Designer Diary 1: Enter the Forest | Bardsung Forsaken Glade
We’re excited to bring you the first in our Bardsung Designer Diaries series. This is a behind-the-scenes look that will offer you an exclusive insight into the process of bringing our games to life.
In our first instalment, Sherwin Matthews—lead designer on Bardsung—will be guiding you through the foreboding new forest setting, and sharing the story of Bardsung direct from the people creating it.
Welcome to the World of Bardsung, with Sherwin Matthews
Welcome, both to those aspiring heroes that are new to the world of Bardsung, and those amongst you that have already embarked upon a journey into the depths of the Ancient Forge. Regardless of which you may be, the bards will sing your names before this adventure we’re about to embark upon is through, as your deeds are written in the annals of history!
For those of you who I haven’t had the privilege of speaking to before, my name is Sherwin Matthews, and I’m a Senior Product Owner at Steamforged Games, as well as part of the original design team for Bardsung: Legend of the Ancient Forge.
Product owners at Steamforged are individuals that serve primarily as lead game designers on their projects. Our role is establishing the core gameplay and building early proof of concept prototypes, and also more in-depth design across the entire project. We also then work with developers to help shape games once the development cycle begins in earnest.
Product owners are also responsible for end-to-end leadership of our projects, working with just about every department at Steamforged, including commercial, graphic design, logistics, sculpting, and marketing.
We’re essentially custodians for ensuring that the vision and experience of the game lands as originally envisioned, and serve as useful brand ambassadors if a team has a question about the game.
Finally, I’m also responsible for a large amount of narrative in our games, having written content for Resident Evil, Elden Ring, Dark Souls, Guild Ball, Monster Hunter, Horizon, and of course, Bardsung: Legend of the Ancient Forge, amongst others.
With all of that in mind, I’ve been heavily involved in design, development, and narrative for Bardsung: Legend of the Ancient Forge and Bardsung: Local Legends, and it’s truly been a privilege to return to the world once more.
For a long time (in fact, since before the Local Legends Kickstarter), I’ve been desperate to talk to you all about the new ideas and adventure we’ve been working on. It’s quite a relief that now I’m going to be doing so over this series of articles, in the run up to the crowdfunding campaign for Bardsung: Tale of the Forsaken Glade.
Lets begin with an introduction (or refresher, for returning heroes) to the Bardsung world.
The World of Bardsung
Once, the gods walked amongst mortals in this world. All people were their children: elves, dwarves, humans, and countless others, all existing in harmony alongside one another. When the gods spoke, it was with kindness and grace, as they shared their wisdom and knowledge of the universe.
The gods also gave their children the gift of magic, allowing them to draw mana from the great well at the core of the world, that which sustained all things. As the mortals learned this new art, delighting in their illusions and enchantments, the gods looked on and smiled, for they were well pleased with their work.
Alas, this time of peace and prosperity could not last. One race—hungry for power and frustrated with the magic the gods had afforded them—sought to wield ever more potent sorcery. Their growing arcane prowess forced them to draw ever more deeply from the well, each spell more costly than the last, far outpacing the rate at which mana was replenished.
As this sustaining force waned, so too did the warmth and vibrancy of the world. The endless and bountiful summer became a haunted autumn, rich colours muted to brown. Oceans once perpetually calm were wracked by storms, and blizzards rolled down from the mountains to bring the first snow.
Eventually the well ran dry, and magic fled the world altogether, leaving behind a land blanketed by inhospitable ice and snow.
Not even the gods could remain in this inhospitable realm. Mana was their lifeblood, and by depleting it so, the mortals had unwittingly committed deicide. The weakened gods were forced to flee to their celestial court, forever breaking true communion with the mortals. With heartbroken parting words, they urged their children to find sanctuary, that they too might survive this cataclysm.
And then all was still and lifeless, and for countless centuries a perpetual winter did reign.
But magic is not so easily destroyed. At the core of the world the well remained, and slowly it replenished itself once more, unburdened by the drain of spellcraft, and now sustained by the passions and emotions of mortals, instead of the spirits of the gods.
So it came to pass that as the tide of mana grew stronger, the great thaw began. Spring dawned over the land, and cast the retreating winter in a golden hue, heralding the return of mortals from the places they’d found refuge.
The gods, ever watchful of their children, were pleased, but wary. They saw now their folly, admitting the greed and ambition that could so possess the mortal races. Observing that the souls of mortals now sustained the well of all things, they devised the great deception. The gift of music and song would be the gods’ final blessing, and the bards their agents. The bards’ charge was to both pass on history and legend by song and folklore, and sustain the good in this emerging new world.
