Tale of Tales is a Belgian developer of

art game An art game (or arthouse game) is a work of Interactive art, interactive new media art, new media digital art, digital software art as well as a member of the "art game" subgenre of the serious game, serious video game. The term "art game" was ...

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 electr ...

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 Saint Bavo's Cathedral, also known as Sint-Baafs Cathedral (), is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Ghent, Belgium. The Gothic building is the seat of the Diocese of Ghent and is named for Saint Bavo of Ghent. It contains the well-known ''Ghent A ...

, which they consider one of their greatest influences. The studio is named after

Giambattista Basile Giambattista Basile ( – 23 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 remembered for writi ...

's book '' The Tale of Tales'' (''Lo Cunto de li cunti''), with their main series being retellings of

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...

s 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 hearing impairment, deaf and muteness, could not speak. The term continues to be used to refer to deaf people who cannot speak ...

Girl in a Pretty White

Dress A dress (also known as a frock or a gown) is a one-piece outer garment that is worn on the torso, hangs down over the legs, and is primarily worn by women or girls. Dresses often consist of a bodice attached to a skirt. Dress shapes, silh ...

in the ''8'' Web site and as the Girl in White in ''The Paths user manual. The third game in this series, ''Fatale'', is based on the tale of

Salome Salome (; , related to , "peace"; ), also known as Salome III, was a Jews, Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II and princess Herodias. She was granddaughter of Herod the Great and stepdaughter of Herod Antipas. She is known from the New T ...

. February 2010 saw the release of ''Vanitas'', described as "a

memento mori (Latin for "remember (that you have) to die")

for your digital hands", their first work for the

iPhone OS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long and ...

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 band ...

. 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 (or sundown) is the disappearance of the Sun at the end of the Sun path, below the horizon of the Earth (or any other astronomical object in the Solar System) due to its Earth's rotation, rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth, it ...

'' caused Tale of Tales to announce that they would no longer pursue commercial video game projects. In 2024, Tale of Tales evolved int
Song of Songs
with the couple currently in Rome, Italy, as per th
Tale of Tales homepage
Since the same year, their

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same s ...

of ''Endless Forest'', subtitled ''Second Decade, became'' available in its fourth beta version to backers and members of the ''Tale of Tales'' community. Unlike the original 2005 title which used ''Quest3D'' as their game engine, the newest iteration features the more advanced

Unreal Engine 4 Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) is the fourth version of Unreal Engine developed by Epic Games. UE4 began development in 2003 and was released in March 2014, with the first game using UE4 being released in April 2014. UE4 introduced support for Physically ...

Projects

Commercial games

*''8'' (2002–2009, on hiatus), based on "

Sun, Moon, and Talia ''Sun, Moon, and Talia'' () is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile and published posthumously in the last volume of his 1634-36 work, the ''Pentamerone''. Charles Perrault retold this fairy tale in 1697 as ''Sleeping Beau ...

" and other variants of the "

Sleeping Beauty "Sleeping Beauty" (, or ''The Beauty Sleeping in the Wood''; , or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess curse, cursed by an evil fairy to suspended animation in fi ...

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

Little Red Riding Hood "Little Red Riding Hood" () is a fairy tale by Charles Perrault about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th-century European Fable, folk tales. It was later retold in the 19th-century by 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 hea ...

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

Museum of Modern Art, Antwerp The Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp (, 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. Overview The museum holds a permanent co ...

*'' The Graveyard'' (2008) *''Fatale'' (2009) *''

Vanitas ''Vanitas'' is a genre of symbolizing the temporality, transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, and thus the vanity of ambition and all worldly desires. The paintings involved still life imagery of transitory i ...

'' (2010), commissioned for the

Art History Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

of Games

symposium In Ancient Greece, the symposium (, ''sympósion'', from συμπίνειν, ''sympínein'', 'to drink together') was the part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was accompanied by music, dancing, recitals, o ...

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 art school with locations in Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; and Lacoste, France. It was founded in 1978 to provide degrees in programs not yet offered in the southeast of the United ...

and the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...

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) ea ...

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''

Screensavers

*''Poussière sidérale'' (2003), screensaver based on

particle system A particle system is a technique in game physics, motion graphics, and computer graphics that uses many minute sprites, 3D models, or other graphic objects to simulate certain kinds of "fuzzy" phenomena, which are otherwise very hard to rep ...

s designed for ''8'' *''Vernanimalcula'', screensaver for the

National Bank of Belgium The National Bank of Belgium (NBB; , NBB; , BNB; , BNB) is the National central bank (Eurosystem), national central bank for Belgium within the Eurosystem. It was the Belgian central bank from 1850 until 1998, established by law of and issuin ...

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 art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

*''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 toward ...

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