By Alec Meer on January 22nd, 2013.
If you like bamboozling investigation in the outer wilds of electronic entertainment but don’t like paying for it, your happiness processor might respond to the news that reliably obtuse devs Tale of Tales have a made a major element of their latest, Bientôt l’été, free and browser-based.
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By Alec Meer on December 4th, 2012.
I dunno about that Citizen Kane of videogames nonsense, but one thing we definitely have is the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of videogames. Bring up the name Tale of Tales, most renowned/notorious for The Path, and you will be sure to spark a war. A war between those who believe games can be anything and those who believe games have to stick to a strict definition of games. It’s a very boring war and I don’t understand why people object to the existence of things they do not themselves enjoy, but THE INTERNET. Personally, I’m not quite sure ToT’s games have always lived up their promise or the concepts they explore, but this does not preclude me from being grateful for their existence, and for their continued dedication to experimentation.
So, their new game software product Bientôt l’été. It’ll be out later this month, all being well, and appears to be an even more overt departure from traditional game objectives and systems than before.
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By Jim Rossignol on March 28th, 2012.
The work of arty developer types Tale Of Tales tends to divide people. I would argue that The Endless Forest is probably their best work – an ambient forest MMO in which players take the role of man-faced deer. There is minimal interaction, and just a few odd puzzle things to do, but that’s hardly the point: it’s simply a strange, shared internet space, and the kind of oddity that makes our vast series of tubes worth exploring. Anyway, it seems that is doomed now, since it lost its backing. The studio are appealing for donations to keep it alive: “This is not just a question of finances. It is also a matter of principle. We believe that an artist and their audience can have a symbiotic relationship that does not require any interference from the outside. So in a way, we are taking this opportunity to prove a point. Please help us do so.”
So, will you?
By John Walker on October 29th, 2010.
In one of the more strange press releases I’ve seen, Tale Of Tales have announced that the Day Of The Dead bundle of their games – The Graveyard, The Path, and Fatale – is to be “pay what you want” for the next five days. Because, um, they want us to think about death. Which is cheery! It’s all in aid of funding their next project, codenamed The Book Of 8.
By John Walker on August 26th, 2010.
I enjoy when a game experience creates moods or emotions, rather than coherent narrative sense. And Tale Of Tales have certainly done that for me in the past. But with Vanitas I hold up my hands and admit defeat. It’s a box with some stuff in. I haven’t been able to interpret any more than that, despite the explanations on the site. Previously an iPhone game, it’s now available for free to play with Unity on PC (look for tiny text saying “Try free web version”). So for once I’m going to be negative about the experience, and others can correct me where I’ve missed the point.
By Kieron Gillen on October 6th, 2009.
The Path’s creators, Tale of Tales return with a new game/vignette/thing. There’s no demo yet, but you can buy it directly from them for a mere seven dollars. It is – to quote the press release – “FATALE is an interactive vignette in realtime 3D inspired by the story of Salome, the biblical princess and protagonist in Oscar Wilde’s stage play, first performed in England 78 years ago today”. There’s an audio-only trailer below, which features the heady mix of Jarboe and Wilde dialogue, which will give you a taste of its vibe. More, I suspect, when we’ve got a copy and examined with our eyes.
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By Kieron Gillen on April 6th, 2009.
A couple of weeks after the micro-furore which followed its launch, the good ship Eurogamer send me off to evaluate Tale of Tales’ game of short horror and long walks. I start like this…
“There’s an urge to give it one out of ten. Maybe a two, because two sounds more genuine than one. One sounds like foot-stomping petulance. Two sounds considered, as if I really do mean it. I’m not, because I don’t, but it’d serve a couple of good purposes. Firstly, if considered solely as a classical game, The Path is bloody terrible. Secondly, if you’re the sort of person who cares about the review score, it’s almost certainly not for you and I should turn you off as quickly as possible.”
And then set controls for the heart of the sun. Join me!
By John Walker on March 19th, 2009.
Tale of Tale’s The Path is officially released today, and now available on Steam. Last week I wrote my impressions of the peculiarly evocative art project – trying to present a mixture of the opinions that formed in my brain, about a game that deserves attention/confusion. The twist on Little Red Riding Hood has you take six sisters on a journey through the woods on their way to Grandmother’s House. However, heading straight there isn’t how to play. It’s all about deviating from the task, and the path, and getting lost in the woods. It’s £7.25 on the UK Steam, $10 in the US, and 7,90€ in Europe. Do I recommend it? I do, but I sort of squirm in my seat at the same time. Well, read this, it explains it better.
By John Walker on March 11th, 2009.
Tale of Tales’ The Path comes out a week today. It’s a unique game, almost stretching the use of the word “game” to describe it as such, in which you take one of six Little Red Riding Hoods through the woods, on her journey to Grandmother’s house. However, simply completing this task is the shortest route the the game’s ending – indeed, if anything, finishing the game is really the last thing you want to do.
By John Walker on March 20th, 2008.
Tale of Tales, they behind the IGF finalist The Path, are releasing a new short, The Graveyard, tomorrow now. We’ve had an early play, and encourage you to take a look.
Tales call The Graveyard “an explorable painting”, rather than a game, which is just about the perfect description. Your character is an elderly woman, walking with a cane, stood inside the entrance of a graveyard. There are two things you can do: walk forward toward a bench in the distance, or turn around and leave. But it’s not so much about what you do, as pausing and experiencing the scene.
