Körperlos, als reine Perspektive schwebt man als Spieler durch die Tempelanlage. Fast wie bei einem Kreuzweg besucht man Station um Station, vordergründig um Kerzen auszulöschen, in Wahrheit aber, um sich der Atmosphäre hinzugeben und um Details der Szenerie wahrzunehmen. Aus herumliegenden Schleiern, den Séparées, dem Henker und vielen weiteren, nicht nur ernst gemeinten Elementen (Zündholzschachtel mit Telefonnummer Salomes!) baut sich im Kopf des Spielers die fatal endende Geschichte auf. Man muss sich auf die Atmosphäre einlassen, sich in die Szenerie vertiefen, denn das Andeutungsgeflecht erweist sich als nicht dicht genug gewebt, um eindeutige Schlüsse ziehen zu können.

Alois Pumhösel, Der Standard

Tale of Tales ha logrado recrear la figura de la Salomé de Wilde a un nivel de complejidad asombroso, creando a partir de ella una obra con sentido y valor propio. Un trabajo minucioso que da pie a una obra que no será bien recibida por todos los públicos, pero ya se sabe que los grandes artistas siempre vienen acompañados de polémica.

And no, there’s no score. ;)

The ever eloquent Bruno de Figueiredo picked our brains when we were working on Fatale and has now published the result with a bunch of work-in-progress pictures. Enjoy!

To a large extent, FATALE is about looking. We follow Wilde’s version of the story in this. You start as John the Baptist in a situation where you’re being looked at – by Salome – against your will. Then because of the looking of another person – King Herod at Salome – you are put to death. And finally you meet Salome who claims that if you would have looked at her, you would have loved her. And, presumably, none of this would have happened.

Unlike most games, which put you on a roller-coaster ride away from your own life, our games act as pause buttons. Take a moment and allow yourself to breathe. That’s why their slowness might come as a kind of shock when you start up the game. Like a speeding truck coming to a sudden halt.

Also a short article about us and FATALE appears in this month’s issue of Wired UK Magazine:

And Wired.co.uk has published more of the complete interview with us at their site.
Edit: journalist Daniel Nye Griffiths posted even more on his blog.

Read the interview here. It’s about The Path, Fatale, the games industry, etc. Hopefully the answers are as interesting as the questions. If not, feel free to continue the discussion in the comments. :)

There’s a 4 page interview about FATALE in the current issue of Games TM (89) that was made before the release of the game. And there’s a rateless review of FATALE in Edge online, which I enjoyed because it’s about what the writer discovered while playing and how he appreciated it.

Video games rarely offer the chance to look so deeply at a single character, or to spend so much time lingering over an environment and enjoying it for its own sake. Tale Of Tales is a small team, but they went across disciplines to find experts in every field, from the art to the music to that wonderous dance sequence. Plenty of indies wear primitive graphics as a badge of honor; Tale Of Tales pulled off Fatale with a team of less than a dozen.

Christian Donlan has reviewed FATALE for Eurogamer. And quite spectacularly so! Not because he enjoyed the piece, but because he relates very eloquently how hardcore gamers might approach it. Expressing the confusion and even anger they might feel as well as the doubts concerning the sincerity -or even sanity- of the creators. I found it most enlightening! And an amusing read to boot.

Tale of Tales’ latest is another GameFAQs disaster, in other words: what do I do? Where do I go? Why won’t the door open? How do I get my seven quid back? If Fatale had a hints hotline – and I really wish it did – I’m pretty certain players’ calls would be patched directly to Mark Lawson and Umberto Eco, dressed as mimes, answering all queries in Aramaic.

We’re just plain astounded that a project like FATALE can be reviewed on a mainstream games site nowadays. These are fascinating times, indeed!

Anthony was surprisingly mild. Lewis didn’t enjoy it. But Amanda did. VorpalBunny and Chris got all intellectual and lyrical. I think Simone liked it too, though my Italian is limited.

