Bard's Tale IV - Combat Commentary & Sound Design

A new Kickstarter update for The Bard's Tale 4 and more information on the combat system.

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Lead Designer David Rogers walks through the details of our previous Bard's Tale IV video, breaking down each scene and going into detail on all the gameplay features being shown.

The Bard's Tale IV returns to the classic fantasy RPGs of years past. Featuring dynamic turn-based combat, a full party of characters to build and customize, and first-person exploration of maze-like dungeons with devious puzzles and riddles, The Bard's Tale IV is a true successor to the original Bard's Tale trilogy, and is crowdfunded by thousands of fans. Help us bring back the dungeon crawl and return to Skara Brae - the city that started it all.

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Sound Design Update - Introducing Brian DiDomenico

The Bard's Tale has always been well known for its presentation. It was one of the first titles to include music as a gameplay feature, and at the time its visuals were highly expressive and detailed compared to other dungeon crawlers of the day. Our goal is to continue carrying this torch forward on The Bard's Tale IV. You've seen our visuals and art design, which we've detailed a few times previously. Early in our crowdfunding campaign, we also announced the involvement of Julie Fowlis and Ged Grimes contributing the game's unique highland-tinged music, as well as our plans to bring back some of the classic Bard's Tale songs.

Sound design is one key aspect we have not touched on as much yet. Music can stay in your memory for years, and graphics are certainly important for drawing players into the game world. But more than anything else, it's sound that reinforces a game's atmosphere and feel. As a dungeon crawling experience, the audio is what immerses you into the experience, creating a sense of ambiance which is impossible to convey through music and art alone.

The Bard's Tale IV is deep in production, and many of our game systems and environments are rapidly coming together. At this stage, it's critical to have sound design work with our team and capture the unique mood of Skara Brae and the wider world of Caith.

To do this, we're bringing in Brian DiDomenico. Brian is a composer, songwriter and sound designer. Throughout his diverse career, Brian has contributed to many titles you might recognize, including Myst V: Revelation, Jade Empire, Mass Effect 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Lost Planet 3, Ninja Gaiden Z and most recently Here They Lie. Outside of games directly, Brian has performed and recorded music with Mankind is Obsolete, Dismantled and is currently the keyboardist in the Megaman-themed rock band, The Megas. He has also performed at several festivals and conventions including Video Games Live, MAGfest, BitGen, Nerdfest, the Capcom Cup. You can read more about him on his own website.

We're extremely excited to welcome Brian DiDomenico, and we can't wait for our designers and implementers to collaborate with him, and hear what he will be contributing to the game.

That's all for now, but as we barrel through production and start knocking down our internal development milestones, The Bard's Tale IV is looking better and better every day. We'll have more goodies on the game's progress and community updates to share with you soon!

David Rogers
Lead Designer