few hours left to go we are all hands on deck and eager to see exactly where our final pledge level will end up. It goes without saying that we are deeply appreciative of all your support throughout the campaign. With over 33,000 backers showing support thus far, we are just 3,000 backers away from being in the top 10 most-backed Kickstarter gaming projects in history!
As we head towards the finish, we are as pleased as ever to say once again: the Bard is Back!
Final Hours Stream, Featuring Quill18 and Wasteland 2 Director's Cut!
This is just a reminder that we will be live streaming our Kickstarter campaign wrap party on Twitch with renowned YouTube and Twitch steamer Quill18. The stream will start at 4 PM and go to 6 PM PST (though the party won’t end there). We also had many of you offer to join us for the party in person; we can no longer take additional guests, but we are looking forward to meeting some of our biggest fans!
As a special treat: we will also be live streaming brand-new gameplay from Wasteland 2 Director's Cut during the party! If you are a fan of Wasteland 2 you will want to check out this exclusive and extended hands-on look at the game. We are excited to share it in this much detail for the first time!
We will be re-posting the stream link to social media and Kickstarter later on today, so keep an eye out. In case you miss the stream, we will upload it to YouTube later!
Bardic Brian Skin Unlocked!
Our final social media push saw a huge uptick in fan contributions, likes, follows, and all that good stuff. We cannot make these games happen without you and we are ever-thankful for your support. Everything we do to get our games out there relies on your faith and goodwill – our "marketing budget "is the same budget that goes right back to supporting our fans.
On that note, you have impressed us yet again! Thanks to support on Tumblr and new fan art contributions, you have unlocked 21 achievements in total, and the Exclusive Bardic Brian Skin has now been unlocked for all backers of The Bard's Tale IV!
Brian is a little embarrassed, but such are the sacrifices he makes for you guys.
Enclave of the Fairy Host Story Updated
It's been a while since we've highlighted the Enclave of the Fairy Host story in an update. Our lead writer Nathan Long has been penning these for your social media achievements, and we figured we'd give him some more time in the spotlight, especially as the story is flavored with elements of our lore and gameplay concepts. You can as always view the full story on Tumblr, but here is an excerpt from some of the later chapters!
The elven mosaics in this room depict a feast in an underground banquet hall with tree roots for pillars and witch-lights for lanterns. Elves in beautiful clothes eat and drink and listen to an elven bard. All the servants are humans. An elf maiden has a man for a pet. He curls on a pillow at her feet.
The chanting is louder here. You can distinguish the words now. You recognize them as ancient Einarr.
The Einarr chanting fills your head as you enter this room. It shakes the floor and seems to make the very air vibrate. Two Einarr stand guard in front of an ornate pair of double doors on the far side. They ready their spears and cry out as they see you, but no-one hears them. The chanting drowns them out.
Anders thrusts out a hand and they slump to the floor, fast asleep. You step over their snoring bodies and ready your weapons as you approach the doors.
"This is it, friends,” says Lioslaith. “Your enemies are cornered. We must triumph here.”
“Yeah,” says Fiona. “Or the elf ghost is going kill us all, thanks to Anders.”
Anders grunts. “Let’s just finish it.”
You push open the doors.
Nathan will be finalizing the story depending on our final social achievement tally, so we may have yet another chapter or two for you.
Final Fan Roundup
When we said last update that it was our last chance to feature fan art... well, turns out we have another last chance! Thanks to your incredible contributions in these final hours we have brand-new pieces to share from our community. You can see a selection of these below.
Bard’s Ale render by Sergey Mishchenko.
Another Bard by Tomimt.
Trow Boy by June.
All of our fan art is in our gallery on Facebook, including kilt photos as well, so check 'em out!
We'll be back later today to share the stream with you. In the meantime, let's make this an epic and fun finish to a long campaign!
Eric Schwarz
Line Producer
@searanox
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianFargo
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBardsTale
Tumblr: http://thebardstalerpg.tumblr.com/
The Bard’s Tale IV Update 20: Final 48 Hours! Knocking Down Goals
Hello Exiles!
