inXile's development focus on the RPG genre comes from Brian Fargo's long legacy of delivering standard-setting RPGs to market. While inXile's principals headed production at their previous game company they won RPG of the Year crowns four years in a row.

There are a several scenes in The Bard’s Tale where NPC’s break out into song. Some are just for laughs while some also have helpful clues in the lyrics. In either case the game design called for the classic yellow karaoke ball to bounce across the text of the lyrics in time to the singing.