Game News Bard's Tale IV Kickstarter Update #13: Colin McComb and Chris Avellone Stretch Goals

[Lhynn]

Chris Avellone designing combat?

I see no way this could go wrong.

Me neither.

 

[Zed]

Just a warning for full-blobber-fans: if we reach the goal 3d character model on inventory screen, it's more likely that combat will happen in 3rd person as well. So it's an ambiguous stretchgoal. Win and lose. Isn't that brainfuck? I would have preferred if they set their goals straight from the beginning, e.g. either go for full blobbing, or go mixed gameplay. But now this stretchgoal can even split the community...

I wish they'd expand on both of these points.
Draw a mock-up of the inventory or something.
And decide on the combat perspective already.

 

[M0RBUS]

See, what did I tell you? What did *I* tell you guys?!

Me and about half this board

 

[Infinitron]

Functional third person combat requires more than just 3D models that look good in an inventory screen. It's probably just the first in a series of stretch goals (that won't be reached).

Maybe in the EE.

 

[Excidium II]

Functional third person combat requires more than just 3D models that look good in an inventory screen. It's probably just the first in a series of stretch goals (that won't be reached).

Maybe in the EE.

Aren't the enemies already animated anyway? Surely they have humanoid ones

I just don't see the point to be honest. Do people really want to see some janky animations

 

[DeepOcean]

I don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but this KS will never reach 1,9 million. MCA is there to drive up sales a bit, but he is out of reach.

Am I the only one who embraces the bursting bubble? I rather take a shorter game with well elaborated core elements, than some additional dungeon bloat just for the sake of integrating "celebrities". In that case maybe it's even better not to reach some stretchgoals (no matter how bad that might sound)

You are assuming that those dungeons are extra, just notice that nowhere on the KS Fargo says how many dungeons are in the game, it could just happen that InXile has a certain number of dungeons and that some of those will be given to those designers instead of being done by InXile own designers.

 

[Crooked Bee]

This is all nice and all, but I hope MCA doesn't just become a professional stretch goal at this point.

 

[lurker3000]

Along with Chris, we’re also bringing back the second Designer of Planescape: Torment and Creative Lead of a Torment: Tides of Numener, the inestimable Colin McComb! He will join our team at $1.7 million, designing a dungeon set in the Realm of the Elves, because we all know no one has mastered the craft of the Elves as Colin has.

So this stretch goal has an inXile designer working on an inXile game? How is this a stretch goal?

 

[Crescent Hawk]

Well this news hasn't exactly lit up the KS pledges so far.....

I think there is nothing on this earth that can lit it up. Not beacuse the pitch is bad, or the idea is bad. It's just this is the maximum a blobber can make, even if Jesus himself would be developing it.

I don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but this KS will never reach 1,9 million. MCA is there to drive up sales a bit, but he is out of reach.

Am I the only one who embraces the bursting bubble? I rather take a shorter game with well elaborated core elements, than some additional dungeon bloat just for the sake of integrating "celebrities". In that case maybe it's even better not to reach some stretchgoals (no matter how bad that might sound)

Yeah, I don't miss it either.

Sadly I agree, not because I enjoy bloobers, I have fond memories of stuff like it, but I think its a concept that truly needs a revival in mechanics, animations, interactivity in order to spike peoples interest in them again.

 

[Ismaul]

So this stretch goal has an inXile designer working on an inXile game? How is this a stretch goal?

Shhhh-
Also, an inXile designer? Pretty sur MCA is here to stay too.

Fargo is in a weird position of trying to use his talent for monetizing, but if they fail as stretch goals, he can't just let the talent leave, that'd be a dumb business move.

 

[LeStryfe79]

I would pay $1000 for a Crooked Bee stretch goal. (As a consultant of course)

 

[Caconym]

Along with Chris, we’re also bringing back the second Designer of Planescape: Torment and Creative Lead of a Torment: Tides of Numener, the inestimable Colin McComb! He will join our team at $1.7 million, designing a dungeon set in the Realm of the Elves, because we all know no one has mastered the craft of the Elves as Colin has.

So this stretch goal has an inXile designer working on an inXile game? How is this a stretch goal?

This seemed weird and almost disquieting to me too. Could it be that Colin's there just for Torment and his contract officially ends with its release??
OR could it be possible they already know the next-next inXile game (coughVBcough) and the plan is for the man to jump right into the pre-pre-production phase of that one after Torment's done, skipping BTIV?
Or something?

 

[Excidium II]

MCA designed Ag. Center and we saw how that turned out. Those stretch goals are p. lame

 

[Gregz]

Well this news hasn't exactly lit up the KS pledges so far.....

It is unreasonable to expect gamers to memorize the names of game developers. At best the average gamer remembers the studio that made the game, usually just the title.