And I love what dandriel said on the forum, after playing FATALE:

I felt like when you get out of an art gallery, or a cinema… when you get back to the real world but your mind is blinded by the fantasy world you have just abandoned.

Red is the colour of blood, and therefore signifies both life and death. We never see the mother at the beginning of the story, but in a sense she is there nevertheless, because the red room from which all the girls start their journey can be interpreted as a womb-symbol.

British writer Edward Picot, well known to us for his wonderful exploration of computer games as art, has published an in-depth review of The Path both on Furtherfield and The Hyperliterature Exchange.

It’s a remarkable article because it goes a lot further in analyzing the content of the game than most reviews have so far. There’s quite a bit of fair criticism as well, which only contributes to the article’s much appreciated sincerity.

Have a read and let me know what you think. Am I crazy? Do you feel the same? Is there still hope? Or should we just move on to something else? Or are the other writers right? Are their reasons for playing games more pertinent than mine not to? Oddly, it seems that several of them feel the same about the scarcity of really good games and the lack of evolution, but this does not lead them to stop playing as it does me.

An MP3 version of the piece can be downloaded here.

This first quote is actually from a comment on an early review of The Path. But we thought it very poignant.

The Path reminds us of how innocent and hopeful most video games are. Look, say, at Doom. Man with shotgun takes on the Devil and destroys Hell. That’s optimism. Unrealistic, but a nice thought to keep you warm at night when things aren’t going well.
Real life is a variable experience where you learn things, have some enjoyable experiences, some nasty ones, and then… you die. That’s The Path.

comment by sagesource

The experience of the journey is what The Path is about. What you find in the forest, who you meet, and your girl’s eventual fate intertwine into an experience that’s almost certainly not a game in the classic sense, but does bring to mind the awesome power of interactive experiences in a way many games simply don’t do.

Matt “Steerpike” Sakey on Tap Repeatedly

There is no doubt that Tale of Tales is showing the gaming world exactly what it needs to see: that there is more to this new medium than what we are familiar with, that video games can be emotionally evocative in their own right, and most importantly that we, as gamers, should expect more from developers than overused conventions.

C.T. Hutt on Press Pause To Reflect

Der Wald kann Spiegel eurer Psyche sein, sofern ihr es zulasst. Es gibt keinen Lösungsweg, keine vorgekauten Richtungen. Ihr selbst seid Teil des Spiels, müsst euch aber darauf einlassen können.

Markus Grunow on The Gamer’s Base

O objetivo de cada uma das irmãs não é chegar sã e salva à casa da vovozinha. Na verdade, o que cada uma delas busca é encontrar o seu próprio lobo mau na forma humana. Enfrentar esta tendência pode ser tão denso e visceral que faz com que ser devorada viva pareça um final feliz.

Baixaki

What if the wolves you meet are not furry creatures with sharp teeth, but rather metaphoric wolves constructed from your past experiences, fears, and future desires that you need to understand and confront in order to be ready to cross the threshold into grandmother’s house?

Michael on VGBlogger

The music and ambiance of the game is the one that will really mess with you. Not only is it suitably haunting, which leaves you feeling a bit unsettled like something is out there watching you (guess what you’re right!), but the sound effects that are playing, while random, always seem to be happening right when your nerves are frayed from the music.

Josh Martin on netGameRadio

What if ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ was not simply a cautionary tale, but a metaphor for life instead?

Brad Cook on Apple.com

A The Path egy olyan bizarr mese, mely teljesen új megvilágításba helyezi gyerekkorunk egyik meghatározó, mindenki által jól ismert, “happy enddel” végződő történetét. Egy metaforikus költemény, melyben mindennek mondandója van, minden utal valamire, amit vagy megért a játékos, vagy nem. Döntéseinknek súlya van, rajtunk áll mikor és mit csinálunk, és hogy mindezt hogyan éljük meg.

Horváth Tamás on SG.hu

Obwohl kein Blut fließt, wirkt “The Path” ausgesprochen
verstörend und unheimlich.

