The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep Interview

David Rogers, the creative director on inXile’s The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep, has recently spoken with Newsweek about the upcoming dungeon crawler’s humorous nature, its abundant puzzles, and the team’s “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality. You can read the resulting interview right here. An excerpt:

Rogers explained the silly tone and humor help define what makes The Bard’s Tale IV more than your standard dungeon crawler, although those elements are there too. It’s very much the “if it ain’t broke” approach of giving fans the adventure they expect. There’s magical, quest-giving creatures and near-miss death traps and deep strategic combat that’s ripe for tinkering.

“Those are just good, old-fashioned fun,” he said. “So you don’t mess with it too much.”

But The Bard’s Tale IV messes with it a little bit by inserting puzzles practically everywhere. There’s the usual puzzles on locked doors and chests, but it goes much further. Even your special weapons are puzzles.

“We build puzzles into everything. If you love puzzle games, you’re gonna love exploring. And if you love puzzle games, you’re gonna love combat, because it’s also a puzzle,” said Rogers.