The Bard’s Tale 4 is already funded and ready to roll with 63 hours left on its campaign clock. Time for developer InXile to start whipping the fantasy dungeon crawler into shape.
The first update video from the team covers the game’s artistic and environmental design, much of which is inspired by Scottish folklore. Which is why the team took a little holiday to Skara Brae, in the Orkney Islands.
The Bard’s Tale series is actually set in a fictionalised Orkney, and Skara Brae is a prominent location in the games. Now that the series is being rendered in impressive detail for the first time thanks to the Unreal 4 engine, it’s a chance to recreate the unique, atmospheric character of the Scottish countryside. There’s a bit where they straight up lift a fantastically Gothic, skull-capped tombstone, and plonk it in the game.
There should be a real air of authenticity to exploration when The Bard’s Tale 4 is finally released. Sadly, it doesn’t look like veteran RPG designer Chris Avellone will be joining the project - the funding level is currently at just over $1.4 million, some way short of the $1.9 required to unlock him as a stretch goal (we’re living in a very strange time).