Just a quick update to let you all know that now we’re in our final 48 hours, Kickstarter has sent out its reminders, our final Big Push video is out and we’re in our final big upswing!
As always, you guys have been amazing in spreading the word and making this Kickstarter another success story. Factoring in PayPal funding, we have unlocked the 1.5 million stretch goal, the RPG Super Team of Bruce Cordell, Wolfgang Baur and Sean K Reynolds now joining our efforts! These RPG veteran designers will each design a unique dungeon, making The Bard’s Tale IV all the richer and more varied. If you want to know more about them, we provided more details in Update 10.
Community Updates
Then there’s the social media achievements. You blew us away with your support of our Big Push video, the tweet being over 500 retweets and the Facebook post over 400 shares!! It’s awesome to see you guys not just hit the goals we set for you, but far exceed them. So we’re happy to unlock the Lute of Compulsory Cavorting, a special flavor item which will make specific characters in the game dance a little jig when you play it, whether they want to or not! All backers of The Bard's Tale IV will receive this item in the game.
We’re also tantalizingly close to our next unlock on the social media achievement maps. We’re now in room 19! In room 20, you will all contribute to our scheme to embarrass our boss as we add theBardic Brian skin to the game!
Here's a quick recap of the goals and where exactly you're at:
Facebook Likes: like The Bard’s Tale IV on Facebook! [current: 21,368]
Twitter Followers: follow @Brianfargo on Twitter! [current: 24K]
Tumblr Followers: follow our brand new Tumblr page! [current: 1,981]
YouTube Subscriptions: subscribe to inXile’s youtube page! [current: 12,356]
YouTube Video Views: spread the word on our in-engine video! [current: 258,548]
Retweet Brian’s Message: retweet this tweet! [current: 1,005]
The Bard’s Tale Fan Art: send us your fan art drawing or sketch. [current: 17]
A Bardic Song: record video or audio of you performing a bardic song, upload to YouTube or elsewhere and send us the link. [current: 12]
Kilt Photos: take a photo of yourself or a group of people in a kilt with a sign that says #BardsTale4 and send it to us. [current: 113]
Spread the Word: retweet this tweet and share this Facebook post. [current: 585 and 470]
Fan Works Roundup
This might be the last chance we get to check out some of our community's great fan works during the campaign, and we have a few more to share with you guys in these final hours. Thanks go out to June, Ulrike Kleinert and The Dudes for their awesome pictures, paintings and sketches! See all our fan art here on Facebook.
Thanks,
Thomas Beekers
inXile Associate Producer
@thomasbeekers
MMORPG.com interviews Brian Fargo about the new golden age of RPGs.
However, for Brian what really sets apart a good solid role playing game is the story as well as choice and consequence. Building these elements into the world requires a lot of content to be written. Brian explained that it is normally content only certain players will see based on their choices. “You have to make that commitment in the beginning,” he mentioned. Once you know you’ll have to produce a deep world, you can begin on a game that will have real consequences. Brian talked about getting the sequence of events right. It is critical for the player to be able to try different things in the beginning and get them correct, then the game starts to draw you in. It is when you keep trying to solve puzzles or combat early on and failing that player quit the game. So getting the balance right from the start is critical.
(...)
Story also was a big topic we discussed, especially in terms of a game like Bard’s Tale. “The writing humanizes the experience,” Brian stated. In many ways for Brian it is not about the overall story arc in an RPG. It is more about the major individual plot points which sell the story. When those individual moments are so strong, players enjoy the large arc, but remember the epic moments in the game. He says he still gets fans mentioning the berserkers from Baron Harkyn’s castle in Bard’s Tale, even to this day.
The Bard’s Tale IV Update 19: Two Days Left! But Wait, There’s More!
We’re entering one of the most important periods of any Kickstarter, the last two days! New eyes will come to our project, which is why we offered a campaign recap a few updates ago for people who have not been keeping a very close eye on things. Give it a look!
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!!!
Help Spread the Word!
We hope you enjoyed our little video, we had fun making it, and feel like it highlights many of the best reasons to back us. In these final days, spreading the word is vital. So we want to give our very successful social media achievements one final kick into high gear...
