The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep

Partner studio: Puny Human

Concept

The long-awaited fourth entry in a foundational party-based dungeon-crawler series, funded by 33,741 backers at over $1.5M. Over 40 hours of narrative across a world of puzzles, riddles, traps and encounters, with 21 playable character permutations and more than 350 fully voiced non-playable characters.

Requirement

Following the crowdfunding campaign, the partner needed development capacity to begin the sequel while its own teams finished existing projects — starting with a six-month prototype and extending into full production. Significant pre-production remained: core gameplay mechanics and quest structures were unfinalized, characters and environments unprototyped, and schedules could not be set until development groundwork existed. Backer expectations required a steady cadence of visible, playable progress throughout, against a stream of contradictory community design input.

Approach

The engagement opened as a six-month prototype and grew into a four-year co-development partnership, ultimately drawing on nearly every artist and engineer on the roster. The team completed pre-production alongside the partner and transitioned the project into full development.

A grid-based combat system was designed and implemented, carrying combat stances, character combinations, mana management, charge-up attacks and counter-attacks. Engineers took on much of the game's programming and optimization, built the build pipeline and delivered the Xbox One port. Artists produced puzzle weapons and items, environmental models, concept art and marketing art, while designers built interactive puzzles and implemented user-interface features.

Rapid vertical slices were produced throughout for backer updates, with in-depth documentation and visuals supplied to the partner for the campaign. Playable Alpha and Beta builds were shipped to backers and iterated on. Work continued after release on updates, optimizations, new features and additional platforms.

Delivery scope

• Pre-production and development groundwork
• Combat system design and implementation
• Interactive puzzle design
• Gameplay and systems programming
• Performance optimization
• UI implementation
• 3D modeling, environment art and level design
• Concept art and marketing art
• Xbox One porting
• Build pipeline engineering
• DevOps and cloud engineering
• Alpha/Beta release support and backer-facing documentation
• Post-launch updates and features

Results

• Released 18 September 2018 on Windows; Director's Cut 27 August 2019 on PS4, Xbox One, Windows, macOS and Linux
• Over four years of continuous engagement, from six-month prototype to post-launch support
• 250–350 person-months delivered — the largest single engagement in the studio's history
• At peak, “almost all” of the studio's artists and engineers allocated to the project
• Delivered against 33,741 backers and $1,519,680 raised
• G.A.N.G. 2019 nominations for Best Original Song and Best Sound Design (Indie); TIGA nomination for Best Audio Design
• First engagement in which the studio ran multiple concurrent service projects, establishing the resourcing model used on every subsequent contract

Engine: Unreal Engine 4.