The words of the bards became a new religion. Their stories roused the people to great works and heroic deeds, which in turn inspired further acts of innovation and courage. The mana drawn by heroes was easily refilled by the celebration of the people, ensuring that the well would never again run dry, nor the great desolation return.
And so, the world is now home to many adventurers and dreamers, forever following stories of hardship and despair, in hope that they too can earn triumph enough for the bards to record their trials and achievements.
To inspire the tales, and live a legend. To become Bardsung.
Where does our new adventure take us?
We’ve already ventured into that post-apocalyptic world once before, where the bards sang of the secrets held within a forgotten dungeon deep beneath the earth (minor spoiler warning—if you’re yet want to play through Ancient Forge and want to do so, skip the next sentence…), a haunted place that witnessed the fall of an ancient civilisation.
This time however, our destination is the Forsaken Glade, a mystical forest where the elves once lived alongside their gods before the coming of the great winter.
Since magic has returned to the world the elves have awakened from their slumber, but they have emerged into now-unfamiliar surroundings. Where once their forest home flourished and blossomed, now it has grown gnarled and hostile.
The fae creatures that frolicked and danced among them have become twisted and bitter. A blight has taken root in the centre of the glade, once a deep lake of restorative energy, and turned the waters into a miserable swamp that corrupts all who come into contact with it.
This deep shadow that has fallen over the Forsaken Glade is cast by an immense, ancient black dragon: it is the decaying influence of this creature that has so warped the Forsaken Glade. Now the bards sing this tale, and the heroes that come to bring salvation to this doomed place seek to become Bardsung themselves.
How Does It Play?
I hope that you’re quickly getting as hyped for the game as I am after reading that, and seeing some of the images we’ve been releasing into the wild. Personally, I’m just excited to finally reveal something we’ve been teasing for a long time—the picture in the background of all of our playthrough videos for the last two years (courtesy of the wonderful Doug Telford) has been part of the box art you’ll see for Bardsung: Tale of the Forsaken Glade.
At this stage, if you’re new, you’re probably saying to yourself “Well, that all sounds pretty exciting, but what type of game exactly is Bardsung?”. It’s a great question.
Bardsung games are at their heart RPG-lite dungeon crawler campaign games, in which players each take the role of a hero, and embark on an epic quest to become Bardsung.
Along the way, heroes level up by gaining XP, learning new abilities and enhancing their existing abilities and traits, as well as finding treasure.
No two games or campaigns are ever the same. Encounters have set objectives but are entirely procedurally generated from the enemies you’ll face, to the modifiers and combat puzzles that change each battle from one to the next.
Events and NPCs that occur as players explore are also randomised, with several breaking into choose-you-own-adventure narrative, providing players with meaningful decisions on how to progress.
Certain decisions will cause card decks to evolve, updating the events that occur around player progress, as the game adapts to how the players are facing their challenges.
And, of course, narrative weaves throughout the campaign, as the players discover the various stories and hidden quests taking part all around them, and learn the motivations of the characters and enemies they meet.
So, having spent most of this article introducing myself and the world of Bardsung, and laying the groundwork for the setting of this new game, I won’t keep you too much longer—but I did want to give you a few hints at what to expect in the coming articles.
Although a sequel of sorts, Bardsung: Tale of the Forsaken Glade introduces several new mechanics to the series, and also streamlines and polishes some concepts that you’ll already have seen.
Over the course of the next few updates, I’ll be walking you through those changes, along with not only explanations of how they work, but also the design ethos behind them, and what our team looked to achieve—not only from a design perspective, but also after observing and listening to our community as they played through the first game.
And finally, for those of you that are here for the narrative, one final parting gift—as those of you who know me will attest, one of my favourite approaches to crowdfunding is to create interactive updates with narrative and backer decisions, something we first originally introduced during the campaign for Bardsung: Legend of the Ancient Forge, and has since returned for Resident Evil, Euthia, Street Masters, and Elden Ring.
I’m delighted to let you know that I’ll be writing the same style of journey with you for Bardsung: Tale of the Forsaken Glade, so we can all step once more on our own adventure during the campaign, shaping how reveals and unlocks play out.
I can’t wait.
Until next time, heroes.
Come and chat with Sherwin and the rest of the SFG team in the comments below, and on the SFG Discord servers here.
Follow Bardsung: Tale of the Forsaken Glade over on Gamefound!
