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Game News Bard's Tale IV Kickstarter Update #36: Delayed to 2018, Backer Survey

Infinitron

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Tags: Bard's Tale IV; InXile Entertainment; Matt Findley; Paul Marzagalli

With Torment out of the way, it looks like development on Bard's Tale IV may be shifting into higher gear. inXile have published a brief new Kickstarter update for it, the second this month. The main takeaway from the update is that the game's release has been officially postponed to next year.

inXile president Matt Findley here. Many of you have reached out to ask, so we want to take this opportunity to confirm that The Bard's Tale IV will be releasing in 2018. Thanks, too, to our work on The Mage's Tale, we have increased the visual scope of the game in ways that we could not have with just the Kickstarter. With everything now in place, it is simply a matter of taking the time to make the game right, make sure we implement all the stretch goals and backer content, and hit the level of detail we want. The world of Caith is a beautiful one in both sight and sound, and we want our approach to capture that.​

It also announces that inXile's recently hired community manager, Paul Marzagalli, is running a survey to gauge backer preferences.

Hi everyone, Paul here. Thanks to the inXile team for the warm welcome! It has been an outstanding (and fast) first month.

Though this is the “official” announcement of my arrival, I have been out in the community for the past few weeks so I may have already spoken with many of you. Whether in the forums, on our game Facebook pages, or on Twitter @phimseto, please pop by and say hello!

With The Bard’s Tale IV, inXile is bringing back an iconic franchise for old fans and a new generation. In getting to know our backers and the greater inXile community, I put together a survey to help me understand where you are coming from as a RPG fan. This survey isn’t something that I will be sharing publicly, rather it is to help me better identify who our Bard’s Tale IV backers are and what they like in a Bard’s Tale game. This will help us with development not just of The Bard’s Tale IV, but with how we consider and develop future projects! You can find the survey below:

The Bard's Tale IV Backer Survey

The survey is brief and it is your chance to talk directly to the game devs and let us know what you think. The more of you who participate, the merrier, much like a bard’s sing-a-long! Thank you in advance for your help and thanks to everyone for supporting The Bard’s Tale IV!
There are a few other administrative and backer reward-related notices in the update, but that's the important stuff. Bard's Tale IV will be at E3 next month, so we can probably expect some new gameplay footage soon.
 
Unwanted

Wonderdog

Neckbeard Shitlord's alt
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I hope this comes out well...just take their time. Just don't waste time/money like on troment.
 

Gecos

Learned
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Sep 26, 2015
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Survey end: Any other thoughts for us?
Reply: Don't screw it up!

Just about sums up the poverty of expectations...
 

Zanzoken

Arcane
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Dec 16, 2014
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3,559
I know it's just seen as par for the course nowadays but postponed releases kinda do matter.

Number one they are annoying for the consumer. The backers paid money based on the presented information in the pitch and the release date is part of that.

A postponement could also be indicative that the project was overscoped and/or is not being managed properly. These guys are supposed to be experienced professional developers, so you assume they could properly budget a project like this a priori. If that's the case then a delay means we can also assume they are having trouble, which typically leads to a worse end product.

Third, the more time devs spend on a project the less profit they make, which impacts the ability to make games in the future.

I don't know of any other industries that are so lenient with delivery times. If I was late with every project in my line of work I would be fired in pretty short order.
 

Ulfhednar

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I don't see what's mock-worthy here? It's good that they don't have to rush the game out this year.
Bard's Tale 4: I shall play you the song of my people.
i-shall-play-you-the-song-of-my-people.png
 

Metro

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Yep. Take another ten years. Just look at the Overgrowth developers. Some kid will have been born and graduate college before it's complete.
 

Elwro

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Intestine that they are asking the backers. True, a part of the backlash regarding Torment came from the backers, but it'd seem to me that the bigger issue was not marketing the game properly to the non-backers and starting the game in a way which practically guarantees 'meh' reviews from an average, that is, not 1st-tier :), gaming portal.

I'd think that non-backers willing to complete such a survey could be an even more important source of information. Backers are mostly fans of the originals who will be irritated to matter what. Non-backers may be on the fence so it'd be good to know what would convince them. (Inb4 'isometric nonpausable realtime' and 'ogre-troll threesomes romancing' of course.)
 

Lady_Error

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I think anyone can fill out that poll, even if you are not a backer.
 

l3loodAngel

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Intestine that they are asking the backers. True, a part of the backlash regarding Torment came from the backers, but it'd seem to me that the bigger issue was not marketing the game properly to the non-backers and starting the game in a way which practically guarantees 'meh' reviews from an average, that is, not 1st-tier :), gaming portal.

I'd think that non-backers willing to complete such a survey could be an even more important source of information. Backers are mostly fans of the originals who will be irritated to matter what. Non-backers may be on the fence so it'd be good to know what would convince them. (Inb4 'isometric nonpausable realtime' and 'ogre-troll threesomes romancing' of course.)
WTF am I reading? They fucking axed comabat, stats, skills, spoiled the whole game in first 5 min. And who's guilty? Lack of marketing, Yup. Makes sense.

Non-backers of non-controled variety are useless in this instance. They would ask for more visceral combat, romances and muh immersion. The smart decision here is to ask customers/backers of previous games, that did not back/buy the next project for feedback (for a game that is roughly the same for example. WL2/WL3 or POE/POE2).
 

Elwro

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They did many things wrongly, but I simply believe the reception would be much better if the beginning did not play as if it was created by people who dropped out from literature studies, failed all creative writing courses their parents paid for, and finally decided to take up programming while staying 'true to their humanist roots'.

Basically the same game would be better received after fairly small 'editorial' changes, is all I'm saying.
 

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