The Bard's Tale IV Update 34: The Mage and the Bard

[sear]

Hi all,

Today we're pleased to announce a brand-new VR game in the Bard's Tale universe - The Mage's Tale. Of course, we know many of our Bard's Tale IV backers and fans are eager to know what this might mean for The Bard's Tale IV, so we're here to answer that question for you!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/in ... ts/1815717

But here's the best news for backers: after having seen our videos and screenshots, we saw many of you asking how we're able to build a game this graphically polished on a $1.5 million budget. We're pleased to say that while both games are being worked on by separate teams, many of the environments, models, textures, animations, and other graphical assets that we've been able to use for The Mage's Tale are going back into The Bard's Tale IV. That means we can make The Bard's Tale IV look better, and frees us up to spend more resources to build on that art set, and this helps us get to the vision of what we wanted The Bard's Tale IV to be.

Bottom line - the assets coming in from Mage's allow us to make The Bard's Tale IV a larger game than otherwise possible, with larger levels and more varied enemies. Of course, continued back catalog sales from our other games, and sales of Torment: Tides of Numenera, which is releasing this Feb. 28th, will continue to flow directly into our projects, allowing us to make them that much bigger and better!

[Lord of Riva]

good luck with the project. Not getting a VR headset anytime soon though. Still there is always merit in embracing new Tech, i hope at some point VR is ripe enough for my enjoyment as well.

[kilobug]

I personally don't have the slightest interest in VR and will never buy VR headset nor games, but good luck anyway.

[kaiman]

I'd like to give VR a try at some point in the future, but not at current price point and with the available "games" and OS support. Though it seems that at least SteamVR is coming to Linux eventually.

I am somewhat baffled by all the hostility in the comments on Kickstarter, though. Seems like a full-blown war between VR systems even before the tech is getting off the ground.

[ZiN]

The Mage's Tale

Is it April 1st already? Nope.

Good joke though, i was pleasantly surprised at first, but should have known better. Stupid me, expecting to read about classes, spells and songs in a Bard's Tale IV kickstarter update... But sure, this will make BT4 better, if they say so. I DISB.

Seriously though, the best news for backers is:

Oh and by the way, all you dungeon crawl fans, we noted some saw the last combat video and thought we ditched grid-based movement. Not at all! We'll be excited to show more traditional, grid-based movement as well as other great features in updates to come!

Good news! I hope they mean they've read this thread! I eagerly await seeing some traditional grid-based movement / puzzles / maps, and other great features!

[sear]

Is it April 1st already? Nope.

Good joke though, i was pleasantly surprised at first, but should have known better. Stupid me, expecting to read about classes, spells and songs in a Bard's Tale IV kickstarter update... But sure, this will make BT4 better, if they say so. I DISB.!

We felt we'd be doing a disservice to backers if we announced Mage's Tale without talking to Bard's Tale IV backers, given the connection between the two games. No worries, we have more updates planned!

[Jozape]

When Brian promised a VR product around New Year's I immediately thought The Bard's Tale. Though, I guess that since The Bard's Tale is inXile's only first-person game, I don't get any points.

[ZiN]

We felt we'd be doing a disservice to backers if we announced Mage's Tale without talking to Bard's Tale IV backers, given the connection between the two games. No worries, we have more updates planned!

Sure, i appreciate that you don't secretly develop a spinoff for BTIV, but alas, already announcing it, while BTIV is still in early development, somehow just feels wrong to me. Sorry, i'm not convinced at all this will benefit BTIV. Your big selling point is VR, and BTIV doesn't need that technology.

Anyways, the Bard's Tale world is fun, but as a young mage, you're pretty much fucked without tanks, so good luck!

[Jozape]

This game is completely funded and published by Oculus Studios. I'm glad inXile is taking the money and using it to indirectly help The Bard's Tale 4.

After watching the video...I wish the best for this game, but I've never seen a good VR game.

[RangerKeenan]

Sorry, i'm not convinced at all this will benefit BTIV. Your big selling point is VR, and BTIV doesn't need that technology.

You're right that it's not the VR technology that will benefit BTIV. Mage's Tale is more action based vs BTIV phase-based combat system. That doesn't translate at all and when building a VR game, if you want it be good, you need to think differently from a design standpoint.

What does heavily benefit BTIV are art assets. We built all character models, props, and environment sets as high-resolution and high-poly assets, then reduced them down for VR. We can take the higher poly assets and pop those into Unreal for BTIV. We're using techniques like vertex painting in BTIV that also make the environments look quite a bit different. Of course, there are tons of unique assets being created for BTIV.

I think people would be surprised at how much the partnership has truly benefited BTIV. I understand that it's normal to be skeptical about these things but as someone who knows the numbers, I can tell you it's a substantial amount.

