Bard's Tale The Bard's Tale IV Pre-Release Thread [RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Russia is over. The end.]

the whole "plot" is how InXile isn't the desperate underdog anymore, and giving money to a successful company just isn't the same.

Without this KS, inXile is just as "successful" as it was before (with maybe a spare 1.5 mil in the bank account). Are they even doing any work on the side right now?

They'll be successful when they can develop 2 games simultaneously with their own money.

 

[Infinitron]

What happened to releasing that footage over the next few weeks? It's a 40-day campaign, I'm not sure playing your best card on the third day is such a good idea.

Unless they have multiple pieces of footage.

My current theory is that tomorrow's footage will be "in engine", ie, just an environment fly-by, little or no gameplay. Later on, they'll pull out something with gameplay too.

(No, this isn't something anybody from inXile has hinted to me and I might be wrong, we'll see)

 

[Zombra]

Personally, I think their approach is heavy-handed. It's quite obvious that the video was ready and that they are intentionally hiding their hand to keep the hype going.

What? So now we expect Kickstarters to be incompetently run, with no marketing sense and no pacing? Just dump everything on day one and then wait 30 days and see what happens? Salesmanship seems like a weird thing to complain about.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

I think he's complaining that Fargo isn't selling well to him personally, because he enjoys a different kind of theatrics where the developer plays a soon-out-of-a-job desperate, but passionate guy, and not about the fact that there are theatrics. When there are none, campaigns are cringe worthy. (cfr Seven Dragon Saga by TSI)

 

[felipepepe]

What? So now we expect Kickstarters to be incompetently run, with no marketing sense and no pacing? Just dump everything on day one and then wait 30 days and see what happens? Salesmanship seems like a weird thing to complain about.

Oh, I find Fargo's salesmanship a very valid thing to complain about, his stance while hyping a game is borderline Peter Molyneaux-ish.

Regardless, there are levels between "incompetently run" and heavy handed. Larian did by far the best KS campaign I've seen, it perfectly combines professionalism with that nice personal touch. InXile could learn a lesson or two from them.

 

[Infinitron]

Fargo just isn't that kind of guy. Personally, I think he needs to slap Chris Keenan until he's willing to get in front of a camera. The "group effort" vibe of Torment was (and is) very nice.

There's no reason to rely on one man alone. People get tired of seeing the same guy all the time, that's just natural.

 

[Athelas]

What? So now we expect Kickstarters to be incompetently run, with no marketing sense and no pacing? Just dump everything on day one and then wait 30 days and see what happens? Salesmanship seems like a weird thing to complain about.

Oh, I find Fargo's salesmanship a very valid thing to complain about, his stance while hyping a game is borderline Peter Molyneaux-ish.

Regardless, there are levels between "incompetently run" and heavy handed. Larian did by far the best KS campaign I've seen, it perfectly combines professionalism with that nice personal touch. InXile could learn a lesson or two from them.

Yes, I'm sure that the company that raised more than four times the amount that Larian did without even showing gameplay footage could stand to learn a thing or two from them.

What happened to releasing that footage over the next few weeks? It's a 40-day campaign, I'm not sure playing your best card on the third day is such a good idea.

Unless they have multiple pieces of footage.

My current theory is that tomorrow's footage will be "in engine", ie, just an environment fly-by, little or no gameplay. Later on, they'll pull out something with gameplay too.

(No, this isn't something anybody from inXile has hinted to me and I might be wrong, we'll see)

There's only so much 'wow factor' you can extract from showing footage, and most of it will be from the first time you show footage.

As for gameplay, I'm envisioning showing a dungeon environment where the player accidentally triggers some traps or something. Not really expecting them to show combat this early.

 

[felipepepe]

Yes, I'm sure that the company that raised more than four times the amount that Larian did without even showing gameplay footage could stand to learn a thing or two from them.

Yeah, I'm sure that Skyrim is the best RPG ever made, there's nothing it could learn from all those shitty 90's and 80's RPGs that barely sold 100k.

 

[Athelas]

Yes, I'm sure that the company that raised more than four times the amount that Larian did without even showing gameplay footage could stand to learn a thing or two from them.

Yeah, I'm sure that Skyrim is the best RPG ever made, there's nothing it could learn from all those shitty 90's and 80's RPGs that barely sold 100k.

I thought we were discussing the subject of running a successful Kickstarter campaign.

You should be careful with that Skyrim comparison considering D:OS has more mainstream appeal than any InXile RPG.