In these final days, if you get us 500 retweets of this tweet and 100 shares of this Facebook post we will unlock a special new reward: The Lute of Compulsory Cavorting, a specialflavor item which when played will make certain characters in the game do a little dance, whether they want to or not!
Of course our other social media achievements are still ongoing. You’re closing in on room 20, and through the shadows you can see the treasure you’re after: in room 20, you will unlock the all-new Exclusive Brian Fargo Bard Skin for use in the game for all backers! Always wanted to play as Bardic Brian? Well now you can!
This one took quite a bit of nagging and cajoling to get Brian to agree to. He is not a fan of the idea, but personally, I think it will be hilarious. We can finally get him in a kilt and give him some glorious, flowing long hair. Besides, isn’t it slightly more funny that he’s uncomfortable with it?
Hanging Out With Brian
This morning just a few minutes before posting this update, Brian was able to talk with Kickstarter during one of their new Creator Hangouts events. As one of the first guests on this new series, we were honored that Brian could attend. During the Hangout, Brian answered fan questions and discussed Kickstarter. The Hangout's finished, but you can still view the archived video on YouTube here:
Sulphur Springs
One of the great things about the world of The Bard’s Tale IV is being able to return to locations from the first three games. Sulphur Springs was a map in The Bard’s Tale III and it will play a pivotal role in our story in The Bard's Tale IV as well. This wasteland of toxic Sulphur pools is a breeding ground for some of the nastiest creatures in our world. No human dares to live there and few who venture in ever return.
The only question you need to ask yourself is, are you brave enough to enter?
Front and Back Rows in Combat
And now, a quick design fireside chat. This one is something many of you have been asking about.
Many dungeon crawls, including the original Bard’s Tales, make use of a front row/back row system within combat encounters. This type of system allows you some tactical choice to how your party is presented in combat. For example, you can shield some “softer” characters like ranged casters in the back row, which allow them to be protected by stronger adventurers like a warrior. The rules generally state that if there are player characters (PCs) in the front rows, they will take short melee damage before the PC’s in the back do. Of course, ranged weapons and spells can hit back row PC’s regardless of the front row. Commonly this would also apply to the player’s attacks, the back row only able to use spells and ranged attacks.
This system has been used many times prior, with varying levels of modification and effectiveness. It has been rooted in dungeon crawl history and so we will of course have it as a core mechanic in BT4 combat, but there’s also some improvements we can make. For example, it tends to introduce an overly limiting “hard rule set” to the type of party you can make, restricting your choices during character creation. As stated in a previous update, an overarching design goal is to allow players to experiment with many different party make-ups.
To that end, we’ve been working on a system that satisfies the following design goals:
1) Stays true to the spirit of the front/back row positional system
2) Doesn’t overly limit the positions that various PCs are “supposed” to occupy
3) Increases the strategic elements of PC positioning by designing class skills that promote positional movement
4) Feels dynamic while not turning into a chore
First, a vision image of the (WIP) player positioning system. Do keep in mind that at this point in pre-production, nothing is set in stone, but hopefully this will give you an idea of where we are generally pointed…
The large square is representative of a single grid square that the PC’s will occupy (in 1st person POV) while moving around the world. Inside the large grid square are sub-grids. While we haven’t decided on our large grid sizes yet, for the purposes of this explanation, let’s assume it's 12’ x 12’. That would mean each sub-grid is 3’ wide by 5’ long, with a 2 foot “neutral zone” left to fill in the remaining large grid square.
Notice the facing direction pointing up. If you were in combat with enemies, there would be an identical but mirrored grid, but facing down. This leaves a theoretical 4’ of a neutral zone in between the two battling groups. While we have some interesting ideas for things that can occupy the neutral zone, the PC’s will not be able to do so as a usable position. The neutral zone would be a great spot for things like magical shields or other non-player character physical spells.
With 6 party members taking up “sub-grids”, that leaves at least two sub-grids free for summons. During combat, you might want to move a casting character to the front row to execute a short range, but particularly devastating spell. The trade-off is that your caster is now sitting in a vulnerable position. If the user interface is smooth and elegant for moving your adventurers during combat, this could give some interesting strategic options in addition to your party’s skills and spells.
