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Kickstarter: Bard's Tale IV (inXile, 1.25 mil, PC, Mac, Linux)

hemtae

Member
Kickstarter Link
Paypal Link

FUNDED: $1,519,495/$1,250,000
Estimate release date: October 2017

Bards Tale IV In-Engine Video June 4, 2015

Help revive the dungeon crawler! From the creators of Wasteland 2 and Torment comes the long awaited sequel to the Bard's Tale trilogy.

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  • A single-player, party-based dungeon crawl, rich in exploration and combat
  • Dungeons filled not just with dangerous fights but with challenging puzzles and devious riddles
  • Dynamic phase-based combat, where the pace of battle is animated and fluid, but still gives you time to think and respond to your enemies
  • A game set to beautiful Gaelic music, where the Bard’s songs and melodies affect gameplay
  • Co-funded by fans and inXile: if this game hits its $1.25 million goal, inXile will put in at least $1.25 million of its own money to double the initial budget!
  • Built using Unreal Engine 4, for PC, Mac and Linux. Available from Steam or DRM-Free from GOG.com
  • Available in English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, and Polish
  • Built for and with the help of our fans. Your feedback and input directly impact the design and features of the game during alpha and beta stages

Craft your party, your way.

The Bard’s Tale IV allows you to develop, progress and grow a party of adventurers as you see fit. Build a combat-hardened warrior to lead the way, or a spell-flinging Conjurer to provide support from the back lines. A character’s class provides the basic archetype, but as you progress you will tweak and evolve your party to suit your play style.

The original Bard’s Tale games allowed you to evolve your magic class characters from the Conjurer and Magician to the more powerful Sorcerer, Chronomancer, Geomancer, and even the feared Archmage, each providing new spell trees to explore. We’re extending this system to all class types for increased levels of customization and tinkering. As your magic and combat abilities grow, you will combine spells and skills from your different party members for increased effects greater than the sum of their parts. Deciding when to evolve your characters has a major impact on the types of spells that become available.

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The eponymous Bard is of course returning. The Bard is an important member of each party, with magical songs empowering the group in combat or providing a helping hand while exploring and solving puzzles. Your band of adventurers will be influenced throughout the game by the Bard's music. By playing the Rhyme of Duotime, your party will regenerate spell points at increased speed. Switching to The Archer’s Tune will greatly increase your party’s missile damage. Just make sure your bard is well stocked with ale...so his throat doesn’t dry out.

We are also bringing back many popular races like humans, elves, dwarves, half-orcs, and including some newly inspired races like the Trow. The races all have their own unique culture and history, integrating your choices more into the game’s narrative. The world and citizens of The Bard’s Tale IV react to your party’s make-up, branching the quest structure and providing a unique experience depending on who is joining you.

Being a dungeon crawl, you’ll get to explore the dungeons, forests, crypts, and castles within, underneath, and around Skara Brae as well as worlds beyond the lands of men. The emphasis is on exploration, mystery, discovering new locations, and fighting your way through traps and monsters. Secrets abound in these dungeons, and the world is shrouded in mystery. Like the originals, movement and dungeon design is grid-based, but the game allows you to toggle the grid off and move freely if you prefer

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We have a passion for non-linear level design and The Bard’s Tale IV embraces this concept. While you explore the world, you will reach areas, obstacles, and monsters you won’t be able to defeat. By venturing out into new areas, developing additional skills and spells, or finding enchanted weapons and armor, you can return with a new set of tools better equipped for the job. Definitely expect a challenge; this game won’t be easy.

Challenges beyond combat await you. Dangerous traps dot the dungeons, and you’ll need a deft hand to find your way through them – as well as a keen sense of mapping. With the full rights to use all of the content, story, and setting of the original games, we are returning to many of the familiar trappings and challenges. But don’t worry. If you find yourself completely stuck, just turn your way to a Magic Mouth, those perfectly ordinary hint-givers that come in the shape of giant talking stone walls.

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A big part of true dungeon crawls is the combat. The Bard’s Tale IV utilizes a dynamic phase-based system to resolve such encounters. What do we mean by that?

