The Path Anniversary: postmortem 3

The third chapter of our postmortem of The Path is about what we think went right and what we think went wrong during and after the production. Several items on the list are not so black or white, as they have positive and negative sides. Overall, releasing a game like The Path probably has a similar effect on its creators as giving birth on a mother: the baby is such a glorious thing that you forget -or trivialize- all the hardship and pain that preceded its existence. Still, it’s good to stop for a moment and evaluate the entire project, in the hope of avoiding mistakes in the future, and repeating successes.

Please read on.

The Path Anniversary: postmortem 2

Red Girls models for The Path

The second part of our postmortem of The Path is written mostly by Auriea and explains the design process that went into the game. From the uncertainty at the start of the project, over mixed experiences with collaborators, the inspiration of glitches and the importance of prototyping, to our ideas about 3D aesthetics and dealing with personal emotions in videogames. Illustrated with work-in-progress sketches and screenshots.

Enjoy!

The Path Anniversaire, Jubiläum, Aniversario, etc: translations!

Thanks to the hard work of many volunteers, The Path has been translated in several languages. The following translations are available free of charge as a patch for the Windows version or automatically on Steam when you change your interface settings.

  • ☛ Danish translation by Tobias Kosmos and Nicklas Beck Jørgensen
  • ☛ Dutch translation by Michaël Samyn
  • ☛ French translation by Yann Cossiaux
  • ☛ German translation by Susanne Laws
  • ☛ Hungarian translation by Kiss Helga, Dékány Csilla and Ország Tibor
  • ☛ Italian translation by Matteo Sarnari
  • ☛ Portuguese translation by Bruno de Figueiredo
  • ☛ Romanian translation by Andra Andrei
  • ☛ Spanish translation by Ricardo Oyon

Once again, thanks to all the translators for putting so much effort into making The Path more accessible.

The language patch for The Path is a continuous project. We are working on more translations and will release them in an updated version of the patch as they get finished.

The Path Anniversary: USB Limited Edition & ToT Store Sale extravaganza!

The Path - Anniversary Limited Edition (PC & Mac)

For the one year anniversary of The Path we’ve made a new version of our popular USB stick edition! This time in silver and printed with a picture of Robin. We only have 50, and of those 42 of them are for sale. We will not print this edition again so this is your only chance to get the Robin printed USB drive! This is a whole package too; you also get your choice of poster, a The Path sticker and the 6 Red Girl polaroid cards. You get both Mac and PC versions of the game, and lots of extras! (Yes, different extras than were on the PC only USB stick.) Check out the page in the store for more details!

We are also marking down prices on many of the other store items.

So, if you have been interested in The Path merchandise there has never been a better time to get something! It will be a lot of work for me to put these packages together, I put effort into making each poster unique, but I’m looking forward to it! :)

The store sale runs until March 28th. But the Anniversary Editions will remain available until the last one is sold.

The Path Anniversary: postmortem 1

We have written an elaborate documentation of the production of The Path and will be publishing the article in 4 parts, as we proofread and finalize them.

A first introductory chapter summarizes the history of the project: How the idea started. When we got funding. And how long it all took.

In the next part, scheduled for tomorrow, we delve deep into the design of the game, followed by an overview of what went right and what went wrong, to conclude with a look at reception and sales.

We hope you enjoy the read.

The Path Anniversary: discounts!

The Path is one year old. To start the anniversary festivities, we are discounting all our titles by 50%!

For the next 10 days, until Sunday March 28, prices are:


The Path is 1 year old!

One year ago, tonight, The Path was released from a bed in a room in a hotel in San Francisco, where Auriea and I first met in person, exactly 10 years before. To celebrate this double anniversary we’ll be revealing and announcing The Path related material throughout the week. So keep an eye on our blog, facebook, twitter or wherever you’re reading this!

11 Years of collaboration

Today is the anniversary of our collaboration. 11 Years ago, Auriea and I launched our first joint web site on the day when we met in person for the first time. Here’s a selection of one portrait, one project and one event per year.


1999
Our DHTML love letters were presented on hell.com as a pay-per-view online exhibition, entitled Skinonskinonskin.

2000
The SFMOMA Prize for Excellence in Online Art was presented to us by Bill Viola at the Webby Awards.

2001
Our web work is featured in the bourgeois exhibition Belgisch Atelier Belge, among that of Belgian art superstars like Delvoye, Fabre and Tuymans.

2002
Tale of Tales is born during a research project at the Jan van Eyck academy.

2003
After their initial refusal, we convinced the Flemish Audiovisual Fund that they should support videogames, starting with our 8.

2004
Unsuccessfully pitching 8 to commercial publishers at the Game Connection in Lyon marks the start of our career as independent developers.

2005
At the Innovative Game Design symposium in Maastricht, we shelved our ambitions to become commercial game developers. Chris Crawford was there too.

2006
We presented the Realtime Art Manifesto at the Mediaterra Festival in Athens.

2007
We stopped resisting Web 2.0 and started the Tale of Tales blog .

2008
Showing The Path demo at the Independent Games Festival to hundreds of colleagues and fans was an exhilarating experience.

2009
We launched The Path at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts with live music by Jarboe and Kris Force.

2010
The Notgames initiative is an attempt to stimulate artists and designers to create interactive entertainment that is not games.

Hover your cursor over the images for captions.

It’s been almost one year…

since The Path was released.

On 18 March 2009, we launched The Path from a room in the hotel where we first met exactly 10 years before. Get ready for celebrating the first anniversary of our six little girls and their very own big bad wolves! Expect an elaborate and revealing post-mortem/making-of, a special limited USB edition package, a nice discount on the regular download, an updated translations patch (now also on Steam!), an interview with a source of inspiration, news about the soundtrack, and of course an Endless Forest bathed in darkness and mist.

Robin's Birthday Room

The Game Developers Conference starts today!

And we are not there. :)

Instead, we are at home, working on a new project. A project that doesn’t have a name yet. You can follow what we’re doing on Tumblr where we post some of the reference material that we’re collecting to inspire and inform the design.

LockFlower

We can’t say much about this project yet. Because we don’t know what it will become yet. We have a basic idea but that can still change. It has something to do with flowers, and with locks, and with diagrams of the universe, and with sex. It’s very different from any game we’ve made so far. There’s no story at its basis. There’s no characters. And it might even feel like an actual game -though we’re definitely applying the notgames dogma to this one.

We’ve also done something unusual with the design method. Auriea and I have split up. The new project consists of two very different parts. Auriea is designing one and I am designing the other. And then we’ll bring the two together.

The current phase is a prototyping phase that will run on and off until some time next year. This phase is supported by the Flanders Audiovisual Fund.

To all our friends at GDC: enjoy the event! :)

The Graveyard for iPhone

The Graveyard on iPod touch Now on the App Store: The Graveyard for iPhone and iPod touch. Only 1.99 US Dollars. A free Lite version will be available as soon as Apple approves it (release has been stalled a bit because they disapproved of your use of the word “Trial” and the reference to the full version in the description of the “Lite” one).

The Graveyard on the App Store

From the press release:

The Graveyard offers a player the opportunity to imagine themselves in a certain situation. It’s not a game in the sense that there is a way to win or lose or a puzzle to solve, or even a story to uncover. But the interaction does immerse you in a virtual world filled with narrative, an equally powerful feature of the medium of videogames. The iPhone version of The Graveyard is the same as the PC version. Only a few elements have been removed or simplified to allow it to run on the iPhone hardware. But the fact that you hold the game in your hand and touch it with your finger, adds to the sensation of fragility and preciousness.

Continue reading “The Graveyard for iPhone”