 

[Infinitron]

I don't think that's a fair comparison. Larian weren't big names, now they are. Let's see how well they do in a future Kickstarter.

As for BT4, while initially it does seem like a simpler, more regressive campaign than Torment's was, it's so early in the campaign that it's really foolish to say anything now.

 

[felipepepe]

As for BT4, while initially it does seem like a simpler, more regressive campaign than Torment's was, it's so early in the campaign that it's really foolish to say anything now.

That was my point. They gimped the start of the campaign to spread things around. The probably have something else in their sleeves for the ending of the campaign, since it will cross the E3 days.

We'll see if that's a better approach than what they did with Torment. Personally, I think it might be, but executed in a more subtle way.

 

[Zombra]

That was my point. They gimped the start of the campaign to spread things around. The probably have something else in their sleeves for the ending of the campaign, since it will cross the E3 days.
We'll see if that's a better approach than what they did with Torment. Personally, I think it might be, but executed in a more subtle way.

I'm still not clear what you mean by "better": more profitable, or more in keeping with your vision of incline? Serious question.

 

[felipepepe]

I honestly mean more profitable in this case. Considering the release of W2, the media blitz, the increased price of the tiers and the free game you get for backing, I expected this to go better than Torment.

IMHO, it didn't mainly because of the weak pitch video (of course, there were other factors, like the Torment > Bard's Tale popularity). Now we'll see if they'll get a huge spike tomorrow with the prototype video. From there we'll keep this arm-chair marketing debate.

 

[ArchAngel]

As for BT4, while initially it does seem like a simpler, more regressive campaign than Torment's was, it's so early in the campaign that it's really foolish to say anything now.

That was my point. They gimped the start of the campaign to spread things around. The probably have something else in their sleeves for the ending of the campaign, since it will cross the E3 days.

We'll see if that's a better approach than what they did with Torment. Personally, I think it might be, but executed in a more subtle way.

E3 will be in the middle of their campaign, the time where all KSs are slow anyways.

 

[Infinitron]

I honestly mean more profitable in this case. Considering the release of W2, the media blitz, the increased price of the tiers and the free game you get for backing, I expected this to go better than Torment.

IMHO, it didn't mainly because of the weak pitch video (of course, there were other factors, like the Torment > Bard's Tale popularity). Now we'll see if they'll get a huge spike tomorrow with the prototype video. From there we'll keep this arm-chair marketing debate.

Better or not, I'm pretty sure it was never going to do as well as Torment.

 

[tuluse]

Actually, I remember Larian's KS seeming like a mess a bunch of people scrambling to fix it after the launch.

Torment was easily the best run ks. Gave as detailed information as they could without spoiling, hit that emotional mark, put the people actually making the game in the spotlight so they'd get credit instead of a monolithic organization.

I'm pretty sure the main reason the Bard's Tale ks is not as widely successful because they're pitching a first person dungeon crawler instead of a story driven isometric RPG.

 

[tuluse]

I don't think that's a fair comparison. Larian weren't big names, now they are. Let's see how well they do in a future Kickstarter.

As for BT4, while initially it does seem like a simpler, more regressive campaign than Torment's was, it's so early in the campaign that it's really foolish to say anything now.

Larian also did worse than Harebrained Schemes.

 

[agris]

I don't think that's a fair comparison. Larian weren't big names, now they are. Let's see how well they do in a future Kickstarter.

As for BT4, while initially it does seem like a simpler, more regressive campaign than Torment's was, it's so early in the campaign that it's really foolish to say anything now.

Larian also did worse than Harebrained Schemes.

Interestingly, both Larian and HBS got about a million for their co-funding campaigns. Both games were going to be made regardless, the question was how much money could they get to improve them.

 

[Volourn]

"I don't think that's a fair comparison. Larian weren't big names, now they are. Let's see how well they do in a future Kickstarter."
\
are you fukkin'? They're no bigger than they were before the KS. They didn't even need the KS. The game was gonna be made no matter what. They've been in the game dev business for years and have had MULTIPLE games sell mil+. HOLY FUCK.

 

[Bonerbill]

I predicted this. I doubt most people even care about first person RPGs and I doubt even played the original BT games. I think it's pretty obvious why Torment, Pillars, and Wasteland 2 had better numbers.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

I'll post this here because no-one seems to be reading the news section.

Someone trolled Dawn off Kickstarter

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/the-bards-tale-iv/comments

Shayne Bates 30 minutes ago
Dawn

Are you the same Dawn that was harassing those poor guys over at the RPGCodex?

