The Graveyard on Steam

The Graveyard on Steam

Steam does a bit for independent game developers what an art gallery does for fine artists. It offers a commercial channel and, perhaps more importantly, a certain recognition of your work. At least that’s how it feels sometimes when people congratulate us when getting our game on Steam.

The uncanny, the unlikely, the strange, the incomprehensible, the silly, the crazy, the irresponsible, the weird has just happened: our little pièce de controversy The Graveyard has just been published on Steam. This sort of completes the project. The snake bites its own tail. The punchline is out. It brings a tear to our eyes.

Even if you had already purchased The Graveyard here (many many thanks for that!), we think you should buy it again on Steam. Just for the heck of it. Just to see “The Graveyard” in between “Half Life 2”, “Left 4 Dead” and “Counter-Strike” in your games list. For 4.99 US Dollars. It’s worth it!

50 thoughts on “The Graveyard on Steam”

  3. Congratulations! If i will not get the “whole” version, i will definetly download the “demo” 😉 Oh yes, Btw. The Path also coming to Steam? For a free download or with payment?

  5. Having downloaded the demo (and watched the full version on a video site–sorry, not paying $5 for this), I don’t think this constitutes as a game.

    Games are interactive media, not passive (e.g., film, TV). Outside of painfully and slowly moving granny down a straight, set path, there is absolutely no interactivity here. This is film, not game. More than half of the “experience” is out of the user’s control. I am left wondering why this wasn’t just made into a film. As a film, I might have accepted it; marketed as a game, and I find myself annoyed. Oh, yes, but I’m sure it seemed very edgy, indie and experimental to use a game-like setting for a film. Indie, yes. Experimental only as much as a film with the same exact scenario would be. (In other words, not very.)

    Also, while I realize the song is supposed to give some character background for the old woman, it didn’t do it for me. When she died, I really didn’t care. I didn’t identify (though of course, I one day will). I just kept thinking, “Surely, surely…no game company, not even an indie one, would do this big of a ‘fuck you’ to users and buyers.” But, alas, you guys did. I was waiting for the punchline. Instead, she died, and all I could think was “Thank God I didn’t waste $5, and now I feel like Tale of Tales owes me $5 for wasting a fucking lifetime to get granny to the other end of the graveyard.”

    Any messages you guys hoped to express are lost because of the horrible user experience you provided. Good luck next time. Next time, though, maybe call it a digital film when it is one.

    P.S. – I liked the visuals, but I thought the use of black and white was unfortunately cliche.

  6. “P.S. – I liked the visuals”
    Well at least you did something right Tale of Tales :-)

    All forms of media are interactive or not depending on how you engage with it. Don’t be fooled into thinking that user imput equals interactivity; when it boils down to it most games end up as a T.V powered by an exercise bike.

  7. its okay Monty, we’re used to it by now. heard it all before. 😉 seen it all.
    “it’s not a game… yadda, yadda, yadda” and anonymous troll is anonymous.

  8. While I would not recommend this to any friends as a “game.” I do enjoy the style very much. After seeing this on steam and playing the ‘demo’ it convinced me to look into it a bit more. Which is how I found out about The Path, which I’m definitely looking forward to. The weekend after its release I plan on purchasing both.

  10. I like playing video games quite a bit and I believe I also have an appreciation for art. I just found The Graveyard on Steam, and I am glad I found your site.

    The Graveyard is absolutely brilliant. The full use of the medium of the 3d game environment with the sounds and the movement is like being in a work of art. Definitely worth the price to commend your effort. Can’t say I’m looking forward to see her pass, but c’est la vie – she will live on in eternal repetition in graveyard. She seems a bit melancholy, but not especially bitter or sad.

    Looking forward to checking out your other works.

  11. Sadly, you will face the fools who are too buisy with labels like, “Game” to appreciate The Graveyard.

    In my postmodern art studies class, people kept arguing over wether or not one woman’s ritualized act of cleaning a river was a form of performance art, or merely community service. It seems so trivial to me.
    Art is a matter of the artist expressing that innate power to create, wether dance, music, or any other sort of artistic media. The result of this expression is, unquestionably art. Only the artist themself can know for certain, but does a single umbrella term truely matter?