Fargo and company should have hired people who knew how to make cRPGs when they made "Wasteland 2", that was on them and the backers trusted them to be able to make those hiring decisions. They had better deliver big with BT4 or Torment because they have no more 'nostalgia titles' to pimp on Kickstarter, and they will have burned whatever goodwill and trust backers have left in them. This is all on Fargo.

It's good to see the market in action. Harebrained Schemes and Larian don't have these problems, and for good reason. They deliver a product that meets or exceeds the backer's expectations. That is far and away the most important job they have. Random foot lockers with junk loot all the way to endgame and armor 'upgrades' that make you weak vs. energy weapons is just retarded game design. I'm personally happy to see those mistakes being punished, sending a firm message back to inXile, and I'm a guy whose very first and favorite cRPGs were Wasteland and The Bard's Tale. IP-lore is meaningless if you can't design a good game around it.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

Well then Torment seems to be turning into the Zeno clash, Incal, Technopriests feel, so either it will gather the praise of the main press or alienate them. Numanuma is the real testing ground for Fargo.

 

[himmy]

I don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but this KS will never reach 1,9 million. MCA is there to drive up sales a bit, but he is out of reach.

Want to bet on it? I'll wager 100 brofists (in that I will browse your history and manually fist you 100 times) that it will reach 1.9 million.

 

[Irenaeus II]

I don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but this KS will never reach 1,9 million. MCA is there to drive up sales a bit, but he is out of reach.

Want to bet on it? I'll wager 100 brofists (in that I will browse your history and manually fist you 100 times) that it will reach 1.9 million.

Yeah, I think this will easily reach 1.9 million.

 

[Athelas]

Random foot lockers with junk loot all the way to endgame and armor 'upgrades' that make you weak vs. energy weapons is just retarded game design. I'm personally happy to see those mistakes being punished, sending a firm message back to inXile

Those things aren't the reason why this is getting less funding than InXile's other Kickstarters.

 

[Turok]

Is a Bait, the kickstarter campaign is not going to be that high because this kind of game is a niche.

 

[roshan]

So a stretch goal for an internal employee to work on the game (absurd) and another one who has already been used as a celebrity developer stretch goal and produced nothing of note. He has neither completed his Arcanum LP nor his Wasteland novel. These celebrity stretch goals are just boring and silly.

 

[mindx2]

So a stretch goal for an internal employee to work on the game (absurd) and another one who has already been used as a celebrity developer stretch goal and produced nothing of note. He has neither completed his Arcanum LP nor his Wasteland novel. These celebrity stretch goals are just boring and silly.

Yet they tend to work or Fargo and other KS wouldn't use them....

 

[roshan]

So a stretch goal for an internal employee to work on the game (absurd) and another one who has already been used as a celebrity developer stretch goal and produced nothing of note. He has neither completed his Arcanum LP nor his Wasteland novel. These celebrity stretch goals are just boring and silly.

Yet they tend to work or Fargo and other KS wouldn't use them....

Well I guess we'll see with this campaign if this strategy can still work. I don't think RPGs have such a wide base to draw from with regards to funding, it's still a niche sector in gaming. I'm guessing most people that are backing games at this point have already plopped down money on other projects before, and the unfortunate truth is that these celebrities have generally been failures at doing anything of note. So we'll just have to see if fans have gotten tired of having MCA and the 4 or 5 other celeb developers continuously being paraded in front of them or if they have become jaded by their lackluster work.

 

[mindx2]

So a stretch goal for an internal employee to work on the game (absurd) and another one who has already been used as a celebrity developer stretch goal and produced nothing of note. He has neither completed his Arcanum LP nor his Wasteland novel. These celebrity stretch goals are just boring and silly.

Yet they tend to work or Fargo and other KS wouldn't use them....

Well I guess we'll see with this campaign if this strategy can still work. I don't think RPGs have such a wide base to draw from with regards to funding, it's still a niche sector in gaming. I'm guessing most people that are backing games at this point have already plopped down money on other projects before, and the unfortunate truth is that these celebrities have generally been failures at doing anything of note. So we'll just have to see if fans have gotten tired of having MCA and the 4 or 5 other celeb developers continuously being paraded in front of them or if they have become jaded by their lackluster work.

I agree that the wow factor has certainly seemed to have worn off on these type of "stretch goals" as can be seen by the miniscule bump this last KS update generated.

 

[Immortal]

Yea After PoE and Wasteland I couldn't give a fuck..

Make me a good isometric game and then we will talk about $$$$.

 

[roshan]

Yeah, what did Chris Avellone do on POE? Nothing, he was just responsible for the usual cut content. What did Zeits do? Bit of consulting regarding gods and then he fucked right off. And Tim Cain just ended up being Sawyer's he-bitch. Fans forked out money for these guys to end up doing absolutely nothing, and instead got the work of Carrie Patel and a bunch of interns.