Dawn_ 14 minutes ago
@Shayne...

I wonder how it is even possible for a single person to be harassing a whole forum..
Anyway you got it backward. They made a negative article about a game i was backing, i just said on the comments section of the game to the creator that it should take it easy.

My comments got copy/paste on their foum and got bashed there, i tried to defend myself by contacting the admi who copy paste my answer and i got again bashed there..then on several campaign i was their members came at me isulting me and making me leave several campaigns.

So, indeed i am the same and only. They aren't poor guys but morons and if one person have been harassed in that story it is me. Now, if you're part of that cohort you tell me..i'll leave the campaign i don't want to be harassed again by that flock. I'll use paypal.

Shayne Bates 3 minutes ago
Dawn

The RPGCodex was a strong supporter of Kickstarter RPGs since the beginning. Off the top of my head, about $20 000 was raised to support multiple campaigns.

They're a surprisingly timid bunch over a the forums. You may have noticed that there has been a notable lack of enthusiasm for campaigns after the harassment they received by an aggressive individual going by the name of Dawn.

I think the Kickstarter community is much poorer without the RPGCodex, and I think you have had a part in that.

Dawn_ 2 minutes ago
But thx for bringing it up. It such a nice memory..having been harassed for months after everywhere i was going and plus being accused of having done what i actually suffered..

Good luck Inxile and hi to every backers i know and such. I don't feel like particpating anymore in this campaign. Cya around.

Dawn_ less than a minute ago
Look leave me alone ok? They've done me enough bad like that. Believe what you want, think that i am the bad guy. Me, i am just alone and this is a whole forum. Now, you've won, i leave. be happy with them.

Dawn_ 4 minutes ago
Well Adam i don't know if you're saying that for me. Atm, i feel bad..like i want to throw up or suicide myself and i am not suicidal or someone emotional..but i've got so much enough of that cyber-bullying..that story those people.

But if you want my opinion if one person is enough to make them stop their support toward KS then they aren't worth much and doesn't understand the value behind crowdfunding.

Bryy, i think you got it wrong. it's not about thinking it as a pre-order system. It's just that having wait for years support it endure..it is hard to swallow to see others that weren't there since the first get everything without the wait.

Dawn_ 1 minute ago
Me, my conscience is clear. I am a good person, a really not often find on earth good one.
I am a nurse, i do voluntary work with handicaped kids i am on several association..
I got harassed, insulted, bullied for months over nothing just for saying to a sad creator
that he shouldn't take their words at heart that they were a bunch of elitist.

So fuck it. Now i am off.

Secretfire 5 minutes ago
Dawn - I think you misunderstood. "poor people at RPG codex" is almost CERTAINLY a joke, since the main point of RPG codex is to troll professional game companies with the most negative bile possible.

Dawn_ 2 minutes ago
Secretfire, i don't know and i don't care..i just know that they made me suffer for monthsafter that and i almost wanted to live in a hole. I just don't want to go through that again.

N.A.Jones 2 minutes ago
The Codex is full of misanthropes, but they usually have some pretty good discussions that dive super deep into mechanics and what makes an RPG tick. There's a reason developers like Larian, Obsidian and InXile have devs that occasionally post over there and many admit that they at least lurk.

But hey, it must be way easier to write off a whole community of people because some of the people there aren't very nice.

Shmerl 7 minutes ago
@N.A.Jones: I never used Codex, but find Witcher (CDPR) forums very interesting for discussing gaming and RPGs in particular.

Shayne Bates 3 minutes ago
@Shmerl

The RPGCodex has a whole subforum dedicated to the Witcher 3!

Not because anyone thinks the game deserves one mind you.It was because there are so many poles on the site they needed to contain them in one place.

 

[Metro]

I predicted this. I doubt most people even care about first person RPGs and I doubt even played the original BT games. I think it's pretty obvious why Torment, Pillars, and Wasteland 2 had better numbers.

You predicted what? That it did fairly well on day one gaining over half of their goal?

 

[Zombra]

ITS FIRST FUCKING PERSON?

Not sure if serious ... yes, just like most blobbers, including Bard's Tale 1-3. Something wrong with that?

 

[Bonerbill]

You predicted what? That it did fairly well on day one gaining over half of their goal?

Don't be a dick. You know exactly what I'm talking about.

 

[Lady_Error]

I doubt most people even care about first person RPGs

Yeah, apparently that's why Skyrim, Twitcher and all the rest haven't sold a single copy.