  13. As many others these days I got knowledge of The Graveyard through Steam.

    I played the demo and was stunned, because I never experienced or even recognized a “game”-environment as a carrier for artistic expression in this way before.

    Most important thing (among others) I got from it was a reflection about what I personally (and other gamers) expect from a game today, because “The Graveyard” offers the complete opposite:
    The feeling of freedom and endless possibilities, shooters with heavy space marines that run super fast in massive armor, many hours of playtime, and death meaning nothing but a failed try.

    To me, “The Graveyard” showed clearly how generic most of today’s “blockbuster games” are…

    Next thing I did was purchasing the full version. People who think of it as a waste of money really don’t get the point. I didn’t pay to see the old lady die. I paid to show my appreciation and to support the developers.

    After that I went to this website and loaded Endless Forest 😉
    As soon as The Path is on Steam I will get that, too.

    I wish you the best of luck and success for the future, what you do with Tale Of Tales is really special and unique.

  16. I found it to be an interesting experiance. The atmosphere was quite gripping and the song was oddly haunting. Well worth the money i paid.

    And it is a game. Regardless of what anyone may think.

    A game does not have to be a pathetic repeated overused concept like a shooter, rpg or other such things.

    It was nice to see something like this for once.

  17. Logan’s comments above echo my own thoughts. I love it when game developers experiment with new approaches. Straightforward, uninspired shooters and EA’s endless sports games do nothing to advance gaming as a whole; building new experiences such as The Graveyard is the only way that gaming will mature and grow as both a storytelling and art form. I will buy The Graveyard to show my support and enthusiasm for new experiences.

    Keep it up!

  18. Truely appreciate this ‘game’ for everything it is and everything it isn’t. Steam buddy gave me a heads up on ventrilo and a few of us downloaded it and launched it at the same time. I thought it might be fun to tape the first impression.

    youtube.com/watch?v=kjPwNQlfZk4

    Bookmarked your site, migth want to snoop around later. 😀

  19. Five bucks is a bargain for a memento mori, especially one as charming as The Graveyard. Downloaded the demo, read the credits, bought the full version immediately.

    I think the folks who are having a problem with it because nothing blows up are probably too young to have experienced death first hand. A little perspective changes everything.

    Beautiful project.

  20. Me again–after whistling or humming it all day long, I’m wondering where I might be able to get a copy of the song played in The Graveyard in mp3 format so I can add it to the rotation on my mp3 player. What’s it called, anyway?

    Thanks again.

  22. I discovered this “game” on Steam. I downloaded the trial – and I wasn’t exactly impressed, but I was intrigued – so I bought it.

    While everybody else argues over whether or not this can actually be considered a game, I have to say – Is there any way to end this game without Ctrl+Alt+Del? When she lives, you can go back to gate and exit – but when she dies it just sits there indefinitely. Kind of artistic I guess, and definitely eerie – but also annoying…

  23. Although I’ve visited The Graveyard a few times, I imagine having played it this way…

    Instead of the old Woman walking to the bench, she visits the grave of her dead Husband, and the music is played when she puts fresh flowers into the pot. When the music is over, she then gets up, and the player can then take her to the exit, or she dies right there, beside her Husband.

  24. JR, sorry for making you a victim of our artistic fetishism. 😉
    But, as all Windows applications, the game can also be closed with ALT plus F4. We just wanted to make a point about how this was really the end. Of the woman’s life and of the world (for her). In our original design, her death even broke the installation of the game, so you had to reinstall it if you wanted to play it again.

    Vaughan, that’s nice. And exactly the kind of fantasies that we hope people to have. The player’s imagination is a highly underestimated aspect of the interactive medium.

  25. I’m not one to post on forums, but I just wanted to congratulate you on the game, I was curious and downloaded the demo. It came to me at a weird time.
    My father passed away a month ago and its been a mess in my head. Today is his birthday and I’m taking my mother to the graveyard, I happen to see the demo and clicked on it to try out before heading out. Something on the description made sense to me, the part about being more like a painting, I got drawn into the experience of it because it unlike most games you walk slow and that change in pace gives you a chance to aprecieate your surroundings. It put me in a more thoughtful frame of mind, like art usually does to some one who looks for it. Thanks for it and I will buy the full version.