Nico Nowarra in c’t magazine #13

Iedereen die geïnteresseerd is wat er allemaal mogelijk is met games en de manier waarop men op interactieve wijze verhalen kan vertellen, is het aan zichzelf verplicht dit grimmige sprookje te gaan spelen.

Jan in Power Unlimited magazine #186

The Path, while minimalistic, provides a magical setting in which the player’s mind blooms with imagination as they discover the beauty and terror that encircles the safety of the beaten path.

iPawn on Subjective (t)ruth

Indie game developer Tale of Tales’ The Path pulls off the virtually impossible: to create a new genre of video games that is not only addictive in its replayability, but more psychologically challenging, haunting, and disturbing than the average horror game, all at a fraction of the developmental cost and manpower of the average title.

aybendito on Ay, Bendito… UFF DA!

The last article also calls The Path “The Blair Witch Project of video games” which is enormously flattering but sadly incorrect giving the discrepancy between the two in terms sales figures. At least, so far… So don’t stop talking about The Path! :)

Also, we have just signed a contract with Zoo Corporation to translate The Path to Japanese and distribute it through their digital network.

Unfortunately, I’ve found in my videogame experience that the big companies are just as conservative as the [Hollywood] studios. I was disappointed with the first Hellboy game. I’m very impressed with the sandbox of Grand Theft Auto. You can get lost in that world. But we’re using it just to shoot people and run over old ladies. We could be doing so much more.

Guillermo del Toro in an interview with Wired

The rest of the article refers to games in the typical broad strokes of an executive -as opposed to somebody who has actually created software- but I was happy to read that some film directors share the dream of the potential of this medium (and don’t fall into the trap that Spielberg and Cameron are falling into: embracing videogames as if the current fare is all there is to them).

We all know what del Toro is talking about. I’ll be interested to see if somebody with such economic (and cultural) power will be able to pull it off. It’s doubtful, since he seems to be thinking BIG, but at least he is trying. Which is more than can be said about most people within the games industry.

And I wish more film directors would stand up and speak out against the game adaptations of their work. So many great opportunities have been lost in the process of making cheap commercial games out of movies. It really shows the embarrassing contrast between an industry manufacturing product and a creative industry which at least pretends to respect creative vision and artistic expression. We shouldn’t let Hollywood out-art us!

Thank you, Alice, for pointing this out. Though I wouldn’t have called del Toro “extremely arty”…

Christian Schiffer expresses his hopes for the future of videogames in German mainstream newspaper Die Welt, focussing on yours truly and ignoring that we may not be all that representative of the indie scene. His optimism sure is contagious and confirms my belief that Europe is currently the best place in the world for innovation and exploration of the medium (partially because we’re running behind in market terms).

The article is also available online (in German, of course).

De retoriek is goed: iedereen zoekt naar manieren om games vernieuwend en toegankelijk voor een groot publiek te maken. Maar de realiteit is dat er weinig games gemaakt worden die buiten de nauwe genres vallen. We willen dat verschil tussen de retoriek en de realiteit verkleinen. En we willen ontwikkelaars aanmoedigen om onafhankelijk te werken en te denken, niet koste wat het kost deel uit te willen maken van deze industrie.

We had always assumed that the industry was perfectly content making hardcore games for hardcore gamers. But things may be changing. We used to be firmly on Chris Crawford’s side when he claimed that the future of the interactive medium lies outside of videogames. But we’re not so sure anymore. Maybe there is room for expansion. We’ll see.

And other speculative nonsense…

Videogames may be successful at the moment. But they have not penetrated in society the way that cinema, literature and music have. Games are still a marginal medium. They can remain so for a long time. Or they can disappear altogether (it has happened before). It would be a shame if this wonderful interactive technology would be limited to the current types of videogames, or disappear if videogames stop being successful.

The Japanese games blog ZillionMonkey has published an (English language) interview with us. Have a look.

