Tale of Tales (company)

Tale of Tales
IndustryVideo games
FoundedLate 2003
FounderAuriea Harvey
Michaël Samyn
Headquarters
Belgium
ProductsThe Path
Sunset
Websitetale-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 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]

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

  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. "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. ^ Samyn, Michaël. "The Unreal Forest: step 22 – beta 1 | Michaël's blog". Retrieved 6 November 2022.