Tale of Tales (company)

Tale of Tales

Industry	Interactive entertainment Computer and video games
Founded	2002
Founder	Auriea Harvey Michaël Samyn
Headquarters	Belgium
Products	video games
Website	tale-of-tales.com

Tale of Tales BVBA 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 very 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] It was hinted in an interview with ZillionMonkey that their next project, following The Path, will involve the character of Salome and be developed using the Unity authoring tool, which they had first trailed with The Graveyard as a side-project during development of The Path.

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]

Following the commercial failure of their game Sunset, Tale of Tales announced that they would no longer pursue commercial video game projects.^[10][11]

Projects

Main series

• 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 (2014)
  • "A Day in San Bavón"^[12] (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^[13]
• The Endless Forest (2005—, ongoing)
• The Kiss: Incorporator (2007), commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art, Antwerp^[14]
• 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),^[15] based on the work of Marguerite Duras and other French literature^[16]
• Luxuria Superbia (2013) Game for the Android tablets, iPad, Linux, OS X, Ouya and Windows.^[17] It won the Nuovo Award at the 2014 Independent Games Festival.^[18]

Screensavers

• Poussière sidérale (2003), screensaver based on particle systems designed for 8
• Vernanimalcula, screensaver for the National Bank of Belgium^[19]

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)^[20]

References

1. "About Tale of Tales". Tale of Tales. February 2007. Retrieved 2009-03-27.
2. "Credits". The Path: A short horror game by Tale of Tales. Retrieved 2009-03-27.
3. "About us". Entropy8Zuper!. Retrieved 2009-03-27.
4. Ramunas Jakimavicius. "Tale of Tales Interview". Nightmare Mode.
5. Samyn, Michaël. "Fountains of blood". Tale of Tales. Retrieved 2009-07-21.
6. "Characters". Tale of Tales: 8. Retrieved 2009-03-27.
7. "The Path user manual". p. 13. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
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 (2015-06-23). "Let's Talk about Tale of Tales' Sunset and Public Funding for Games". Giant Bomb. Retrieved 2015-08-22.
12. http://www.polygon.com/a/creativity-cover/sunset-twine-prequel
13. "Gerry De Mol & Eva De Roovere – Min & meer". ultratop.be (in Dutch). Ultratop & Hung Medien / hitparade.ch. 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-24.
14. Harvey, Auriea (2007-11-09). "Exhibition: The Kiss @ Nano Nu". Tale of Tales. Retrieved 2009-03-27.
15. "Tale of Tales' other things". Tale of Tales. Retrieved 16 June 2012. Work in progress scheduled for release in autumn 2012.
16. Samyn, Michaël (16 June 2012). "Novels read.". Bientôt l'été. Tale of Tales. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
17. "Luxuria Superbia". Retrieved 6 November 2013.
18. "2014 Independent Games Festival Winners". Independent Games Festival. UBM plc. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
19. "E8Z!/html/BLINK". Entropy8Zuper!. Retrieved 2009-03-27.
20. "Auriea and Michaël's 1 page CV". Entropy8Zuper!. Retrieved 2009-03-27.

External links

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