Combat is resolved in a phase-based manner, meaning your entire party takes its turn, and then all enemies take theirs. In the original trilogy, you’d make all of the decisions at once and only then see the results. For The Bard’s Tale IV, we want a more dynamic experience: as soon as you decide what a character will do, they immediately act. This is the first way in which battles dynamically change, as your rolls and effects can have a variety of outcomes which might make you rethink your next action.

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When we say that combat is dynamic, we also relate that to the game's pace and feel. The Bard’s Tale IV allows you to give your commands as quickly as you want, even while the animations of your previous commands are still playing out. This removes the tedium of waiting around for animations to finish before the system accepts your next input. And of course, your enemies are a major part of keeping the system dynamic – you'll need to examine the battlefield and react accordingly to win, including being aware of abilities that directly counter other abilities.

Special abilities will also be a huge emphasis for the game. The Magician class, for instance, uses their powers to enchant and change the properties of objects by manipulating their physical environment. By casting Ybarra’s Mystic Shield, the air in front of the party becomes an invisible shield. Illusions and summoning is a pillar of The Bard’s Tale universe too, so expect your foes to be summoning their own monsters while constantly evolving the tactical nature of the combat at each turn. Running backwards will not be a viable survival strategy!

The Bard’s Tale IV is spearheaded by the same team that delivered the award-winning Wasteland 2.

Brian Fargo founded Interplay Productions (By Gamers, For Gamers) in 1983 where he went on to produce and finance some of the biggest RPG's made, including Bard's Tale, Neuromancer, Dragon Wars, Fallout 1 and 2, Stonekeep, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment, and more.

Matthew Findley joined Brian at Interplay shortly after the release of the original Wasteland, inspired by The Bard’s Tale and Wasteland and desiring to make games of that type. He was one of the two project leads on Wasteland 2. Matt has a chainsaw hanging from his ceiling, so you know he's serious.

Chris Keenan was Interplay’s youngest employee in the mid-90s, starting at age 15. He has been with inXile since its early days. Chris was one of the two project leads on Wasteland 2, and is a handsome son of a gun (according to his mother).

Michael “Maxx” Kaufman is an art director with an extensive career in the industry, most notably working for Xatrix/Gray Matter, developing such games as Kingpin: Life of Crime and Return to Castle Wolfenstein. He is the art director on Wasteland 2: Game of the Year Edition and occasionally enjoys adding an extra “x” to words.

Nathan Long was the lead writer on Wasteland 2 and is currently a contributing writer on Torment: Tides of Numenera. Before joining inXile, he worked as a novelist, screen, and TV writer for many years – but all that is just a sideline until his music career takes off.

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With two games successfully Kickstarted and one released, why are we coming back to Kickstarter? The Bard’s Tale IV is not a mainstream title, and even if we could bring it to publishers, we enjoy the independence and integrity that comes with crowdfunding and doing it our way, without compromise. In our experience, fan funding is something special that allows us to preserve our creative integrity without any undue outside influences. That’s how games are supposed to be made.

Kickstarter has been instrumental in giving a chance to many great games over the last few years, like Pillars of Eternity, Divinity: Original Sin, Elite: Dangerous, and Shadowrun Returns. This model of crowdfunding allows us not just to make the kind of games we love, but also to deliver them the right way. Instead of trying to nickel and dime you with micro-DLC, we deliver you a complete game, and provide you extensive updates for free, such as the Wasteland 2 Game of the Year Edition.

We also love the fact that crowdfunding involves fans in ways we never could before, drawing you into the process through feedback on elements we show, and direct involvement in polishing the game once we release a beta version. This process helped make Wasteland 2 the game the fans wanted.

Kickstarter also offers unique benefits to you, our fans and backers. From experience, you can trust that we will deliver, and Kickstarter offers an opportunity to get the game for the lowest price and join us on this journey. Long live the Bard!

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If you’ve already pledged at any tier ($20+), you can include add-ons to your pledge. To add an add-on, go to pledge management and increase your pledge by the amount of the add-on(s) you wish to add. Once the Kickstarter ends, you will receive a survey that will let you specify which add-ons your additional pledge amount is for. There is a limit of 5 per person.

