The Bard's Tale IV Kickstarter Campaign Launching In June

[Conrad Zimmerman]

The Bard's Tale IV Kickstarter Campaign Launching In June

Crowdfunding campaign coincides with 30th anniversary of classic role-playing series.

inXile Entertainment has announced the start date for an upcoming Kickstarter campaign to fund development of a new sequel to The Bard's Tale trilogy. The fundraising drive will begin on June 2, the same date as the release of the franchise's first game, Tales of the Unknown, Volume I: The Bard's Tale, thirty years ago.

According to a press release from inXile, the new installment will present the same first-person dungeon crawling gameplay found in prior titles of the series, in which players are challenged to solve puzzles and riddles while besting monsters, brigands, and other foes in combat. The Bard's Tale IV will utilize Unreal Engine 4 and the team plans to use photogrammetry to create 3D environments based upon photos of actual Scottish architecture. Scottish culture will also be referenced in the game's music and sound design to enrich the existing setting.

The first three volumes in The Bard's Tale were developed by Interplay and released between 1985 and 1990. In 2004, inXile (a studio founded by former Interplay co-founder Brian Fargo, who contributed work to the original trilogy) released a Bard's Tale title unrelated to the original series, which played in a third-person perspective and served as a parody of fantasy genre role-playing games rather than a continuation or remake of prior titles bearing the name.

The Bard's Tale IV will be a direct sequel to the first three games, and inXile has confirmed that it has acquired the rights to use content from the original series in development of the new title.

Source: Official Website [http://bardstale.inxile-entertainment.com/]

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[Albino Boo]

Oh fuck, I bought the Bard's tale 1 when it came out. Now its the 30th Anniversary , I need a drink.

 

[WarpedLord]

Oh fuck, I bought the Bard's tale 1 when it came out. Now its the 30th Anniversary , I need a drink.

Same here. Man I loved that game.

We are so old.

 

[CecilT]

This is wonderful news. Fargo did a brilliant job in resurrecting Wasteland, I'm sure he'll do the same with The Bard's Tale.

 

[Breywood]

I cut my teeth on dungeoncrawling RPGs with Bard's Tale III back in 1988 on ye olde 64. This news was not only surprising, but very pleasant.

 

[Jake Martinez]

I cut my teeth on dungeoncrawling RPGs with Bard's Tale III back in 1988 on ye olde 64. This news was not only surprising, but very pleasant.

Same. I think this was the first game I ever bought for my C64 actually.

I backed Wasteland 2 and I was pretty happy with how that turned out, so I'll probably back this one too - Brian Fargo is welcome to my nostalgia-bucks.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

I got The Bard's Tale (the 2004 one) for my Xperia a while back, and I still have it on my phone now (though I don't think it will be as fun without the flip-out game pad thing of the Xperia Play).
It was FUCKING FANTASTIC! Seriously a wonderful game that was both fun to play and had me laughing the whole way. And now I need to go play the bloody thing again.

Also, the songs were literally the greatest things. Beer beer beer tiddily beer beer beer...

So yeah, in summary, probably gonna be tossing some dosh their way for a fun rompin' game. It's gonna be interesting to see their take on the older dungeon crawling style of things.

 

[Fasckira]

I got The Bard's Tale (the 2004 one) for my Xperia a while back, and I still have it on my phone now (though I don't think it will be as fun without the flip-out game pad thing of the Xperia Play).
It was FUCKING FANTASTIC! Seriously a wonderful game that was both fun to play and had me laughing the whole way. And now I need to go play the bloody thing again.

Also, the songs were literally the greatest things. Beer beer beer tiddily beer beer beer...

So yeah, in summary, probably gonna be tossing some dosh their way for a fun rompin' game. It's gonna be interesting to see their take on the older dungeon crawling style of things.

Just to clarify, thats not a "true" Bards Tale game (though I prefer it over the previous ones), with this new one likely to be a bit more serious in tone.

Coin and Cleavage was very adorable in its humour, I'd love to see a new sequel to that even if it was just for more songs!

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

Just to clarify, thats not a "true" Bards Tale game (though I prefer it over the previous ones), with this new one likely to be a bit more serious in tone.

Coin and Cleavage was very adorable in its humour, I'd love to see a new sequel to that even if it was just for more songs!

All good, I already knew, I compared it more because it's being made by the same people and I said:

It's gonna be interesting to see their take on the older dungeon crawling style of things.

Still pretty excited for it even if they tone the humour down. Hoping they'll include some of the jokes though, as someone who loves RPGs and all the good old D&D style games, The Bard's Tale really got a laugh out of me.

I'm excited for it, even if it is more serious. But then again, kickstarter and all, tales of terror and woe.

 

[Quellist]

Oh fuck, I bought the Bard's tale 1 when it came out. Now its the 30th Anniversary , I need a drink.

Same here. Man I loved that game.

We are so old.

Same for me, I still remember that series fondly. Now excuse me while i go shake my stick at those darn kids on my lawn

 

[StatusNil]

I... uh... didn't buy Bard's Tale 1 back in the day. "Arrr, matey!", and all that. I was SUCH a hoodlum at 11, although I'm not sure if the local legislation actually protected games at that point. I did buy BT2, though, and at some point it destroyed my saves disk. So they had their revenge. Then a friend got BT3, and that was the first one we beat. And not without help from ye olde Clue Book. Much memories, '88 was a cool year.

So I'm definitely keeping an eye on this, though I'm considerably soured on this Kickstarter business. And not sure about the whole "photogrammetry" thing. Are we talking the real Skara Brae here? Cool as it is, it may not make the most impressive of virtual cities. This Real World of yours is so... dingy!

Now, let us rise for our national anthem:

"The song I sing will tell the tale of a cold and wintry day

Of castle walls and torchlit halls and the price men had to pay... "

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I'll add my voice to all the old fogeys in here who remember buying the original.

I still have my graph paper maps!!!

I remember I would save/reload to respawn that first statue over and over...it was easy to kill and gave very good XP. A damned exploiter, I was.