The Path is thoroughly gynocentric in its design, character direction, music, etc. (…) You don’t have to be a female gamer, though, to appreciate The Path’s take on literary symbolism, Gothic sensibility, and relaxing pace of play.

Rebecca Wigandt on Gamer’s Intuition

The Path is a sort of anti-game in a way, a game turned inside out in service to something deeply personal, human and disturbing.

Mike “Scout” Gust on Tap-Repeatedly

The Path, in my opinion, transcended everything I’ve ever thought a computer game to be and instantly planted itself into my thought patterns.

fullmetal_ky on Niko’s face

What’s more, certain independent games are entering a phase – familiar to historians of jazz, comics and indeed 20th-century literature – of vigorous experimentation with techniques of narrative. (An evening with the frightening and baffling The Path, rather like an Angela Carter story siphoned through The Sims, will show you what I mean.)

Tim Martin in Telegraph

Telling a story through open interactive medium is not a simple task, but Tale of Tales pulls it off using atmosphere and implication. They also leave plenty for the reader’s imagination. Love or hate the experience, The Path is a marker in the evolution of storytelling.

DG Shrock on Writing for Torre

Man muss sich in jedem Fall auf The Path einlassen, muss in den Wald ganz eintauchen und den Alltag hinter sich lassen. Wem das gelingt, den erwartet ein ganz besonderes Erlebnis.

Noli_me_tangere on Resurrection: dead

The Path, in sostanza, è la Corazzata Potemkin del videogioco. Pretenzioso, soporifero, sconclusionato, per chiunque sia alla ricerca di un normale videogame. Elegante, ipnotico, onirico, per chiunque sia alla ricerca di un’esperienza audiovisiva.

Ivan Fulco in l’Unità

What I experienced was nothing short of breathtaking: entire worlds of narratives and areas to explore unrestrained by contrived and cliched gaming tasks (such as “defeat this monster, progress to the next level” etc).

Adrian Clement on Rollaroll

The animations are beautiful. The music can be chilling. The words and images grow increasingly disturbing, and sometimes sexual, though opaque. When it’s all over, there’s a lot to think about, which turns out to be a more enjoyable exercise than actually playing The Path.

Chris Suellentrop on Slate

I’m really torn on The Path. I don’t know what to do about it.

Akela Talamasca on Big Download

Many won’t enjoy it and some won’t understand, but this is an important step in the evolution of gaming. This sort of experimentation deserves recognition and reward and I only hope we’ll see more like it.

Dave James in PC Format 227 (June 2009)

The Path probeert je duidelijk te maken dat je je eigen levensweg moet bepalen en niet altijd naar anderen moet luisteren, zelfs al weet je dat het naar je eigen ondergang zal leiden. Zware kost dus, afwisselen met Braid is dan ook toegelaten.

Bart Van Heymbeeck in PG Gameplay 157 (May 2009)

There was also a 4 page review plus interview in the Ukrainian Gameplay magazine. Apparently, according to our esteemed colleague of Ice-Pick Lodge, they rated The Path the same as Killzone 2. :D

As an art house project The Path can be considered quite successful. The work of Tale of Tales is preserved thanks to the vagueness of the game’s genre. It’s difficult to review something that has nothing to be compared with. If you’re looking for a new experience, then consider your $10 well spent.

Kirill Tokarev in Gameplay

Maybe we’re a little bit like scientists in a lab. We set up all the elements that are required for an experiment and then we run the test and accept whatever comes out of it. Sometimes the outcome is more interesting than other times. But no outcome is wrong.

Pedro Giglio picked our brains in English and Portuguese. And extracts a list of favourite game designers from us.

The Path poses many intriguing questions about the division between art and game, it is also a horror game of the finest degree, it doesn’t have any shocking scare moments. Rather, it unsettles and unnerves you in many ways.

Chris Evans in The Reticule

Es ist eine interaktive Erzählung, eine Geschichte, die man sich selbst erzählt.

