Industry legend Chris Avellone (veteran of Planescape Torment and Fallout: New Vegas) is set to join the development of The Bard’s Tale IV once the Kickstarter goal of $1.9m is met.
After only recently announcing his departure from Obsidian, inXile has confirmed that Avellone will be joining them on the development of The Bard’s Tale IV, as a writer and designer, so long as the Kickstarter goal is met. Most importantly, he’ll be designing a whole new area called The Cairn of Horrors (sounds nice) which will contain all the deepest, darkest things that reside in the imagination of Mr Avellone.
Chris Avellone has actually worked on both previously Kickstarted inXile games - Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera, the former of which was a critical success last year.
However, Avellone isn’t the only Planescape Torment (and Torment: Tides of Numenera) veteran who’s being brought in on The Bard’s Tale IV. Colin McComb will also be joining the team at $1.7m to design a Realm of the Elves area.
The Kickstarter campaign for The Bard’s Tale IV started on June 2nd, and it’s already reached its basic funding and met its first stretch goals, passing the $1.35m mark last Friday.
“I owe my career to seeing Bard’s Tale II on a Commodore 64 at a friend’s house,” says Chris Avellone. “When I saw the streets of Skara Brae up and running (gasp - in simulated 3D! And in color!), I suddenly realized I didn’t have to be the game master all the time in order to get my RPG fix, there was finally someone out there who had done the formidable job of creating a digital dungeon master for RPG aficionados with the same amount of lazy players as I had. So I have Brian Fargo to thank three times - first for the game itself (and all the Interplay RPGs I played to follow, including Bard’s Tale 1, Bard’s Tale 3, and Wasteland), second, for hiring me at Interplay, and third, for asking me to be a part of Bard’s Tale 4 - with your support, I hope we can make it happen!”
“I’m pleased that both Chris and Colin may come aboard Bard’s Tale 4 for extra design,” says Brian Fargo, CEO of inXile. “We are in the final weeks of the campaign and have assembled an all-star cast of writing, design, art and music. Now it’s a matter of how many more people join our campaign to build these glorious RPGs.”
I’ve already backed The Bard’s Tale IV on Kickstarter (which you can access here) and can’t wait to play it, take a gander at the pitch video below.
Chris Corbett
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