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Update #1: Déjà vu!
Update #2: Free Game Offer Extended!
Update #3: The Bard’s Tale IV In-Engine Video
Update #4: Brian Speaks, First Stretch Goal Added and...oh yeah, One Million Dollars!!!
Update #5: The Original Trilogy Coming FREE, Deluxe Double Album Soundtrack Upgrade
Update #6: Shout to the Heavens! We Need You to Spread the Word, Get Some Goodies!
Update #7: For Auld Lang Syne! The Bard's Tale IV is funded!
Update #8: Brian Speaks on Saves and More, PayPal Pledging Open, Social Media Achievements
Update #9: Mangar, Lagoth, Tarjan and…Monte Cook?
Update #10: First Stretch Goal Unlocked, Much More To Come!
Update #11: Let’s Talk Classes and Races
Update #12: Enhanced Crafting Achieved!
Update #13: Chris Avellone! Colin McComb!
Update #14: Party of Six, Other Game Details, The Bard Goes Xounts
Update #15: New Add-ons!
Update #16: Monte Cook Adds His Voice To The Song!
Update #17: Final Week! Campaign Recap
Update #18: Three Days Left! A Look at Our Art Design
Update #19: Two Days Left! But Wait, There’s More!
Update #20: Final 48 Hours! Knocking Down Goals
Update #21: Down to the Wire! Final Stream Reminder, Last Community Fan Works, Bardic Brian Unlocked!
Update #22: Kickstarter Wrap Stream Going Live!
Update #23: Thanks To You, We Are Funded! What's Next?
Update #24: Progress Update; Enclave of the Fairy Host Concludes; Underworld Promo Offer
Update #25: Backer Site is Now Live!
 
From the (now closed) thread, a question I had:

I want the goodies in the $95 version (CD, cloth map, art book) but I want the Album, not Premium Collector's, box -- don't see an option that allows that (that isn't $100s)... am I missing something?
 

epmode

Member
I'm in!

I honestly don't know if they can make the goal this time. Unlike Wasteland (which was tied to the still-popular Fallout) and Torment, The Bard's Tale doesn't have much draw as an IP.

I hope I'm mistaken!
 

marrec

Banned
Backed.

This is such a great time to be a CRPG fan.

The best time. Back during the original renaissance of CRPGs I didn't have money to spend.

Now I have all this disposable income and very little self-control. It's a potent brew when combined with nostalgia.
 
I'm wavering on whether I should back. I'd love another Bard's Tale, but Wasteland 2 didn't leave me with a ton of confidence in inXile.
 
Backed.

Nice deal to get people to jump in is free copy of Wasteland 2, Witcher, or Witcher 2 if you jump in within first 24 hours.
 
In like Flynn. Played the hell out of BT 1 and 3 in the day. (Skipped 2 for some reason.)

I like the move to UE4, but from all reports the move to Unity 5 for WL2 and Torment is going to solve so many issues - can't wait for the WL2 update.
 

mclem

Member
In for... something. Don't know what yet.

Edit: For now, "Premium Collector's Box: Early Bard". Because I like the pun.
 

Dance Inferno

Unconfirmed Member
The only version I played was the 2004 PS2 version and it had me in stitches the whole way through. Is this game going to be similar? Or are they ignoring it and going back to their roots?
 

Xater

Member
Is it wrong that I really enjoyed this one?

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Holy shit 2 people have already pledged $10 000

Madness

For what it was it was a fine game.

The only version I played was the 2004 PS2 version and it had me in stitches the whole way through. Is this game going to be similar? Or are they ignoring it and going back to their roots?

Read the Kickstarter? This will be a party based dungeon crawler like the classic Bard's Tale games not nothing like the 2004 game which was just an action RPG.
 

Sijil

Member
Will back, hope they take their time too, since I've yet to finish Legend of Grimrock 2 or Might and Magic X. I'm loving the cRPG and dungeon crawler resurgence.
 

Moff

Member
I don't know the originals, didnt finish wasteland 2 and already backed torment 2 on a phsyicsl tier, so I won't back that, too. if it's really good I'll just buy it.
 
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