Carsten Görig on Spiegel Online

But is it a game, per se? Probably not, yet the game mechanics are key to its success.

Chris Dahlen on A.V. Club

En The Path se habla de la vida, de la muerte, del amor y de la sexualidad haciendo uso de un simbolismo sugerente como en muy pocos otros medios se encuentra, y al contrario que en muchas ocasiones en las que se intenta emplear escudándose en un sobrecargado diseño y exageradas pretensiones, funciona.

Aitor Fernández on Eurogamer.es

Be sure to approach this short horror game as an experimental interactive narrative rather than a typical video game with clear goals and rewards, and you won’t be disappointed.

Marc Saltzman in USA Today

Das genussvolle und bisweilen verängstigte Herumirren, die Ziellosigkeit und die Langsamkeit gehören nicht nur zu “The Path”, sie machen das Spiel aus.

Oliver Klatt in Gee magazine

To classify Tale of Tales masterpiece of interactive adventure in storytelling artwork as a game forces expectations on The Path and these expectations would do more harm than good to this brilliant and memorable experience.

Brian Edey in Game Focus

Mit diesem wirklich gelungenen Experiment im Bereich interaktiver Selbstfindung zeigen „Tale of Tales“, dass man in der festgefahrenen Branche durchaus noch Neues schaffen kann.

Paikea on Gaming XP

(…) it is obvious from the outset that developer Tale of Tales have made a conscious decision to attempt to shatter any conventions you may previously have held regarding gameplay and narrative.

Mike Priest on ME-Gamers

Het oogt en klinkt prachtig, en speelt uniek.

Niels ‘t Hooft in Bright

There’s also an interview with Auriea on Gamereactor TV, filmed at our booth at the Independent Games Festival.

And once more, for the record:

Without titles like The Path, games risk being relegated to permanent insularity. Audiences and designers who care about games must play– and buy – these kinds of games, and accept their role in the future legitimacy of the medium.

Leigh Alexander on Kotaku

Audiences constantly demand video games fight familiar boundaries. We’re sick of the same old, same old. We want creativity, artistic integrity, elegance and depth–or do we? Do players know what they’re asking for when they look for “more” from games? And if this is really what we want, then what’s with the mixed reception–both cultural and economic–when we get it?

Leigh Alexander asks the question on Kotaku. And she elaborates further while illustrating her points with our little baby The Path. It’s an interesting question and one that we have certainly pondered as well. Ever since we made contact with the games industry we have been wondering about the odd contrast between a strong desire for exploring the medium’s potential and the incredibly small number of fresh games. This is not just about the “dreaded” A word. This is simply about doing something new, something fresh, something that moves people, that touches them. It’s so rare.

We’re in it it too. :)
And so is Robin.

And Jonathan Blow, Kellee Santiago, Phil Fish, Eric Zimmerman, Heather Kelley, Erik Svedäng, Kyle Gabler, etc

Wonderful things have been written about our game. In some beautiful and strange languages. And in English. Makes us glow with pride! Someone called The Path the “Un Chien Andalou” of computer games. Citizen Kane, move over! ;) And we’ve heard somewhere that Tale of Tales is to indie games what indie games are to mainstream games. But I forgot where I read that. If you know, please let us know. It’s a great quote. :)

Alright. Let the spectacle commence!

Czech:

Ve hře najdeme spoustu jednoduše geniálních nápadů, které nenásilným způsobem uvádí hráče do role spolutvůrce vlastního zážitku bez toho, aby musel na něco klikat, nebo cokoliv používat.

Michal Bayerl on Doupe

Swedish:

Det är deras sårbarhet som gör spelet så starkt. Det är här sex flickor, på väg genom barndomen och tonåren, som man möter under en kort stund. På väg genom livet.

Oskar Skog on Loading

Norwegian:

The Path er ingen hyggelig opplevelse. Snarere tvert i mot. Det tar for seg noen av de verste temaene du kan tenke deg, og det gjør det på en måte som kan få deg til å føle deg skyldig og skitten.

