Game Developers Conference 2018 officials are thrilled to announce that a game industry veteran is coming to the show to deliver a fascinating look back at one of the foundational pillars of the role-playing game genre.
Dr. Michael Cranford, a multi-talented game designer and programmer who has done significant work both within the game industry and without, will be at GDC 2018 in San Francisco next March to present a postmortem look at the making of The Bard's Tale I & II!
Cranford co-created The Bard's Tale, which debuted on the Apple II in 1985 and spawned a series of beloved games. Anticipation is building for inXile Entertainment's The Bard's Tale IV, the long-awaited next chapter, and in his GDC 2018 presentation he'll revisit the first two games and explore why they're still relevant to game makers today.
It's poised to be a remarkable session, as Cranford aims to give a behind-the-scenes look at the development of these classic games, touching on topics like game difficulty, the influence of Dungeons & Dragons, why he wove elements of Christianity into the design (and why it struck him as amusing that no one questioned it during development), and the need for integration of strategic and action elements in game design.
As always, this Classic Game Postmortem will be an hour-long session, so we figured you might appreciate the heads-up so you can keep this exciting talk on your radar! In the months ahead, conference officials look forward to announcing many more GDC 2018 sessions spanning a diverse array of game industry issues.
For more information on GDC 2018, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.
Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas