Game News Footage from a 1998 Bard's Tale IV prototype revealed for the first time

[Saxon1974]

After watching that video, for once maybe EA made a good decision. I hated the look of the 3d games in that era....

 

[vorvek]

Well, that's a prototype from 1998. I remember seeing a preview of Blade: Edge of Darkness (or Severance, or whatever was called in your country, game had like 5 different names) and it looked like crap back then as well. Turns out, when it came out 3 years afterwards it looked gorgeus.

Just because the prototype sucks visually doesn't mean the game would have been that horrible. Also, calling that prototype considering there's little to no gameplay involved is a long shot. It looks more like an engine test, if anything.

 

[FrancoTAU]

Wow, I honestly thought this was going to be a Dragon Wars video before they removed mentions of Bard's Tale from it or something like that. It's amazing how invisible projects used to be before the internet really exploded. The Cleve Wizardry 8 that no one believe existed for years. I wonder what other sequels died in pre alpha hell.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Looks better than NWN.

 

[SharkClub]

Reminds me of Thief a bit.

 

[Burning Bridges]

I'd be more interested to learn what happened to this BT4 from '92:

I remember that article and waiting for more news for some time.

 

[grdja]

After watching that video, for once maybe EA made a good decision. I hated the look of the 3d games in that era....

Human characters were still terrible due to low poly counts. Mainstream didn't start looking decent on that regard till Q3 and UT. Though original Half-Life wasn't as bad as some atrocities posted in last pages. You were lucky in Thief and System Shock 2, with all the darkness and shadows you didn't get to see some truly atrocious human models.

But if we are not talking about arpeegees and doom clones (remember when all FPS were called that?) by '99 3D graphics were more than solid. Battlezone, Freespace, Homeworld. Sacrifice got away by using characters that were at best anthropomorphic (and its 2000 title not a '98/99 one).

 

[Infinitron]

Hey, Rebecca Heineman commented on the Youtube video:

burgerbecky 6 days ago
Want a spiritual successor to Bard's Tale III, written by the author of Bard's Tale III, designed by the designers Dragon Wars, Bard's Tale III and Judges Guild's classic RPG "The Dark Tower"? Look to Olde Skuul on Facebook for hints and our upcoming kickstarter! OldeSkuul on facebook!

"Olde Skuul"

 

[Infinitron]

More from Rebecca Heineman: http://bardstale.brotherhood.de/talefiles/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1065

Here is what Rebecca Heinaman said:

Seth: its from the origin systems archives

Rebecca: Yep, I remember that.
Wow, that was a long time ago

Seth: What's the story there?

Rebecca: We did a prototype, threw it together, and went to EA to see if they were interested. They were not
So the project died.

Seth:Very interesting!
That's too bad

Rebecca: There was no real story or anything. It was really rough. Just a concept. It was really seeing if EA would even be interested in a game in the series.
Since EA wasn't interested, it petered out

Seth: bummer

Rebecca: Yeah, and that prototype was tossed out. It's dated anyways and for The Rip, it wouldn't look like that anyways

Seth: I'm going to post the clip in the bard's tale forums, do you mind if I quote what you said about the demo?

Rebecca: Sure. It's so long ago. I remember we made a castle and shadowing, and some concepts.
This video, I don't remember. Which is odd.

Seth:what year? 1998

Rebecca:
1998-2000
It was when we were pitching game ideas for Logicware (1998).
Then contraband in 1999
However, at the time, Interplay was still around, and I don't remember if they would have been involved. If I recall correctly, Interplay wasn't part of the project
It was EA and I. But, then again, I now know that EA was working on their own Bard's Tale IV
which looked NOTHING like that video

Seth:right, but the video is from your demo correct?
Seth:EA and Janelle's bt4 demo was totally different, more like the traditional bt format?

Rebecca: Correct, it was more traditional.
To be honest, I don't remember the demo anymore.
I remember we did an outside castle, and a walk through
I don't remember a female warrior.
For one, I'd never approve of her chest to be as big as that.
I'm wondering if one of the guys did that on their own and leaked it later
I remember having a paladin running around.

Seth: But the video is definitely from the game engine/demo you built and presented to EA, correct?

Rebecca: I would say so. However, please leak that "Olde Skuul" is planning a spiritual successor to Bard's Tale III and is preparing a kickstarter. I'd love to see if there is real excitement behind it

The plot thickens!!

Here's the "Olde Skuul" page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OldeSkuul

 

[Roguey]

Normally I'd be excited about a game made by an alliance between cis and transwomen but damnit "Olde Sküül."

 

[abnaxus]

Normally I'd be excited about a game made by an alliance between cis and transwomen but damnit "Olde Sküül."

How much did you and Lesi pledge for the "Bloom" Kickstarter?

 

[Roguey]

Normally I'd be excited about a game made by an alliance between cis and transwomen but damnit "Olde Sküül."

How much did you and Lesi pledge for the "Bloom" Kickstarter?

Lesi doesn't buy games unless she's already played and liked it or trusts the developer from previous works (like CD Projekt). Unfortunately I'm not all that enthused by the project.