Tale of Tales (company)

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

External links

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