Let's Play Bard's Tale: The Samurai Statue

From Elena's Journal:

There is a statue of a samurai on Rakhir Street, between us and the Scarlet Bard. Has this always been here?

It blocks the street completely. Darkmoon kicked it out of frustration, and as we turned to leave...

It came to life and attacked!

Its first move was to knock Bluey aside.

But Darkmoon and Bluey were able to fell the enchanted statue.

I must admit, the statue coming to life gave me quite a scare! Will this become a regular obstacle, these statues? Once again, I curse Mangar's dark sorcery as we head back to the Thief Temple to heal.

Let's Play Bard's Tale: Skara Brae at Night

"The Review Board is closed for the evening. The guild leaders will meet with you in the morning."

"But you haven't reviewed me yet!" Bluey sputtered.

"Reviewing takes time," one of the sages said. "You should've spoken up. Come back tomorrow."

The party stepped outside as the review board locked its doors. Bluey growled at the doors until Elena stepped up and pulled him away.

"It's not fair," Bluey said, staring at the ground. "I feel so weak compared to you guys."

"It's because you are," Darkmoon replied. Bluey shot him a glare that could've melted castle walls.

"I don't like being out at night," Sai said, staying close to Elena. "C-Can we please go home?"

"That's where I was heading," Darkmoon said. "No use staying out when I can't see-" He grunted as he ran into something.

Darkmoon's eyes widened as he looked up at the zombie, who was moaning and staring at him with dark eyes. The zombie had three fellow zombies shuffling along behind.

"And this is why I don't like being out at night!" Sai whimpered, hiding behind the conjurer.

The two parties stood in front of each other for a moment. Bluey's party was in stunned, scared paralysis; the zombie party was trying to decide who to bite first. Finally, Elena broke the silence.

"RUN!"

Bluey's party turned tail and ran as fast as their legs could carry them. They didn't stop until they were safely back at the Adventurer's Guild.

The next day...

"The guild leaders deem that the warrior Bluey hath earned a level of advancement..."

Let's Play Bard's Tale: Our First Level-Up

From Elena's Journal:

The guild leaders peer at us down from their pedestals. They impose a strange measure of valor and battle skill called "experience points" that I've never heard of. Then they pick arbitrary numbers of these points for us to gain before they give us advancements, measured in "levels". Strange, but I suppose whatever it takes to streamline something so subjective as adventurer worthiness.

Despite this, we seem to have met their requirements this time.

Darkmoon was first to step forth. They gave him more dexterity.

Selendro requested a review after the monk. He got more dexterity.

I stepped forth next. They awarded me with more dexterity.

I pushed Sai up after me. They gave him, surprise, more dexterity. We must have caught the board in a "faster adventurers" mood.

And finally, our paladin. He received more intelligence. A bit random, I must say, considering the four advancements before him.

Then I noticed the light of the moon wafting in through a window...

Let's Play Bard's Tale: Talk Ain't Cheap

From Elena's Journal:

The Scarlet Bard has become our unofficial base of operations. It's where we go to rest, share stories with other tavern-goers, and revitalize Selendro's voice. The other five were off doing assorted things in the tavern while I sat at the bar, pondering what to do next.

"You look like something's bothering ya," the barkeep said, washing out a used flagon with a rag. He was a tall red canine who looked vaguely familiar.

"You could say that," I replied. "We've been fighting monsters all week, but we don't seem to be any stronger. I thought practice made perfect, but..."

The barkeep chuckled. "Have you been to the Review Board?"

"The what?"

"I would've figured a conjurer like you would know this! The Review Board is a council of guild leaders who look over prospective adventurers and decide if they're worthy of advancement. If they think you are, you're instantly much better at what you do."

"Interesting!" I smiled. "Where do these leaders join?"

"Now that is something you're supposed to find out on your own," the barkeep smirked, leaning in. "But maybe I could let you in on the secret, for... maybe ten gold pieces?"

I have always been against the prospect of paying for information, much like I have been against the prospect of paying for air to breathe, but this sounded quite important so, reluctantly, I handed over ten gold pieces that we had liberated from a pair of unruly kobolds just an hour earlier.

"Trumpet Street's your answer," the barkeep said, a smile on his face from being ten gold richer. "Look for the first building with white columns."

I thanked the barkeep kindly and gathered up the party to head to the Review Board first thing. It was at that point Darkmoon let me know that the barkeep was his father, and he had known where the Review Board was all along. Precisely why I do not like paying for information...

Transparency of Writing in Video Games

Let me tell you about something that is important to me: writing in video games.

Early arcade games were light on writing. There was some text on the intro screen, maybe listing out the enemy names and telling how many points for an extra life, but besides that the game was self-contained and there was no more writing. That was fine back then, because video games were new and strange and cool.

But nowadays there is no excuse for having no or bad writing in games.

Bard's Tale was cool because it told a story. It was simple and unobtrusive, but there was a story. And even when you weren't following the story and just messing around the town, there was writing. There was descriptive text every time you fought monsters. Each tavern had a different name and each tavernkeeper had different things to say. You'd find inscriptions and messages strewn about the dungeon walls. When you fought King Aildrek, the game would explicitly break the fourth wall and say "I think you're in trouble."

I like it when games have things for me to read. Resident Evil's long tradition of plot-related files. Oblivion's many books and scrolls. Paper Mario and Mario and Luigi's comedic dialogue. Bionic Commando Rearmed's comm center hacking. Castlevania and Dark Spire's flavor text for each and every monster and item.

One of my biggest goals in game design is to make writing oblique. Put it at the forefront, right there on the main screen's UI for the player to see. Most of my game ideas employ a "narrator" that details actions in descriptive format for almost everything: healing, attacking, investigating items, et cetera.

It's not realistic, I will admit. Some games seem to be obsessed with being 'realistic' and giving the player no information on the main UI. That's fine, if it's done right. But Forcastia isn't supposed to be super-realistic. I don't think you can make a game where you play a giant cartoon dragon super-realistic. Forcastia's a fantasy story, and I want players to feel like they're writing a fantasy story just by playing, by seeing the text scroll up on the little status bar. Not realistic, but fun.