The Bard's Tale Construction Set
| The Bard's Tale Construction Set | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Interplay Productions |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, DOS |
| Release date(s) | 1991 |
| Genre(s) | Role-playing video game |
| Mode(s) | Editor |
The Bard's Tale Construction Set is computer software that allows the user to create simple dungeon crawl video games using The Bard's Tale game engine. It was created by Interplay Productions in 1991 and distributed by Electronic Arts. It was released for the Amiga and DOS.
Since it was not required to own The Bard's Tale Construction Set in order to play games which were created with it, one could easily distribute his or her own created games among other people.
Sample scenario
Included with the software was a sample scenario for the purpose of playing and learning from, entitled Star Light Festival.
Set in the small rundown village of Isil Thania, a band of adventurers has traveled from afar to witness the annual Star Light Festival in which an eerie light comes down from a star for one night only making the night into day.
While awaiting the Festival at the Rainbow Bar, a small twisted man leads the characters into the sewers (which feature the same maps found in the original Bard's Tale game), and from there the characters engages upon a quest that takes them from one location in the city to the next, eventually to find the secret truths behind the Star Cult and the town of Isil Thania.
Created games
Commercial games created using the The Bard's Tale Construction Set are:
- The Bard's Quest, a game series in three parts by Alex Ghadaksaz of VisionSoft (PC, 1994)[1]
The following non-commercial games are known to have been created using The Bard's Tale Construction Set:
- The Bard's Lore: The Warrior and The Dragon, by John H. Wigforss (PC, 1998)
The following games were started but remain incomplete:
- Nutilan, by Dennis Payne (PC, 2000)
Reception
Computer Gaming World criticized the small number of graphics and damage spells, but still recommended the program to those interested in designing their own computer role-playing games.[2] The game was reviewed in 1992 in Dragon #183 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars.[3]
Developers
Feargus Urquhart served as a play tester for The Bard's Tale Construction Set, and went on to found the game companies Black Isle Studios and Obsidian Entertainment.
References
- ↑ http://cd.textfiles.com/ccbcurrsh2/DOSFILES/ARCADE.
- ↑ Scorpia (February 1992). "Scorpion's Tale". Computer Gaming World. p. 38. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
- ↑ Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia & Lesser, Kirk (July 1992). "The Role of Computers". Dragon (183): 57–62.
External links
- The Bard's Tale Construction Set at MobyGames
- The Bard's Tale Construction Set can be played for free in the browser at the Internet Archive
- The Bard's Tale Compendium
- Bt Builder - an attempt to create an open source implementation of The Bard's Tale Construction Set.