Tale of Tales

BVBA A (, lit. " closed company"; formally a , , ) or (SRL) is the Dutch and Belgian version of a private limited liability company. The company is owned by shareholders; the company's shares are privately registered and not freely transferable. I ...

is a Belgian developer of

art game An art game (or arthouse game) is a work of interactive new media digital software art as well as a member of the "art game" subgenre of the serious video game. The term "art game" was first used academically in 2002 and it has come to be un ...

s founded in 2003 by Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn, who had been working together in the creation of Web sites and

electronic art Electronic art is a form of art that makes use of electronic media. More broadly, it refers to technology and/or electronic media. It is related to information art, new media art, video art, digital art, interactive art, internet art, and ele ...

as Entropy8Zuper! since 1999. 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. They live close to the Saint Bavo Cathedral, which they consider one of their greatest influences. The studio is named after

Giambattista Basile Giambattista Basile (February 1566 – February 1632) was an Italian poet, courtier, and fairy tale collector. His collections include the oldest recorded forms of many well-known (and more obscure) European fairy tales. He is chiefly remember ...

'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 game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

s, each subtitled "a Tale of Tales" and linked together by a common character referred to as the

Deaf-Mute Deaf-mute is a term which was used historically to identify a person who was either deaf and used sign language or both deaf and could not speak. The term continues to be used to refer to deaf people who cannot speak an oral language or have som ...

Girl in a Pretty White

Dress A dress (also known as a frock or a gown) is a garment traditionally worn by women or girls consisting of a skirt with an attached bodice (or a matching bodice giving the effect of a one-piece Clothing, garment). It consists of a top piece th ...

in the ''8'' Web site and as the Girl in White in ''The Paths user manual. It was hinted in an interview with ZillionMonkey that their next project, following ''The Path'', will involve the character of

Salome Salome (; he, שְלוֹמִית, Shlomit, related to , "peace"; el, Σαλώμη), also known as Salome III, was a Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II, son of Herod the Great, and princess Herodias, granddaughter of Herod the Great, a ...

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 ''Memento mori'' (Latin for 'remember that you ave todie'

platform and their first with music by

Zoë Keating Zoë Clare Keating (born February 2, 1972) is a Canadian-American cellist and composer once based in San Francisco, California, now based in Vermont. Music career Keating performed from 2002 to 2006 as second chair cellist in the cello rock ba ...

. 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). Despite a successful Kickstarter campaign, the commercial failure of their game ''

Sunset Sunset, also known as sundown, is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon due to Earth's rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth (except the North and South poles), the equinox Sun sets due west at the moment of both the spr ...

'' caused Tale of Tales to announce that they would no longer pursue commercial video game projects. As of late 2022, their intended remake of Endless Forest, powered by

Unreal Engine 4 Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game ''Unreal (1998 video game), Unreal''. Initially developed for Personal computer, PC first-person shooters, i ...

, is near completion, currently in its earliest beta stage.

Projects

Main series

*''8'' (2002–2009, on hiatus), based on " Sun, Moon, and Talia" and other variants of the "

Sleeping Beauty ''Sleeping Beauty'' (french: La belle au bois dormant, or ''The Beauty in the Sleeping Forest''; german: Dornröschen, or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess ...

" myth *'' The Path'' (2009), based on "

Little Red Riding Hood "Little Red Riding Hood" is a European fairy tale about a young girl and a sly wolf. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th century European folk tales. The two best known versions were written by Charles Perrault and the Broth ...

," originally titled ''144'' *''

'' (2015) **"A Day in San Bavón" (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 *''

The Endless Forest ''The Endless Forest'' is a multiplayer online game for Microsoft Windows by Belgian studio Tale of Tales. In the game, the player is a deer in a forest without direct goals or the ability to chat with other players. Pictograms above player's h ...

'' (2005—, ongoing) *'' The Kiss: Incorporator'' (2007), commissioned by the

Museum of Modern Art, Antwerp The Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp ( nl, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, commonly abbreviated as ''M HKA'', previously ''MuHKA'') is the contemporary art museum of the city of Antwerp, Belgium. Its current director is Bart de Baere. Overv ...

*'' The Graveyard'' (2008) *''Fatale'' (2009) *'' Vanitas'' (2010), commissioned for the

Art History Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, ...

of Games

symposium In ancient Greece, the symposium ( grc-gre, συμπόσιον ''symposion'' or ''symposio'', from συμπίνειν ''sympinein'', "to drink together") was a part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was acc ...

and

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibiti ...

by the

Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is a private nonprofit art school with locations in Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; and Lacoste, France. Founded in 1978 to provide degrees in programs not yet offered in the southeast of the Un ...

and the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

Program in Digital Media *''Bientôt l'été'' ("Almost Summer", 2012), based on the work of

Marguerite Duras Marguerite Germaine Marie Donnadieu (, 4 April 1914 – 3 March 1996), known as Marguerite Duras (), was a French novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and experimental filmmaker. Her script for the film '' Hiroshima mon amour'' (1959) e ...

and other French literature *''Luxuria Superbia'' (2013) Game for the Android tablets, iPad, Linux, OS X, Ouya and Windows. It won the Nuovo Award at the 2014

Independent Games Festival The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of the independent video game industry. Originally founded in 1998 to promote independent video game developers, ...

. *''LOCK'' (2016), part of the ''

Triennale Game Collection The ''Triennale Game Collection'' is a series of original independent video game anthologies, published for free in 2016 and 2022 at the occasions of the 21st and 23rd Triennale di Milano and of the ''Milano Game Festival''. Concept The coll ...

Screensavers

*''Poussière sidérale'' (2003), screensaver based on particle systems designed for ''8'' *''Vernanimalcula'', screensaver for the

National Bank of Belgium The National Bank of Belgium (NBB; nl, Nationale Bank van België, french: Banque nationale de Belgique, german: Belgische Nationalbank) has been the central bank of Belgium since 1850. The National Bank of Belgium was established with 100% pr ...

As Entropy8Zuper! (selected)

*''Eden.Garden'' (2001), commissioned by the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

*''Wirefire'' (1999–2003) *''Al-Jahiz'' (2000), commissioned by

Lifetime Television Lifetime is an American basic cable channel that is part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, a subsidiary of A&E Networks, which is jointly owned by Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company. It features programming that is geared tow ...

*''B-O-X'' (2002) *''Sixteenpages.net'' (2000) *' (1999), first exhibited at

Hell.com Hell.com is an internet domain which has achieved a degree of notoriety due to its name, and an intentionally mysterious website that existed there from August 1995 to 2009 created by the first registrant of the domain, artist Kenneth Aronson. Th ...

*''The Godlove Museum'' (1999–2006)

References

External links

Tale of Tales website

Entropy8Zuper! website

{{Authority control Belgian artist groups and collectives Video game companies established in 2002 Video game development companies Video game companies of Belgium 2002 establishments in Belgium Companies based in East Flanders