  27. Hey guys,

    I was actually going to buy this probably… just to support creative effort, because I love indie developers, but…

    it seems like there’s some weird glitch on my system. I downloaded the demo through steam, and launched it.

    Resolution is 1920×1080. Graphics card is GTX 260 Core 216.

    Graphics quality is “fantastic.” Drivers are 182.08 (latest).

    The game actually runs, but there’s a weird texture “overlay” when the game starts which looks like some kind of transparency or shadow map for the gate… (see http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/112/overlay.png)

    I also CANNOT MOVE!!! I can hear the birds, see the clouds and everything work. But when I press forward, the animation for the lady starts playing (you can see her walk forward) but she doesn’t move relative to the scenery… she’s stuck in one spot.

    Also, if you try to turn you can see the animation of the lady go, but she does not turn – just stays pointed forward. The clouds still keep floating by and casting shadows, I can still hear the birds etc…

    Can you update/fix this please? Also on steam… I’ll probably buy it then.

    I’ll also buy the path probably, assuming the price is sane for what it is (I only read one review from honestgamers on it).

  28. I just browsed through the files and found my “output_log.txt” file which has about 65535 errors in it… check it out:

    http://www.2shared.com/file/5095131/1ef68ba1/output_log.html

    Also, I recommend using something like notepad++ to view it because it’s 1.68MB and the regular notepad will probably crash… can you fix this problem for the app and update it on steam? I shouldn’t be the ONLY one having the problem… or am I??

  29. You’re not the only one, Chris. But it still quite rare and none of our own computers display the error, which makes it very difficult to fix. Thanks for supplying us with these details. I’m afraid we won’t be able to look into this until next month, though. Any extra information on what may cause this, is welcome. But please use the forum instead of this blog post: http://tale-of-tales.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=44

  30. Umm… I get an error trying to register on the forums!!! I see no authorization code box anywhere!

    “The authorization code you have entered is incorrect. The location of the code should be stated on the registration page. Please try again.”

    What is going on?!?!?

  31. Hey Chris! I fixed the forum. please try to register again! It’s because I put on a new skin the other night. must’ve broken something then. Should work now though.

  32. I wanted to express my appreciation for The Graveyard. I’m not sure whether I would call it a game or interactive art, but it caused me to pause and reflect, something very very few games have ever done. Thank you.

  33. @Auriea: ppl that state The Graveyard is not a game are not trolls. If you think they are trolls, you are delusional. Games are different from other forms of media 10x to the interactive nature of their main characteristic: gameplay. The graveyard has no gameplay and thus it is not a game. (sure Monty, all forms of media are interactive, but games are the only one defined by gameplay; eg: paint is interactive, but it’s not really a video-game is it?)
    If you see a car shaped like a plane, but unable to fly, would you call it a plane? No, it’s still a car, so if someone tells you your ‘plane’ is actually a car don’t call him a troll.

    Anyway, please stop offending ppl that offer their remarks as facts. I understand you fell the need to protect your work, but the simple fact is your arguments are wrong and you even offend ppl by calling them trolls.

    As i said in the forum, i enjoyed The Graveyard as an experience, but there is no way, by applying any logic, to call it a game since it has no gameplay. So please, next time someone tells you TG is not a game, instead of calling him a troll try explaining that it does not matter whether it is a game or not as long as he enjoys it.
    With your current attitude coupled with the fact that you are wrong in some of your statements, you’re not going to have lots of fans.

  34. Rather than live through this sense of deja vu I will merely direct you to a heated discussion some months back,
    http://tale-of-tales.com/blog/2008/11/09/somebody-hates-the-graveyard/
    Lots of talking but no consensus; A stale mate.

    Now I’m not going to speak for the developers but follow this link and you might get a flavour of the types of comments that get directed at them. They range from “I like” to I don’t like” (occasionally giving a reason why), where as others take this sort of approach,

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocY1ei5lAog&feature=related

    “It is a poorly made piece of crap that is being labelled as “Art” so big headed pillocks like yourself with your head so far up your ass will buy it. I could make a shitty game like this, label it as “Art” and I’d make money off of it, that’s all there is to it.”

