Tale of Tales (company) explained

Tale of Tales
Foundation:	Late 2003
Founder:	Auriea Harvey Michaël Samyn
Location Country:	Belgium
Industry:	Video games
Products:	The Path Sunset
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 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 Paths 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]}

As of late 2022, their intended remake of Endless Forest, powered by Unreal Engine 4, is near completion, currently in its earliest beta stage. ^[12]

In 2024, Tale of Tales has evolved into Song of Songs, and the couple now lives in Rome, Italy, as per the Tale of Tales homepage

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)
• (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
• 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)
• (1999), first exhibited at Hell.com
• The Godlove Museum (1999–2006)^[21]

External links

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

Notes and References

1. Web site: About Tale of Tales. February 2007. Tale of Tales. 2009-03-27.
2. Web site: Credits. The Path: A short horror game by Tale of Tales. 2009-03-27.
3. Web site: About us. Entropy8Zuper!. 2009-03-27.
4. Web site: Tale of Tales Interview. https://web.archive.org/web/20111019101113/http://nightmaremode.net/2011/08/tale-of-tales-interview-9730/. 2011-10-19. Nightmare Mode. Ramunas Jakimavicius.
5. Web site: Fountains of blood. Samyn. Michaël. Tale of Tales. 2009-07-21.
6. Web site: Characters. Tale of Tales: 8. 2009-03-27.
7. Web site: The Path user manual. 13. 2009-03-26.
8. Web site: Vanitas. 2010. Tale of Tales. 1 March 2010.
9. Web site: Going underground. Samyn. Michaël. 1 March 2010. Tale of Tales. 1 March 2010.
10. Web site: Samyn. Michaël. Harvey. Auriea. And the sun sets…. Sunset. Tale of Tales. 21 June 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150621214545/http://tale-of-tales.com/Sunset/blog/index.php/and-the-sun-sets/. 21 June 2015.
11. Web site: Let's Talk about Tale of Tales' Sunset and Public Funding for Games. Austin Walker. Giant Bomb. 2015-06-23. 2015-08-22.
12. Web site: Samyn . Michaël . The Unreal Forest: step 22 – beta 1 Michaël's blog . 2022-11-06 . en-US.
13. Web site: Sunset Twine prequel | Indie Developer Science Fair. Polygon.
14. Web site: Gerry De Mol & Eva De Roovere – Min & meer. 2009. ultratop.be. Ultratop & Hung Medien / hitparade.ch. Dutch. 2009-05-24.
15. Web site: Exhibition: The Kiss @ Nano Nu. Harvey. Auriea. 2007-11-09. Tale of Tales. 2009-03-27.
16. Web site: Tale of Tales' other things. Tale of Tales. 16 June 2012. Work in progress scheduled for release in autumn 2012..
17. Web site: Novels read.. Samyn. Michaël. 16 June 2012. Bientôt l'été. Tale of Tales. 16 June 2012.
18. Web site: Luxuria Superbia. 6 November 2013.
19. Web site: 2014 Independent Games Festival Winners. Independent Games Festival. UBM plc. 3 May 2014.
20. Web site: E8Z!/html/BLINK. Entropy8Zuper!. 2009-03-27.
21. Web site: Auriea and Michaël's 1 page CV. Entropy8Zuper!. 2009-03-27.