Tale of Tales (company)

Tale of Tales

Industry	Video games
Founded	Late 2003
Founder	Auriea Harvey Michaël Samyn
Headquarters	Belgium
Products	The Path Sunset
Website	tale-of-tales.com

Tale of Tales is a Belgian developer of art games founded in 2003 by Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn,[1][2] who had been working together in the creation of Web sites and electronic art as Entropy8Zuper! since 1999.[3] In an interview by Nightmare Mode, Michael Samyn explained their motivations to create interactive art and disappointment at the lack of evolution in interaction of games.[4]

They live close to the Saint Bavo Cathedral, which they consider one of their greatest influences.[5] The studio is named after Giambattista Basile's book The Tale of Tales (Lo Cunto de li cunti), with their main series being retellings of fairy tales in the form of adventure games, each subtitled "a Tale of Tales" and linked together by a common character referred to as the Deaf-Mute Girl in a Pretty White Dress in the 8 Web site[6] and as the Girl in White in The Path's user manual.[7] The third game in this series, Fatale, is based on the tale of Salome.

February 2010 saw the release of Vanitas, described as "a memento mori for your digital hands", their first work for the iPhone OS platform and their first with music by Zoë Keating.[8] On 1 March 2010 it was announced that they were commencing the development of two large projects, alternating between the two of them for the next 18 months (i.e. until September 2011).[9]

Despite a successful Kickstarter campaign, the commercial failure of their game Sunset caused Tale of Tales to announce that they would no longer pursue commercial video game projects.[10][11]

In 2024, Tale of Tales evolved into Song of Songs, with the couple currently in Rome, Italy, as per the Tale of Tales homepage. Since the same year, their remake of Endless Forest, subtitled Second Decade, became available in its fourth beta version to backers and members of the Tale of Tales community. Unlike the original 2005 title which used Quest3D as their game engine, the newest iteration features the more advanced Unreal Engine 4.[12]

Projects

Commercial games

• 8 (2002–2009, on hiatus), based on "Sun, Moon, and Talia" and other variants of the "Sleeping Beauty" myth
• The Path (2009), based on "Little Red Riding Hood", originally titled 144
• Sunset (2015)
  • "A Day in San Bavón"[13] (2014)

Other games

• Het Min en Meer Spel (The Less and More Game, 2005), for an album by Gerry De Mol and Eva De Roovere[14]
• The Endless Forest (2005—, ongoing)
• The Kiss: Incorporator (2007), commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art, Antwerp[15]
• The Graveyard (2008)
• Fatale (2009)
• Vanitas (2010), commissioned for the Art History of Games symposium and exhibition by the Savannah College of Art and Design and the Georgia Institute of Technology Program in Digital Media[8]
• Bientôt l'été ("Almost Summer", 2012),[16] based on the work of Marguerite Duras and other French literature[17]
• Luxuria Superbia (2013) Game for the Android tablets, iPad, Linux, OS X, Ouya and Windows.[18] It won the Nuovo Award at the 2014 Independent Games Festival.[19]
• LOCK (2016), part of the Triennale Game Collection

Screensavers

• Poussière sidérale (2003), screensaver based on particle systems designed for 8
• Vernanimalcula, screensaver for the National Bank of Belgium[20]

As Entropy8Zuper! (selected)

• Eden.Garden (2001), commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
• Wirefire (1999–2003)
• Al-Jahiz (2000), commissioned by Lifetime Television
• B-O-X (2002)
• Sixteenpages.net (2000)
• skinonskinonskin (1999), first exhibited at Hell.com
• The Godlove Museum (1999–2006)[21]

References

1. "About Tale of Tales". Tale of Tales. February 2007. Retrieved 27 March 2009.
2. "Credits". The Path: A short horror game by Tale of Tales. Retrieved 27 March 2009.
3. "About us". Entropy8Zuper!. Retrieved 27 March 2009.
4. Ramunas Jakimavicius. "Tale of Tales Interview". Nightmare Mode. Archived from the original on 19 October 2011.
5. Samyn, Michaël (21 July 2009). "Fountains of blood". Tale of Tales. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
6. "Characters". Tale of Tales: 8. Retrieved 27 March 2009.
7. "The Path user manual". p. 13. Retrieved 26 March 2009.
8. "Vanitas". Tale of Tales. 2010. Retrieved 1 March 2010.
9. Samyn, Michaël (1 March 2010). "Going underground". Tale of Tales. Retrieved 1 March 2010.
10. Samyn, Michaël; Harvey, Auriea. "And the sun sets…". Sunset. Tale of Tales. Archived from the original on 21 June 2015. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
11. Austin Walker (23 June 2015). "Let's Talk about Tale of Tales' Sunset and Public Funding for Games". Giant Bomb. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
12. "Are you ready for the Second Decade? | The Endless Forest". endlessforest.org. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
13. "Sunset Twine prequel | Indie Developer Science Fair". Polygon.
14. "Gerry De Mol & Eva De Roovere – Min & meer". ultratop.be (in Dutch). Ultratop & Hung Medien / hitparade.ch. 2009. Retrieved 24 May 2009.
15. Harvey, Auriea (9 November 2007). "Exhibition: The Kiss @ Nano Nu". Tale of Tales. Retrieved 27 March 2009.
16. "Tale of Tales' other things". Tale of Tales. Retrieved 16 June 2012. Work in progress scheduled for release in autumn 2012.
17. Samyn, Michaël (16 June 2012). "Novels read". Bientôt l'été. Tale of Tales. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
18. "Luxuria Superbia". Retrieved 6 November 2013.
19. "2014 Independent Games Festival Winners". Independent Games Festival. UBM plc. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
20. "E8Z!/html/BLINK". Entropy8Zuper!. Retrieved 27 March 2009.
21. "Auriea and Michaël's 1 page CV". Entropy8Zuper!. Retrieved 27 March 2009.

External links

• Tale of Tales website
• Entropy8Zuper! website
• "The Making of Fatale", by Bruno de Figueiredo (20-12-09)