    I would develop thicker skin, wouldn’t you?

    “paint is interactive, but it’s not really a video-game is it?” I don’t see why it couldn’t be a game. Only the other day I was playing with my niece and her arts and crafts set. I was amazed by just how fun it was just saying one thing and then building something around it and putting it on a piece of paper. A game? To me; most certainly.

    “If you see a car shaped like a plane, but unable to fly, would you call it a plane?” Would you call whale a fish?

    The word game simply isn’t a pure word, so why not give a little leg room to those who want to experiment?

  35. Rather than live through this sense of deja vu I will merely direct you to a heated discussion some months back,
    http://tale-of-tales.com/blog/2008/11/09/somebody-hates-the-graveyard/
    Lots of talking but no consensus; A stale mate.

    Now I’m not going to speak for the developers but follow this link and you might get a flavour of the types of comments that get directed at them. They range from “I like” to I don’t like” (occasionally giving a reason why), where as others take this sort of approach,

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocY1ei5lAog&feature=related

    “It is a poorly made piece of crap that is being labelled as “Art” so big headed pillocks like yourself with your head so far up your ass will buy it. I could make a shitty game like this, label it as “Art” and I’d make money off of it, that’s all there is to it.”

    I would develop thicker skin, wouldn’t you?

    “paint is interactive, but it’s not really a video-game is it?” I don’t see why it couldn’t be a game. Only the other day I was playing with my niece and her arts and crafts set. I was amazed by just how fun it was just saying one thing and then building something around it and putting it on a piece of paper. A game? To me most certainly.

    “If you see a car shaped like a plane, but unable to fly, would you call it a plane?” Would you call a whale a fish?

    The word game simply isn’t a pure word, so why not give a little leg room to those who want to experiment?

  36. Frankly i didn’t bother looking into those links because all of them are irrelevant. My comment was in direct relation to Auriea calling the user “Meh” a troll.
    I don’t need to know what others said or how others behaved. All i need to know is what he said. He (“Meh”) was reasonable, didn’t use offending language, and offered his arguments (some of them are valid from my pov too). In return he was called a troll. No matter how you put it, that was wrong.
    I don’t really need to read all those links you send me because they have nothing to do with “Meh”‘s comment so they are completely irrelevant in the actual context.

    Paintbrush is a videogame as much as an MTV clip is a movie. It’s nice that it is a game to you, but the fact remains that you are incorrect.
    Everything is relative and your opinion is the only one that should matter to you, i agree. But that doesn’t mean it’s the correct opinion on the matter. Someone might like to eat shit and for him shit would be a great dish 😉 That doesn’t automatically make shit fit into the food category would it? It’s the same with paint being a game; good for you that you consider it a game, but in truth Paintbrush is not a videogame. The same with Graveyard.
    So stop making bad analogies.

    Whales are aquatic mammals while fish are aquatic vertebrate. They are both aquatic, but very different species. Kinda like games and paint: they’re both interactive in nature, but very different otherwise. Again you made a bad analogy that only proves my point.

    In the end, it’s ok if you think TG is a game. I didn’t post in the hope of changing anyone’s opinion. I did it to warn Auriea that wasn’t a nice thing to say in the context of “Meh”‘s comment. He didn’t offend anyone, he just expressed an opinion: his.
    If Tale of tales made a manifesto expressing their view on game design and i left a comment saying: ‘Tale of tales are idiots’ just because we have different opinions, that would be uncalled for wouldn’t you say?

  37. I called him a troll because he came in, -Anonymous- and said something that has been heard and discussed at length here and elsewhere. But this is all kind of a moot point isn’t it? Of course it doesn’t matter if its a game or not.
    You seem to be assuming that we can’t take criticism when really I just found the comment rude. That’s all, really. I truly wanted to head off one of these endless “game< ->not game” discussions–which are always quickly followed by the “oh you guys shouldn’t be rude to people who are rude to you” discussions…unfortunately. So yeah… maybe we should all just leave off here… because really it does go on forever and is quite boring in the end.

