The Bard’s Tale IV Kickstarter Funded

inXile has sent us a press release announcing that The Bard’s Tale IV Kickstarter has finally been funded. This is good news, as it means yet another classic-styled RPG is in the making. The inXile folks have cause to celebrate, though sending the press release right in the middle of Fallout 4’s presentation will make sure this news is overshadowed:

The Bard’s Tale IV and RPG Community Achieve Funding Success

(NEWPORT BEACH, CA) June 3, 2015 inXile Entertainment announced that its Kickstarter campaign (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/the-bards-tale-iv) for The Bard’s Tale IV reached its goal of $1.25 million, meaning the game will get made, thanks to the support of the backers!

(On the 30th anniversary of the original, it’s so exciting to know we’ll be making a long-awaited true dungeon crawl sequel. Once again the support of our fans has blown us away, and we will put all our effort into making this the RPG they want and deserve, just as we did with Wasteland 2 and are doing with Torment: Tides of Numenera. Our fans prove once again that the classic single player cRPG genre is far from being dead, long live the RPG!) said Brian Fargo, CEO of inXile Entertainment.

About The Bard’s Tale IV
The Bard’s Tale IV will feature labyrinths and dungeons chock-full of dangerous traps, puzzles, and challenges, as well as the winding streets of the city of Skara Brae and its outlying environments. Exploration will take place in the first-person dungeon crawler style of the original trilogy. With full rights to everything from the original games, the story of The Bard’s Tale IV will center on a new Skara Brae built upon the ruins of the old, returning familiar gameplay concepts such as No-Magic Zones and Magic Mouths.

Utilizing the Unreal 4 engine, The Bard’s Tale IV will also represent a graphical leap forward in the genre, immersing you in a highly detailed and lush world you’ll want to map to its farthest reaches. The Bard’s Tale IV enriches the setting from the original trilogy with Scottish culture, including a soundtrack inspired by Gaelic music.

inXile plans to use photogrammetry to create in-game 3D objects from photos of architecture, taken right in Scotland. With such detailed assets, The Bard’s Tale IV will have intricate interactions, allowing for detailed physical puzzles in the game world, or while inspecting your own items in your inventory to find hidden compartments, latches, and more.

Of course, Skara Brae is not always a friendly place. The Bard’s Tale IV will update the classic gameplay of the originals, featuring a dynamic phase based combat system. Combat will utilize the complex decision-making opportunities of traditional phase based combat, but with a constantly evolving enemy strategy and a pacing that keeps you on your toes.

The original The Bard’s Tale was a surprise hit in 1985, putting Interplay on the map and launching the career of Brian Fargo. Now, 30 years later, inXile has full access to the name and contents of the original The Bard’s Tale, making it possible to make a true sequel to the originals, living up to the rich dungeon crawler heritage it helped build.