With an easy to understand UI element based on PC positioning, we have a huge opportunity to play with some exciting design ideas based on where PC’s are in the sub-grid. Paladin buffs could give additional bonuses to PCs in adjacent sub-grid slots. Rogues could be masters of movement, swapping places with other heroes or summons, giving more positional freedom. Some skills or spells could even require you to have an open sub-grid slot in front of your PC to cast. We love to hear your ideas on different skills and spells from the Bard’s Tale universe that would be unique to a system like this. Please head over to our forums and let us know what you think!
Thank you all for following along with us on this journey. I couldn’t be more excited to finish up the Kickstarter and push this project into high gear!
Chris Keenan
Project Lead – The Bard’s Tale IV
@rangerkeenan
Brian Fargo speaks to Gameranx about crowdfunding and The Bard's Tale IV.
The Bard’s Tale is one of the oldest, and most recognizable classic role-playing game franchises. As with Wasteland, there’s pressure to live up to its legacy. What are your biggest fears in developing The Bard’s Tale IV in a gaming era that pines for nostalgic throwbacks but is also rife with new conventions that the modern player expects in an RPG game?
There is certainly no lack of pressure when you try to take these beloved franchises and then create them with money from the very gamers who are going to play them. It's the timespan between the sequels that make it a tricky proposition, normally you would have had incremental changes over the years. In these cases we jump forward decades and the tastes, desires and time available to the core audience varies greatly from person to person. There are some folks that would genuinely be happier with a game that looked like it came out in the early 90's but that would not be doing the Bard's Tale justice to me.
The series would have naturally progressed over the timespan and there have been way too many technological and UI breakthroughs to be stuck in that era. Instead we focus on the core elements of gameplay like tight mapping exploration, party and phase based combat, riddles and poems, and the character classes they grew up with. And if a player wants to make it really difficult like in the first games and only allow for saving the game in the Adventurer's Guild, we'll make that an option. I actually quite enjoy the exercise of bringing it all together in a new package.
The Bard’s Tale IV Update 17: Final Week! Campaign Recap
Hello Exiles!
It’s time for our final week! As you may know we’ve run a few Kickstarters before and we’ve always found the final week to be one of the craziest, most exciting ones. The hours tick down and everyone is excited to see what our final amount will be, and we’ve always seen our fans come through to kick us into over-drive for this final week and we hope that’ll be the case again!
We have quite a few things to share this week, but today we wanted to recap our Kickstarter so far and talk about what you’re all getting for supporting us. Before we jump into that, I have a new concept piece to share with you.
This is a 3D model of one of the enemies you will run into in the game, the huge and dangerous Ogre Brute. We did not use this particular model in our video, but crafted it very early in our prototyping stages, as a test of what we want to do stylistically and graphically. When you see this hulking monstrosity come down the corridor towards you, will you stand and fight, or flee?
Tier Changes
We looked at some of our tiers and decided to tweak our some tiers a bit, all to your benefit of course.
$400 will now also come with the Collector’s Album Box, making it a great collectables tier if the Reliquary is outside of your price range!
We’ve decided to cut the price of The Puzzle Master tier by 50%! It is now $750. We really want to see some of the nifty and creative ideas our backers could come up with, and would love to have you jump on board for this tier!
Kickstarter Creator Hangout
Recently, Kickstarter contacted us and asked if I would like to attend a hangout session that they're running. Called "Creator Hangouts", they're an opportunity for the Kickstarter community and our own fans to ask questions about crowdfunding, our games, our campaign, and more. As someone who loves the concept of crowdfunding, how could I say no?
To check out the full details on the Hangout session, you can find the event on Facebook here. The event is on July 8th, 2015, at 1 PM Eastern time. Check it out, and I hope to see you there!
Who Wants Free Games?!?
We kicked off our campaign with a huge bang, with anyone who backed in the first 48 hours (for $20 or more) getting a FREE copy of Wasteland 2, The Witcher or The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings! The game of your choice will be delivered to you once we set up our backer portal after this Kickstarter ends. Of course upgrading your pledge afterwards does not affect any free goodies you’re due! We know exactly who backed in the first 48 hours and will have your games ready for you shortly after the campaign.
