Game News Bard's Tale IV Kickstarter Update #9: Monte Cook Stretch Goal, Soundtrack and Lore Samples

[Infinitron]

Tags: Bard's Tale IV; Chris Keenan; InXile Entertainment; Mark Morgan; Monte Cook; Nathan Long

Now that E3 is over, inXile need to jump-start their comatose Bard's Tale IV Kickstarter campaign back to life. The latest Kickstarter update introduces some new developments that may help with that. There's a new Monte Cook stretch goal at $1.4M, a first sample of music from Mark Morgan's soundtrack, a bit of background lore courtesy of Nathan Long. Here are the details about the first two:

Monte Cook Prepares to Join the Ranks!

Monte Cook of Monte Cook Games will also be joining us as a stretch goal at $1,400,000! Monte Cook, as many of you may know due to his involvement with our other game Torment: Tides of Numenera, is an acclaimed author and game designer. Monte has written hundreds of tabletop roleplaying game books and articles and won numerous awards. Starting out with the Rolemaster and Champions game lines, he soon went to work for TSR where he worked on Dungeons & Dragons, including the 3rd Edition, and the much-celebrated Planescape setting. More recently, he is of course well known for creating the Numenera tabletop setting, The Strange and much more!

Monte will be taking charge of the design for one of our dungeons with your support. We look forward to working with him to deliver some mind-bending designs!

Mark Morgan's First Song

As some of you may know, we have a long-standing relationship with the legendary RPG composer Mark Morgan, who is well known both for his work on the Fallout games, Planescape: Torment, and now, Wasteland 2 and the upcoming Torment: Tides of Numenera. Mark has always been a fantastic fit for our games and with The Bard's Tale IV we feel that he will be able to deliver some excellent music as well.

Today, we're excited to offer you an extended peek at an early sampling at some of his work on the game. If it sounds familiar, the first 15 seconds of this song were used in the intro scene of our Kickstarter video.



Some of you may remember this song's inspiration – The Traveler's Tune – from the original Commodore 64 version of The Bard's Tale, and Mark has remastered and expanded the song featuring brand-new instrumentation and arrangements.
​

Check out the full update for Nathan Long's lore piece, which exhibits the typical inXile attraction to stories about evil religions and sinister cults. Oh, and the Red Boots are in.

 

[theSavant]

This is the first popular kickstarter which will end up this way (kicktraq):

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and not this way:

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[tyrannosaurus rex]

1 276 000 $$



No surprise here. Had Wasteland been released before the Torment kickstarter the same would have happened. And now he's going for the celebrity baiting by inviting one of the biggest blow hard in the RPG industry.

You're at the end of the rope Fargo, now that the dust has settled we see that you're all hype and no substance.

 

[Turok]

The problem is Bards tale is that not much people know that game, and the best ones are too old, most people associate Bards tale with this:

 

[Infinitron]

^That's not something that would necessarily dissuade people from pledging!

 

[karnak]

The problem is Bards tale is that not much people know that game, and the best ones are too old, most people associate Bards tale with this:

Best RPG tits before Witcher.

 

[Viata]

The problem is Bards tale is that not much people know that game, and the best ones are too old, most people associate Bards tale with this:

Best RPG tits before Witcher.

Going by that guy back there, she also has the best RPG ass.

 

[ROARRR]

Why is the Kickstarter for BT4 so average?
Here are some suggestions:
1. Wasteland 2 is not the game many expected
2. There are only so many resources and if ya check it out there are/were "better" stuff to pledge for:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ysnet/shenmue-3?ref=nav_search
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night/description
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1062682568/umbra/description
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ldi/little-devil-inside/description
3.The announcement time was bad because of E3
4.Because of the sum of all three reasons

Nevertheless I did support BT4!

 

[theSavant]

Can it come already?

 

[Darkzone]

This is the first popular kickstarter which will end up this way (kicktraq):
#.............................
##...........................
##############
and not this way:
#.............................#
##.........................##
###############

Not quite. Torment has also not a very high tail by making 50% in the first two days, and neither WL2. And Yooka-Laylee is one of this examples with 3.1 million dollar end result and near no tail.

The problem is Bards tale is that not much people know that game, and the best ones are too old, most people associate Bards tale with this:

Best RPG tits before Witcher.

Going by that guy back there, she also has the best RPG ass.

Begining at 1.37:

 

[Morality Games]

Why is the Kickstarter for BT4 so average?
Here are some suggestions:
1. Wasteland 2 is not the game many expected
2. There are only so many resources and if ya check it out there are/were "better" stuff to pledge for:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ysnet/shenmue-3?ref=nav_search
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night/description
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1062682568/umbra/description
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ldi/little-devil-inside/description
3.The announcement time was bad because of E3
4.Because of the sum of all three reasons

Nevertheless I did support BT4!

KickStarter is average because there is a glut in the cRPG market. Thus 7DS which would have gotten funded in an eye blink back in the day is struggling to get a modest infusion of cash.

A big console RPG using Unreal Engine might convince the relatively untapped console market to get involved.

 

[Lady_Error]

KickStarter is average because there is a glut in the market.

Not in the blobber market. Which is small. Therefore less money.

 

[DeepOcean]

Why is the Kickstarter for BT4 so average?

