Game News Bard's Tale IV Kickstarter Update #16: Final Week, Monte Cook Stretch Goal Unlocked

[Infinitron]

Tags: Bard's Tale IV; Brian Fargo; InXile Entertainment; Monte Cook

The Bard's Tale IV Kickstarter campaign is entering its final week. Yesterday, it passed $1.4M of funding, adding veteran RPG designer Monte Cook to the game's team. Due to July 4th, today's Kickstarter update doesn't do much more than announce that, but here's the obligatory quote:

Happy 4th of July weekend for all our American backers. In the US, this weekend is about family and celebration and we’ll use it to recharge our batteries before our final week, but before we check out we wanted to give you one final quick update.

The biggest news as of yesterday: The first of our stretch goals to put together the ultimate RPG super team has been hit, and Numenera creator Monte Cook is joining The Bard's Tale IV!

The exciting thing about working with someone like Monte is that as a veteran pen and paper RPG designer, he will bring a fresh yet experienced perspective to our game, helping us to look at our dungeons from a new perspective and thus craft more varied, engaging challenges. And he knows dungeons, as the creator of dungeonaday.com, a site set up to provide gaming parties with huge amounts of adventuring content!​

The campaign has also unlocked sufficient gamification achievements to gain a new reward - two Julie Fowlis songs, one of which is the in-engine video song that everybody has been asking for. Three more achievements are required to unlock the next reward, although it seems inXile haven't decided what that's going to be yet.

So that's it for this week. I wonder what surprises they have left for the last one. The Chris Avellone stretch goal seems out of reach to me, but can Colin make it in?

 

[Excidium II]

pity post

Making it to 1.5m sounds good enough, if only to see how experienced pnp designers handle a CRPG dungeon

 

[Morality Games]

They might bring Avellone aboard anyway if it reaches 1.9 million in post-Kickstarter backers.

 

[Dangersaurus]

All these guys will be sitting at the buffet no matter what the stretch goals. RPG/CRPG friends and family plan.

 

[Shevek]

Where is the codex fundraiser for this? Lets light a fire under this one for the final week. I mean its a TB blobber for crying out loud.

 

[tyrannosaurus rex]

Where is the codex fundraiser for this? Lets light a fire under this one for the final week. I mean its a TB blobber for crying out loud.

Last I heard there's no fundraisers for confirmed hacks.

 

[resilient sphere]

is it possible to trade all these inXile achievements I've been vicariously unlocking for food

 

[LeStryfe79]

You are all making a grave error in not seeing the wonderment of this project. Trust me, I'm always right, 80 proof of the time.

 

[MurkyShadow]

You are all making a grave error in not seeing the wonderment of this project. Trust me, I'm always right, 80 proof of the time.

I'll drink to that!

 

[Brayko]

Yeah I got a gut feeling that this will be the InXile game I spend the most time on.

 

[Darkzone]

You are all making a grave error in not seeing the wonderment of this project. Trust me, I'm always right, 80 proof of the time.

Positive or negative towards BTIV. You know, that you never know on the codex, and you never know if poe's law applies or not.

 

[Gozma]

Re-exclude Monte Cook stretch goal on the last day for the big bucks

 

[LeStryfe79]

I'm always right 80 proof of the time.

 

[Darkzone]

I'm always right 80 proof of the time.

Currently you are 100%, because: Not A or A is a tautology. If you decide not A xor A, then you will be not 100% right, then you could be 80% xor 20% right. So either it will be wonderful good xor wonderful bad.

 

[LeStryfe79]

I'm also a moron.

 

[Darkzone]

I'm also a moron.

Na that does not help us.. but you could be also 80% right or 20% wrong in this case. gn8. And support BTIV it will be good.

 

[Ulrox]

Yeah this project slowed down insanely fast. I wonder what that could mean.

 

[Vault Dweller]

In general, the campaign has been very boring. I loved the video but I don't really care about "Monte Cook designs this, Avellone designs that, social media achievements!!!" crap. I understand they can't show new videos every week, but give us more screens, concept art, design talk.

 

[Brayko]

Yeah show screens and concept dumps this early in development that is basically the conceptualizing process. An embryonic project needs time to develop. Only a fucktard or the inexperienced would slap down money for things that change so rapidly.

I say collect a modest budget, quietly design the game with a smallish crew that knows what they're doing, and release it when nobody is looking. Ill bet you a physical copy of AoD that good results will come.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Yeah show screens and concept dumps this early in development that is basically the conceptualizing process. An embryonic project needs time to develop. Only a fucktard or the inexperienced would slap down money for things that change so rapidly.

:what the fuck am I reading:

They released a fucking video. Everyone understand it's a work in progress and that things may change without notice but the video shows the style, atmosphere, and goals (i.e. what the team is aiming for). Such things help selling the game a lot more than a "let's unlock social media achievements" game. Similarly, they can and should have posted more sketches, art, screens showing more and building on top of the video.

 

[Infinitron]

IMO the video was TOO polished and cutscene-like. They should have made it more "gamey", even at the cost of graphical fidelity. Show people some grid-based square dancing, some digging around in nooks and crannies to solve a puzzle. Something that feels like somebody is actually playing a game.

 

[Brayko]

Well yeah its easy to not want demands as someone who isnt a true believer in Kickstarter and is not backing (not saying its a horrible idea, just not my cup of tea). I just think its stupid to show fake shit just to scrape more dollars. They already said that its gonna be Grimrock-like but with an actual plot and actually have a class system (which we have not seem much of lately) so it looks promising already and worth looking at once its released. Great things often come from the shadows, with little to work with..

 

[Vault Dweller]

I just think its stupid to show fake shit just to scrape more dollars.

Concept art and prototyping aren't fake shit, they are an important step toward the final product.

They already said that its gonna be Grimrock-like but with an actual plot and actually have a class system (which we have not seem much of lately) so it looks promising already and worth looking at once its released.

Kickstarter is about raising funds. To raise funds you need to create excitement. There is nothing exciting about the social achievements game.

Before you tell me that the game is funded, it's not. 1.5 mil is low. While inXile can tap into other revenue streams, It would have been better had they gotten closer to 3 mil.

 

[Morality Games]

Yeah this project slowed down insanely fast. I wonder what that could mean.

There's a glut in the RPG market.

Next year and a half at least is going to be dominated by AAA.

 

[Brayko]

Yeah cos Wasteland 2 was awesome and garnered 3 mil. How much did Grimrock or Expeditions make? Much better games in my opinion with minimal outside funding so that kinda gives me some kind of idea of what people can accomplish with limited hard cash. Of course if someone enjoyed the larger funded projects more they may not have similar sentiments.