Joachim Froholt on Gamer.no

German:

The Path ist ein viel subtileres Horrorspiel, ohne Schockmomente, ohne gewalttätige Monster – es geht euch stattdessen viel lieber direkt vom Computerbildschirm unter die Haut.

Benedikt Wager on Gamers Plus

Polish:

Nie mam co do tego żadnych wątpliwości. „The Path” (ang. ścieżka), autorskie dzieło Auriee Harvey i Michaëla Samyna ze studia Tale of Tales, będzie kiedyś postrzegane przez historyków interaktywnego wideo jako milowy krok w rozwoju tego medium. To, przy zachowaniu proporcji, „Pies andaluzyjski” gier komputerowych – utwór głęboko symboliczny, ekspresyjny, osadzony w poetyce sennych wizji, wykorzystujący nowatorskie techniki narracji.

Olaf Szewczyk in Dziennik

Singaporian:

The Path is probably the best independent game ever made. And it’s one of the best adventure games, period, even when compared against the big boys. But it’s also an outstanding piece of non-linearinteractive narrative, which proves again that entertainment can legitimately doubleas art. Playing The Path is as rewarding as reading a literary novel.

Christopher Lim in The Business Times
(bolded by us, hey it’s our blog! ;p )

And English:

The artwork in The Path is exquisite and an example of how subtlety can be more effective than state-of-the-art-graphics.

Daniel Allen in Thirteen 1

Tale of Tales reminds us that we can encounter meaning even when we stray from the path of convention and explore the medium that is more expansive than we often recognize.

Jorge Albor on Experience Points

An interview for those who need to Know:

We never ever set out to make obscure or confusing work. We want our work to be pleasant, to make you feel good. It makes us feel good to play The Path and we know that many people feel the same. But other people are confused and weirded out by the game, sometimes even depressed. We’re a bit disappointed by that.

Interview with Dan Liebman on Dark Zero

And we’re continuing our monthly subscription to Games TM:

This is one of the most interesting things you’ll see on a PC this year. [...] More artists, and more game developers, should be this brave.

Jim Rossignol in PC Gamer UK

[As] a piece of interactive art – it’s a piece of software truly worth celebrating – and those that play it to the end will find something truly memorable, unlike so many games that are forgotten as soon as the end credits roll.

Alan Martin on AceGamez

Do not even try to fight against the pace, just surrender. If you’d never call a game “beautiful” or “touching”, probably it is too late for you to play The Path. Or maybe you are not ready yet.

Tetelo on Femina Ludens

The joy of it comes not from the way in which the journey ends but rather in the full immersion that one experiences on the way.

Joshua on Mouseandcat

The effort put into The Path is equal to the enjoyment received. Look at the game like a difficult piece of literature that needs to be sampled over and over again. This isn’t John Grisham, it’s Leo Tolstoy.

Aaron Thayer on The Silicon Sasquatch

The Path’s ideas aren’t built around gameplay; its gameplay is built around ideas.

Games TM #81

Blind nach den Grenzen tasten, als Spielfigur erwachsen werden: Keine sehr angenehme Erfahrung, aber eine, wie man sie nur in ganz wenigen Computerspielen macht.

Achim Fehrenbach on Lords of Zock

Mimo prostej z pozoru historii The Path jest bardzo wielowymiarowa i metaforyczna. Na dodatek bardziej babska, niż jakakolwiek inna gra w którą miałam okazję grać. To opowieść o dorastaniu i utracie niewinności. To również historia poznawania świata od jego złej strony.

Kaja Szafrańska on Game Corner

And an interview with Joe Martin on Bit-Tech Net:

Observing art is a playful activity. But its rules are a lot looser than those of most games because art is about the viewer. And video games tend to be a bit too forceful, too insistent on their own meaning and story. There’s not enough room for play in games to allow them to become art.

The Escapist (English):

Game Corner (Polish)

PC Guru (Hungarian):

NoobToob (English):