Because very few people like blobbers? This kickstarter is only average if people expected it would make the same amount as an isometric RPG what would only happen if the blobber fans were secretly being cloned on mass.
Sales of Legend of Grimrock 2:
http://steamspy.com/app/251730
150.000 copies
Sales of Wasteland 2:
http://steamspy.com/app/240760
460.000
Legend of Grimrock 2 was released about the same time as Wasteland 2. I actually expected them to make way less money. It's a pity, I'm not specialist on blobbers but the few I played offered things you hardly find on other styles of RPGs.

 

[Morality Games]

KickStarter is average because there is a glut in the market.

Not in the blobber market. Which is small. Therefore less money.

True. In that context Bard's Tale IV is doing just swell.

 

[Zeronet]

Maybe it's something to tide them over, until Torment/WL2 EEEEEE releases which is presumably much better than WL2 (i'm hoping) and people get excited for WL3.

 

[Morality Games]

Maybe it's something to tide them over, until Torment/WL2 EEEEEE releases which is presumably much better than WL2 (i'm hoping) and people get excited for WL3.

More like trying to maximize mileage out of crowdfunding before/if it dries up.

Wasteland 3 is basically a slam dunk whatever form it takes, as is the franchise's almost inevitable Fallout: New Vegas style Unreal engine spinoff. Torment is also a slam dunk, as is in all likelihood any sequel they may or may not want to make or any console Unreal engine spinoff they want to do. Slam dunks on KickStarter, slam dunks in preorders, slam dunks on Steam, slam dunks on GOG. Slam dunks slam dunks slam dunks.

As franchises they'll all probably experience Day 1 diminishing sales over time but they'll do better on sale and in bundles.

Bard's Tale IV and Meantime aren't in slam dunk territory (yet), so its the ideal time to fund them using Fargo's celebrity.

 

[Infinitron]

Maybe it's something to tide them over, until Torment/WL2 EEEEEE releases which is presumably much better than WL2 (i'm hoping) and people get excited for WL3.

That's kind of a tautology. If a game makes lots of money on Kickstarter, that's a sign that the concept is popular, and it becomes a major project to be worked on for years. If not, the scope shrinks accordingly and it becomes "something to tide over".

 

[Dorateen]

I look forward to our party surviving as underground soldiers of fortune, against oppressive forces, accused of crimes we didn't commit.

 

[Bonerbill]

The problem is Bards tale is that not much people know that game, and the best ones are too old, most people associate Bards tale with this:

Thanks for telling us that you're a freaking faggot who likes cock.

Nothing wrong with that of course, but just saying.

 

[mondblut]

Why would they need Monte Cook for a blobber?

2M goal should be "we scrap the BT title, license the Wizardry franchise from japs, and hire D.W. Bradley as lead designer".

 

[tuluse]

Because very few people like blobbers? This kickstarter is only average if people expected it would make the same amount as an isometric RPG what would only happen if the blobber fans were secretly being cloned on mass.
Sales of Legend of Grimrock 2:
http://steamspy.com/app/251730
150.000 copies
Sales of Wasteland 2:
http://steamspy.com/app/240760
460.000
Legend of Grimrock 2 was released about the same time as Wasteland 2. I actually expected them to make way less money. It's a pity, I'm not specialist on blobbers but the few I played offered things you hardly find on other styles of RPGs.

And this is with LoG2 costing about half of what WL2 costs.

 

[Darkzone]

Because very few people like blobbers? This kickstarter is only average if people expected it would make the same amount as an isometric RPG what would only happen if the blobber fans were secretly being cloned on mass.
Sales of Legend of Grimrock 2:
http://steamspy.com/app/251730
150.000 copies
Sales of Wasteland 2:
http://steamspy.com/app/240760
460.000
Legend of Grimrock 2 was released about the same time as Wasteland 2. I actually expected them to make way less money. It's a pity, I'm not specialist on blobbers but the few I played offered things you hardly find on other styles of RPGs.

And this is with LoG2 costing about half of what WL2 costs.

And LoG has 900k owners alone on steam, that is twice as more as WL2. Link to source of steamspy.com.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

Because nobody fucking gives a shit about Bard's Tale now. It's just an old and mostly forgotten fantasy blobber. Wizardry has tactics, M&M has science-fiction and hordes of monsters, Grimrock is new and shiny. I mean Bard's Tale wasn't even on Codex top 70 because nobody fucking remembers it, or cares about it at this point. And if Codex doesn't give a shit about something, you can bet your ass the mainstream audience also doesn't. And even if I gave a shit about action blobbers why would I give money to Fargo with his mysterious project if I can just save my money for the next Grimrock game?

 

[tuluse]

And LoG has 900k owners alone on steam, that is twice as more as WL2. Link to source of steamspy.com.

Keep in mind a huge number of those came from a humble bundle.

 

[Metro]

And LoG has 900k owners alone on steam, that is twice as more as WL2. Link to source of steamspy.com.

Keep in mind a huge number of those came from a humble bundle.

This. For $5ish you got it and four or so other games so they effectively solid it for $1 or less. Deepest Discount WL2 has had is 50% off I believe. Anyway, it's debatable at this point whether this is even a blobber.