But that’s not all! If you backed Wasteland 2 or Torment: Tides of Numenera, and backed The Bard’s Tale IV before June 26th, 12am PST, you get a FREE bonus reward consisting of your choice of digital goodies from Wasteland 2, Torment or The Bard’s Tale IV! Plus thanks to our friends from OtherSide Entertainment, if you backed us previously and your Bard’s Tale IV pledge from before June 26th is $33 or more, you get FREE copies of Ultima Underworld 1 & 2. We were happy to see the strong response to our loyalty rewards, and we think it’ll be a fun thing to try again down the line to reward our loyal backers.
But we never tire of giving you stuff. We’re also giving all backers $20 FREE copies of the original The Bard’s Tale, The Bard’s Tale II: The Destiny Knight and The Bard’s Tale III: Thief of Fate! You will getting the existing emulator versions of the three games, but we also have an agreement with the original The Bard’s Tale III programmer Rebecca “Burger” Heineman who is working to update these games to run emulator-free on modern machines!
Also in that update, we announced that we’re expanding the soundtrack of the game to a Deluxe Double Album, this upgrade being FREE for any tiers that contain the soundtrack ($50, $70 and $95 and up)!
Social Media Achievements & Free Upgrades
Then we opened the floor to you to unlock extra goodies by spreading the word on our Kickstarter and once again we’ve been blown away by your response. 18 achievements have already been hit, unlocking four rewards that are coming free to all backers $20 and above:
A code wheel (digital or physical)
Premium graph paper (digital or physical)
Red Boots DLC
Two FREE Julie Fowlis songs, including the song from the in-engine video.
So just to recap, if you back for $25 today, you’re getting:
The Bard’s Tale IV digital copy
The Bard’s Tale IV digital manual
The Bard’s Tale digital copy + the update when it’s available
The Bard’s Tale II: The Destiny Knight digital copy + the update when it’s available
The Bard’s Tale III: Thief of Fate! digital copy + the update when it’s available
Digital code wheel
Digital graph paper
Julie Fowlis song from our in-engine video
Julie Fowlis song "Smeòrach Chlann Dòmhnaill (The Mavis of Clan Donald)" from her latest album, Gach Sgeul.
Backer forum badge
Hard to beat that kind of value!
Stretch Goal Additions
Along the way, you’ve been helping unlock stretch goals to make the game bigger and better.
The first two of these expanded the gameplay system by adding an enhanced companion NPC system, an enhanced crafting system and adding 2 more cNPCs.
After those, we’re working to gather the ultimate RPG super team of dungeon designers, each of whom is taking charge of a dungeon or unique area: Monte Cook, Bruce Cordell,Wolfgang Baur, Sean K Reynolds, Colin McComb and Chris Avellone!
We’re a ways into gathering this super team and with each goal make the game bigger and better, we’re hopeful we can knock more stretch goals down in our final week.
We also frequently get requests for people to pick up rewards available outside their own pledge tiers. We've rolled out many of these throughout our campaign based on popular fan feedback. If you already backed us, you can add one of the following add-ons by going to the manage pledge section and increase your pledge amount by the exact amount your add-on(s) cost. We will contact you to specify your add-ons once the Kickstarter ends with more information.
Bard’s Tale IV Game Details
Of course, last but most definitely not least, we have been sharing more details on our title, the first of which is this in-engine video we posted on the third day of our campaign:
Additionally, I recorded a pair of Q&A videos where I answer some of our backers’ questions.You can find the first of these in this update, talking about combat and more, and the second in this update, speaking to saves games, grid-based design and more. There was also this update on classes and races.
The big one that is a great read for people that want to know about our project is this Touch Points Document, which we shared in this Kickstarter update.
As always we’re listening to our fans and based on their feedback decided to expand the player party size to six, along with any summoned creatures you have space for. Read the document to find out more, our games offering over thirty beautiful levels to explore with over a hundred different enemy types!
We'll have more updates for you throughout this week!
