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Tale of Tales' Sunset rises with first screens
Tale of Tales' upcoming narrative-driven game Sunset received its first official set of screenshots today. Announced in March 2014, the exploration game stars Angela Burnes, a housekeeper of a secluded philanthropist, set in a lone 1970's apartment. The Path and Fatale developer noted that the screens are "still work in progress and even though they do not represent the final beauty of the game, they say a lot about what is going to make the penthouse a spectacular environment to explore." Players will scope out the apartment to learn more about Burnes' employer when the game arrives this spring on PC, Mac and Linux. As seen in the gallery below, Tale of Tales said it "pushed the colour scheme to its saturation point with the tones of the evening sky, chic lighting from designer lamps and dramatic shadows" to make the game "feel real," yet stylized. Sunset earned $67,636 on Kickstarter in July and will feature a soundtrack from Journey's Grammy-nominated composer, Austin Wintory. The developer discussed the ways it is "trying something different" with Joystiq following its funding campaign. [Image: Tale of Tales]
Tale of Tales celebrates 10 years with Experiments and Prototypes bundle
The Path and The Graveyard developer Tale of Tales is now ten years old, and is celebrating its anniversary with a special games bundle. Dubbed the "Experiments and Prototypes" bundle, the package contains just that: a collection of 18 prototype projects from the developer's decade-long existence. Many of the projects include multiple PC and Mac downloads for various renditions and experiments, from an experimental early first-person wind control tool for Fatale to special "Adam and Eve" character models for Quake. The bundle even features multiple demos and alpha versions of the unreleased game that started Tale of Tales, 8. Those looking to acquire the Experiments and Prototypes bundle can set their own price for it, though the whole pack carries a minimum price of $5 and a suggested price of $15. Tale of Tales stresses that the bundle is in limited order, as the offer is available until December 25 and "contains many items that have never been released before and will not be available later."
Indie Royale 'Evolved' bundle offers The Path, Krater and more
Indie Royale has armed a new bundle of five games, headlined by Talawa Games' side-scrolling puzzler, Unmechanical. The "Evolved" bundle, which throws in a few soundtracks and some additional DLC if you pay a few bucks more, also contains The Path, a horror game for PC and Mac inspired by the classic tale Little Red Riding Hood.Fatshark's Krater, a post-apocalyptic dungeon crawler in which Swedish adventurers scavenge for goods from the lost world, is sandwiched in the middle of this group. You'll also get Sugar Cube: Bittersweet Factory, a 2D platformer about a sentient sugar cube escaping a cookie-bound fate, OIO, a platform-puzzler starring a wooden boy who must save his kind from a frozen state.Indie Royale's "Evolved" bundle will be around for the next week and, as of the time of this writing, has already moved 10,000 bundles.
Tale of Tales' Bientôt l'été launches on PC
Tale of Tales is known for developing obscure, sometimes creepy games such as The Path and The Graveyard. Its latest game, Bientôt l'été fits with the developer's track record, though it appears to be much more subdued and thoughtful in its tone compared to the aforementioned games. From what we gather, players walk around a beach while gathering chess pieces and phrases to make use of in the nearby café. It appears there's even a button for closing your player's eyes in the game, which leads to some interesting visual effects that are apparently more mechanical in nature.Bientôt l'été is now available for PC and Mac for $10, with an "Extravagant" version available for $40 that includes the game's soundtrack and an eventual "special build" with higher res textures and uncompressed sound.Tale of Tales drew inspiration for the game from novels by Marguerite Duras, specifically Moderato Cantabile, which provides the basic setting for Bientôt l'été: "a man and a woman meet in a seaside café." As for everything else going on in the trailer, we're as lost as you likely are. %Gallery-173500%
The Path honored with awards in Spain, goes half price to celebrate
Surreal horror/exploration indie title The Path was one of the finalists at last year's Indiecade festival, and it's been honored again with two awards at Bilbao, Spain's hóPLAY International Video Game Festival. The game won Best Sound and Best Design, and its creator, Tale of Tales, picked up a tidy sum of €12,000 ($16,000) in prize money. To celebrate, the company is putting the game on sale, and you can pick up a digital copy right now for just $4.99, half of the usual price. Careful, though -- it's a creepy experience, combining a strange retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood tale with dynamically generated music and environments. Congratulations to Tale of Tales on the awards, which it says is the first actually won in its eight-year history. Always a finalist, finally a winner.
IndieCade 2009: The finalists
IndieCade 2009 was held in Culver City, CA this past weekend, and the local art galleries and restaurants were filled with independent games and their developers from all over the world. The festival billed itself as the "video game Sundance" and lived up to this self-made reputation, putting 29 different indie games on display, both throughout the weekend and during a Thursday night opening ceremony MC'd by Uncharted 2's Richard Lemarchand (shown above with festival founder Stephanie Barish).We've rounded up the festival's finalists in the gallery below. You may be familiar with a few of them, including Twisted Pixel's The Maw and a selection of well-known iPhone titles, but all of these titles deserve your attention -- and a playthrough!%Gallery-74606%
Direct2Drive continues $5 anniversary sale with discount indie games
Direct2Drive has elected to show some love to the little guy this week. The digital distribution site continues its impossibly thrifty anniversary sale by offering a number of popular indie titles for just $5. If you've yet to dip your toes into the refreshing waters of World of Goo, The Path or Gish, Direct2Drive has the best deals on them (and a number of other indie games) that you're likely to see for a long, long time. However, if you're craving a more mainstream offering, a bunch of discounted games from previous weeks -- including BioShock, Saints Row 2 and EVE Online -- have retained the $5-discount price. You could just as easily pick those up instead, you conformist, you.