[Lord of Riva]

I think people would be surprised at how much the partnership has truly benefited BTIV. I understand that it's normal to be skeptical about these things but as someone who knows the numbers, I can tell you it's a substantial amount.

not trying to sound annoying but here is something to chew on:

i worked in this industry long enough to understand one thing, namely nobody will be pleasantry surprised since never ever a company is willing to share actual information on money. Its not your fault (or Inxiles or whatever) but people are cynics (and rightfully so, all you guys have certainly some beef with some company, even if its a simple "the big mac was bigger once")

Im just saying if being clear about this is not possible there is no use in giving vague statements people will hold it against those people directly.
It actually is healthy (as i stated somewhere else) to be carefully observing what a company does and even be a bit cynic about it.

My whole take on this: Companies embraced a new kind of Business practice when it comes to IT-Companies, they understand PR relations on plattforms like twitter, facebook,reddit etc. etc. but they never got around getting their other hald (ergo the business half) up to speed.

We are living in a fast paced globally active information based culture, anybody everywhere can get the information they need and people believe that hiding information is an integral part in hiding shady practices and in a lot of cases rightfully so.

Again, im sorry if this sounded Ranty, unfriendly, impolite or outright aggressive it is not meant to be any of this.
I can only ask that you please do not blame your community for their behavior it has been cultivated like this according to the experiences we all have to make (and thus are founded in reality)
also please do not blame communication, saying even less is even worse as you may probably see in the TTON forums.

You coming out and saying something about the side project is appreciated, thanks. Im just hoping it wont come back to you.
At some point game development reality will hit and if you cut anything people expected to see they will make this responsible for it, not because they are bad people but only because they can only believe as they are logically missing information.

thanks again, im being an old man.
im looking forward to BT IV

[Grohal]

Phew, on one hand it's ok for trying your hand on new technics, but on the other hand I would prefer for InXile to stay on and improve their old-school-RPGS. I am not really interested in VR, maybe in some generations - if it survives that long.

Well I hope InXile makes enough money with VR to stay on the market making old-school-stuff and not so much that they drop old-school and go all VR. I guess I am a bit selfish on that one.^^

[ZiN]

I understand that it's normal to be skeptical about these things but as someone who knows the numbers, I can tell you it's a substantial amount.

I hope InXile makes enough money with VR to stay on the market making old-school-stuff and not so much that they drop old-school and go all VR.

Let's hope this won't happen.

[Zombra]

I want to point out a major positive from the "we grognards" perspective. It's great to see that a game with a radical new direction is being given its own title. Mage's Tale can be completely its own thing and there's no question of having to stay "true to the series".

I'm not interested in VR games but best wishes with the project. I might even be tempted to try it some day if a "flat screen" version is made.

[_noblesse_oblige_]

It's great to see that a game with a radical new direction is being given its own title. Mage's Tale can be completely its own thing and there's no question of having to stay "true to the series"..

Definitely agreed on the first part, Zombra - one wishes that they would have done the same for the game they are calling Bard's Tale IV. However, they stated that the Mage's Tale is set in the Bard's Tale world, so there is not a clear divorce between radically-different game play and fan expectations.

Perhaps on a less positive and more cynical note, one wonders whether linking the Mage's Tale to the world of the Bard's Tale is an attempt to generate a new fan base that is less opposed to the direction that they are taking the game known as Bard's Tale IV. If you look at the overall sentiment from posters in this forum, it is mostly apprehensiveness about the game that purports to be the fourth installment of the series. I'm sure that they would love to change the balance of opinions here.

[Roger Wilco]

Well, I have a Rift with touch controllers, so I will definitely check this out when it drops.

[Crosmando]

Come on, can we have some more actual information about BT4 please? TToN is out now so there's no excuse.

[Dork Mage]

Different studio doing TToN, no real connection.

[thebruce]

I can grok the direction of Mage's Tale from a gameplay standpoint. If they are indeed going to create 'spinoffs', say for each significant class (Bard's Tale, Mage's Tale, etc) and each off-shoot has its own major gameplay style that matches the class, I think that's a smart move if they're looking to revive the BT universe in some manner. The "Bard" style is based on the classic style with heavy importance on music. Mage as demo'd is first person and heavy on hand use for spell casting. Maybe back to a 3rd person RPG for a warrior-class tale... who knows. It's not a bad idea.
Just please don't get chinsey on the development of BTIV, which as repeatedly expressed, is a sequel to a classic brand, not a new brand with brand new gameplay.

...new brand..brand new... neat.

[Crosmando]

VR is a dumb fad and the sooner BF realizes this the better.