back more archived news 02/21/2001: Well it's been 10 days and we are seeing some marked improvement in equipment control and combat. We will keep you posted and post some new screenshots when the other levels are looking good. - JON 02/11/2001: Well we had no major updates to the test game, aside from a new combat test. We expect another breakthrough on Monday's release. Art is coming along nicely and looking great from both the 2D and 3D departments. Yes we are already getting back into prelim work for the 3D game. Once the 2D game is finished, there will be very little we have to do code-wise for the BL3D game. Hang in here with us and before we know it, "Devil Whiskey" will be here. More on Wednesday. - JON 02/04/2001: HELLO! We will be posting mini-reviews of our weekly test games, starting this Wednesday. We release test games on Mondays and I guess Wednesday gives us a couple of days to check things out and report back to you guys. We hope to see the implementation of skills in the next test game or so. Each class has about 7 special skills to distinguish themselves from other classes. Teaser - Monks have a meditation/transcendance skill that allows them to recover from harm of the mind or body. It DOES take a little time to take effect and they must be undisturbed, for it to work. Keep your Bard playing to keep the critters away! - JON 01/17/2001: Ok jokes over. It was fun though :). Seriously I have put up a few new images in the Inhabitants Gallery. I gave the latest alpha release a little test drive as I have done before but this time I ran into 5 Beholders. I was prompted for battle but they kicked my ass. I didn't know Justin implemented the combat in the latest release so I was unprepared for it. We're getting closer and closer to completion. 01/13/2001: We have decided to go with a different art style for the Bards Legacy DW. We feel the focus should be on the story and feel high res graphics would take away from that. We will continue to produce art for the game but with a limited color palette. These new images are pleasing to the eye and we think they will be a hit with everyone. I have posted five final images in the Inhabitants Gallery. Enjoy! 12/29/2000: Yes it's me Rob. I am still here as I could not pull myself away from the project. I have finished the new Orc and have posted it today. You may notice why some of the images had been taken down. Well each image starts as a concept image and it may take a couple of repaints before it becomes a final image. We also want to limit the amount of creatures and art we post because we do not want to spoil it for everyone it's released. It would suck if you knew what every monster looked like before you did battle with them. I have put together a quick avi of the demo. It's just a quick walk-through of Rennibister. It's about 950k and it can be downloaded here. If you can't get the AVI to run, you may also need to download the divx codec to view this file. Download it here. This demo is without a textured sky but it is the most stable version at this point. I'll post another of the inside of the tower in the future. I have been getting many questions about a release date and although I wish it would be finished today it's only in pre alpha stages. We are not going to give a release date at this point but we will continue to keep you updated as to how we are progressing. Overall it's not bad considering this game started from from nothing but a thought just about a year ago. We could rush the game and overlook quality but why do that when we have total freedom to make this game the best possible. We don't have the pressure of deadlines which usually result in shoddy quality.If it takes a bit longer for the sake of excellent quality then I think in the long run everyone will appreciate it. 12/18/2000: Well I had to make a very tough decision but I have decided to leave the Bard's Legacy project. It has been fun since this project started back in October of 1999 but I have been way too busy lately and I just do not have time for it anymore. The project will still continue and this site will continue also as I believe Jon will be taking over as Webmaster. You can still see what I am up to on my site Mindstorm. Cheers! 11/27/2000: Added a couple of images to the inhabitants gallery. 11/15/2000: Race and class pages are up. Share your thoughts on the message board! 11/14/2000: Well we are still putting our noses to the grindstone. I have added a public Message Board for discussions on the Bard's Legacy and similar games. I am going to be putting up some race/class pages very soon. I should have them up by tonight. The inhabitants gallery has been updated again. 10/18/2000: I have added a new pic to the inhabitants gallery and I should be adding some new screenshots soon. We are moving along and are making steady progress although I wish the game was completed yesterday. Expect frequent small updates every now and then until I have some major news. When we have reached our next big milestone we will post it here. 10/10/2000: Well it seems like our hope of getting this game released by October is looking dim. However, we are working the best we can to get this game out as fast as possible whithout sacrificing quality. As it stands now we have the city and tower of Rennibister completed. Our character creation code is finished, music, characters and monsters have been implemented. The battle system is the last major thing to be implemented into the game. The battle system has been worked out but it need to be put into the game. Additionally we still need to complete our beastiary of creatures. I have been trying to belt out as many monsters as humanly possible. Check the inhabitants gallery for another new addition.Once this is complete then we need to fine tune all the little things. I would say we are about 75% completed at this point. We are going to allow ourselves the freedom to continue developing until December. This is not an offiicial release date but just a rough estimate. We will keep you posted as development continues and an official release date is determined. 10/09/2000: I got a lot of catching up to do. I got back from the weekend and checked my mail and was bombarded with messages. Well once again we have some more sample material from the game. Check the music section for two new songs from Jon Starnes called "The March of Bran" and "The Beasty Skirl" I have just completed a BL style Beholder and added it to the Inhabitants section of the image gallery. 10/06/2000: I have finished an image of a Bard's Legacy style Orc. I am going to be adding an "archived news" section that will stretch back to last January. These updates come from the first site for the project. Any other news that is over 2-3 months can be found here as well. 10/03/2000: I have finished an image of a human female fighter. Check the images section for the new addition. 9/28/2000: Jon has completed another catchy ditty called "The River Stane". Check it out in the Songs section. I have posted an illustration of old man Naris. Check the Inhabitants section of the gallery. 9/25/2000: I have updated the images section into three categories that will feature creatures/characters, screenshots, and views of the Bards Legacy world. Check out the new creature images in the gallery. We have a new member in the art dept. I want to welcome Alex to the team. He will be helping us with some of the character illustrations. We are featured on Gamespy and there is an interview with Jon Starnes about the project. Read all about it here! 9/21/2000: I want to also welcome Jesse Beach who has joined the programming side of things. We want to get this game out as soon as possible without sacrificing quality so all the additional help is essential. Both Jesse and Jay have been involved in one way or another from way back in this projects infancy. 9/12/2000: I want to welcome back Jason Lane to the team. He was with us from way back around the BTIV project and alot of his work still remains in the Bards Legacy project. We are getting closer to what we want with the game. The look of the game is something I could only dream about back when I used to play Bards Tale on my C64. Exploring the town of Rennibister is much like exploring Skara Brae but this time it's a more realistic experience. I will be posting some screenshots of Rennibister this week. 8/31/2000: We now have an official address! We will be moving to http://www.bardslegacy.com Update your bookmarks as we will be closing the Geocities and Crosswinds sites down once the new site is completed. back more archived news