Silent Hill character designer working on Tale of Tales' Fatale
Oh good. We weren't creeped out enough by Tale of Tales' The Path, so it's just great to hear that Takayoshi Sato of Silent Hill fame is creating character designs for the company's follow-up, Fatale. At this rate, we won't even be able to download the thing with the lights off. Fatale, you may remember, is a 3D vignette based on Oscar Wilde's interpretation of the story of Salome (seen above), who performed the Dance of the Seven Veils in exchange for the head of John the Baptist. ... Yeah, fun for the whole family coming to PC on October 5th.
Steam offers 75% discount on indie games this weekend
Steam is offering the "who's who" of independent video games in an incredible sale you'd be silly to miss. For $30, you can get 10 indie games via the service: Audiosurf Blueberry Garden Braid Crayon Physics Deluxe Darwinia Everyday Shooter Gish Mr. Robot The Path World of Goo There's a lower-budget $20 option as well, which only includes half the games above. Either way, you'll be feeding starving independent developers without having to break the bank. Oh, and most of these games are pretty fun, too. It's a win-win for everyone, so make sure you rush to Steam before the sale ends on Monday, August 10.
Direct2Drive's Best of Indie bundle is a great deal
If you've yet to take that first trepidatious step out of the mainstream and into the world of indie gaming, Direct2Drive's got a great starter kit for you. For just $17.75, you can pick up five indie gems that would have normally run you around $78.Though we're not intimately acquainted with Cogs, Democracy 2 or Defense Grid, we think Zeno Clash is worth $18 on its own, not to mention the singular experience of The Path. Yes, that's the same The Path that we described as like getting punched by a centaur. Are you honestly saying you wouldn't want to try that?
Tale of Tales' next project, Fatale, based on Salome
We've had kind of a weird relationship with indie dev Tale of Tales. On the one hand, we love how unconventional its avant-garde games, like Graveyard and The Path, are, but on the other, we equated the latter to "getting punched in the nose by a centaur." So, we don't quite know what to think about the news that the company's next project, Fatale, will be based on the story of Salome, who, of course, asked for the head of John the Baptist in exchange for doing the Dance of the Seven Veils. Rather than a game, the company describes Fatale as "an interactive vignette in realtime 3D."Though maybe not a "game" per se, as you can see in the above picture, it does does provide an opportunity for one of the best hidden collectibles ever. Look for it on PC on October 5.
Mac users can now walk The Path
Attention Mac users, if you were bummed that the latest game from Tale of Tales, The Path, was restricted to PCs, it's time to rejoice, for the promised Mac version is finally out. Yes, you too can experience the game that's so freaky and different that it's like being punched in the face by a centaur. The game can be had either as a download ($10) or in a special USB edition (€25) that includes a custom USB flash drive containing the game and plenty of extras.If you're unfamiliar with the game, check out a new story trailer after the break.
This is not a review for The Path
I've mulled over how I would start this piece a hundred times in my head. I was searching for some way I could accurately and elegantly communicate my feelings on Tale of Tales' new indie PC horror game, The Path. But what I've decided is that I'm not good enough for that, so I'm going to give you the next best thing and just be completely honest with you, leaving nuance and subtlety at home with grandma so me and my friend clarity can have a crazy night on the town.The Path is weird. It's like, really, really, weird. It's like a "play it for three hours and you're still not sure if you're doing it right, and then in hour four you realize that there may not even be a right way" level of weirdness. I'm not reviewing the thing because I'm honestly not sure if they did what they set out to achieve. Yes? Maybe? I have no clue.%Gallery-48078%
The Path creeps us out with launch trailer
We've been getting creeped out by our review copy of The Path for a few days now, and we're honestly still not sure what to make of the thing. Now you can experience a little slice of what we've been going through with the above launch trailer for the indie game, brought to you by Tale of Tales, the team behind The Graveyard.Is it worth $9.99 to you to lose your sanity in a modern retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood"? It's a decision you'll have to make for yourself when this ... game (if that's the right word) hits Steam and Direct2Drive on March 18.
My, what low prices you have: The Path will run you $9.99
"But Joystiq, what's The Path?" we hear you ask, bewildered. Ah, we've pulled the old bait-and-switch on you, friend. See, we pretended like this was a game you already cared about so you'd read the post and then, in turn, care about it -- oldest blogging trick in the book.The Path is an indie game from Tale of Tales, who brought you History's Most Somber Game, The Graveyard. Its new offering, The Path, is a modern interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood and, in its own words, "offers a sincere meditation on the subjects of choice and consequence, temptation and duty, growth and change, and life and death" ... seriously, who wouldn't pay $9.99 to see what that's all about? If you'd like just a hint of what to expect, there's a brief video after the break, or you can also visit the game's exceedingly mysterious website.Look for the game on Steam, Direct2Drive and Tale of Tales' website on March 18.