    SO EVERYONE
    IT DOESN’T MATTER IF THE GRAVEYARD IS A GAME OR NOT SO LONG AS YOU ENJOY IT.

    there, i said it. i’m happy. you happy?

  38. i also think people take all of this too seriously. including us. tone and humor do not come across well enough in blog comments. i am hoping everyone can just play and not feel so hurt and antagonised by what we’ve made.

  39. What the hell do you “developers” think you are playing at? As a Games Design student, this comes off as a sneaky peice of shit for the sole reason your “claiming” the whole artsy peice. This could be made by one guy in less than a week and you’re charging for it? The only kind of people this will appeal to are the weird guys that throw aload of colours on a canvas, call it art and post it on deviantart.

    Theres no stucture, theres nothing. Theres no reason to even load up this peice of crap. I’m open to all kinds of games, I love them all.. But this.. This can’t even be called a game. Its down there in the depths of gaming hell with “Zoo Race” – be warned, dont play that either.

    Overall: Its a buggy and horrible.

    P.S. – I did a speedrun for lulz and completed it in 3 seconds!
    P.P.S. – “Even if you had already purchased The Graveyard here (many many thanks for that!), we think you should buy it again on Steam” What the fuck you greedy bastards?!

  40. Well Shuyin does Auriea have permission now? Jimmy there’s a world of pain coming your way. I’m booking you in for two 30 minute rounds on the “Wheel of Despair” :-)

    I thought I had a good sense of humour, but to have two perfectly valid analogies rubbished, only be be replaced with the most ludicrous and long winded scat analogy was just to die for. For your information much of the worlds fauna feeds on fesses.

    I can assure you the first link was for from irrelevant. Except for the scat analogy, everything you wrote is a repetition of that link.

    I also noticed you failed to answer my last question.

  42. It’s not about permission, it’s about common sense. The user Jimmy definitely deserves to be called a troll or worse; the user Meh didn’t deserve the same treatment.
    The first link is relevant only if it contains Meh’s opinion. If it’s about someone else, then it’s irrelevant in the given context.

    That flying car link must be a joke. Are you by any chance 15yo? As things are, i really don’t think you understood anything from that car-plane analogy.

    As for your ‘perfectly valid’ analogies, it’s pretty clear this discussion won’t get anywhere, so let’s say you’re right, Auriea did nothing wrong etc

    Oh and Auriea, that’s one of the poorest excuses i’ve ever heard. So… if someone posts as anonymous and brings up something that’s been discusses before (and criticizes your work) he is automatically a troll? What if i expressed my point of view backed by the same arguments as Meh’s and posted it under ‘anonymous’ instead of ‘shuyin’. What then, you would’ve called me a troll?
    I don’t assume you can’t take criticism. I’m pretty sure you can’t take criticism and react without diplomacy at criticism.
    I wish you good luck as developers because your projects seem interesting. However, i don’t like your attitude as people.

  43. Hi

    I appreciate this game. I downloaded the demo and was very happy with it. When I learned that the full version includes the titillating possibility of death, I was somewhat disappointed. The old woman dies in the demo, in my imagination and in my heart, and I feel that an animation of her death is somewhat redundant and perhaps sadistic (paying for the chance to see someone die, I mean (though I certainly would be thrilled to pay for the chance to support your company)).

    When I learned that the game is difficult to exit after the old woman dies, I was at least a little more satisfied. However, I think that having the old woman’s death break the install would have been the better move, and knowing that you at least considered that fills me with comfort. Thanks!

    z.

  44. For some people -me included- seeing the actual animation of her death makes a big difference in terms of experience. Surprisingly, perhaps, because, indeed, we all accept the possibility of death relatively easily. But experiencing this death close by is a whole other thing.

  45. Congratulations,it is really an artistic brilliant game…
    I’m pride that in our ful-of-bloody-action-games world we can find such an artwork.

  49. Jimmy was educated perhaps between rednecks… sad,but his comment it’s really,a poor underground-text…You better shut your mouth up,sonny…

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