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The Graveyard finalist in the Independent Games Festival
Company: Tale of Tales
Date: 12 Jan 2009
Gent, Belgium, 12 January 2009
Last week the finalists for this year's Independent Games Festival were announced. Tale of Tales' Mac/PC title The Graveyard was nominated for the new Innovation Award, next to the several other remarkably short games. The new category accentuates the desire of the 11 year old festival to remain fresh and relevant instead of comfortably settling down with the steady flow of retro games and physics simulations coming from the indie games scene. Perhaps this is a step towards the inevitable evolution of videogames into a mature medium, a medium where depth of content is more important than superficial entertainment.
http://www.igf.com/02finalists.html
"The Graveyard is a simple videogame. So much so that some purists refuse to even call it a game. But you can hardly expect innovation from accepted values, can you? Somebody needs to do the dirty work of exploring parts of this new medium that nobody wants to touch. And ironically that somebody turns out to be an elderly woman, on the verge of oblivion. We congratulate the IGF judges on their bold choices. This promises to be a very interesting festival, indeed."
In The Graveyard, you lead an old woman to a bench near a chapel in the middle of a cemetery. Clouds move in front of the sun, birds flutter by, trees wave gently in the breeze. The cemetery layout mimics that of the city that surrounds it, the sound of whose streets and buildings is audible over the crickets and the wind. The woman moves slowly, at once frustrating the human inside of her and forcing her to contemplate her environment. When finally seated on the bench, a song is heard: about people who have died and about how you will join them one day.
The Graveyard employs interaction in an unusual way. Unlike in most games, the purpose is not to offer the player control and agency. But to force him or her into a situation that is restrictive and barren. The Graveyard offers the user an opportunity for contemplation, without implying any sort of message. It allows you to be alone with your own thoughts, to think about your own life, and about death. The interactive medium serves as a means of transportation almost, that teleports you into a mental state where you find yourself alone.
After her rest pause, the lady walks back to the exit of the cemetery. When you pass the gates, the application quits.
There are two versions of The Graveyard. The free "Trial Version", described above, and the "Full Version" which only adds one element: the possibility that the lady dies. When that happens, you lose control over the application. Your avatar is immobile and the game's interface does not respond. There is nothing left to do but force quit the application. Death is irreversible.
The Graveyard was created with Unity and funded by the Flanders Audiovisual Fund. Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn designed and directed the piece. Laura Raines Smith animated the main character. Kris Force created the sound effects. And Gerry De Mol composed the music for the game.
The Graveyard website:
http://Tale-of-Tales.com/TheGraveyard
Reviews from the time of launch:
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/03/the-graveyards.html
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/03/20/preview-the-graveyard
Post-mortem:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3865/postmortem_tale_of_tales_the_.php
Tale of Tales is an independent games development studio founded by media artists Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn, specializing in artistically meaningful games. The Graveyard is not the first work of Tale of Tales to be nominated for the Independent Games Festival. Last year, a demo of The Path -a short horror game inspired by Little Red Ridinghood- was up for Excellence in Visual Art. The Path will be released in Spring 2009.
http://Tale-of-Tales.com
Last week the finalists for this year's Independent Games Festival were announced. Tale of Tales' Mac/PC title The Graveyard was nominated for the new Innovation Award, next to the several other remarkably short games. The new category accentuates the desire of the 11 year old festival to remain fresh and relevant instead of comfortably settling down with the steady flow of retro games and physics simulations coming from the indie games scene. Perhaps this is a step towards the inevitable evolution of videogames into a mature medium, a medium where depth of content is more important than superficial entertainment.
http://www.igf.com/02finalists.html
"The Graveyard is a simple videogame. So much so that some purists refuse to even call it a game. But you can hardly expect innovation from accepted values, can you? Somebody needs to do the dirty work of exploring parts of this new medium that nobody wants to touch. And ironically that somebody turns out to be an elderly woman, on the verge of oblivion. We congratulate the IGF judges on their bold choices. This promises to be a very interesting festival, indeed."
In The Graveyard, you lead an old woman to a bench near a chapel in the middle of a cemetery. Clouds move in front of the sun, birds flutter by, trees wave gently in the breeze. The cemetery layout mimics that of the city that surrounds it, the sound of whose streets and buildings is audible over the crickets and the wind. The woman moves slowly, at once frustrating the human inside of her and forcing her to contemplate her environment. When finally seated on the bench, a song is heard: about people who have died and about how you will join them one day.
The Graveyard employs interaction in an unusual way. Unlike in most games, the purpose is not to offer the player control and agency. But to force him or her into a situation that is restrictive and barren. The Graveyard offers the user an opportunity for contemplation, without implying any sort of message. It allows you to be alone with your own thoughts, to think about your own life, and about death. The interactive medium serves as a means of transportation almost, that teleports you into a mental state where you find yourself alone.
After her rest pause, the lady walks back to the exit of the cemetery. When you pass the gates, the application quits.
There are two versions of The Graveyard. The free "Trial Version", described above, and the "Full Version" which only adds one element: the possibility that the lady dies. When that happens, you lose control over the application. Your avatar is immobile and the game's interface does not respond. There is nothing left to do but force quit the application. Death is irreversible.
The Graveyard was created with Unity and funded by the Flanders Audiovisual Fund. Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn designed and directed the piece. Laura Raines Smith animated the main character. Kris Force created the sound effects. And Gerry De Mol composed the music for the game.
The Graveyard website:
http://Tale-of-Tales.com/TheGraveyard
Reviews from the time of launch:
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/03/the-graveyards.html
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/03/20/preview-the-graveyard
Post-mortem:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3865/postmortem_tale_of_tales_the_.php
Tale of Tales is an independent games development studio founded by media artists Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn, specializing in artistically meaningful games. The Graveyard is not the first work of Tale of Tales to be nominated for the Independent Games Festival. Last year, a demo of The Path -a short horror game inspired by Little Red Ridinghood- was up for Excellence in Visual Art. The Path will be released in Spring 2009.
http://Tale-of-Tales.com
Related Resources:
News: The Graveyard Gets IGF 2009 Nomination
Title: The Graveyard (Multi-Platform)
News: The Graveyard Gets IGF 2009 Nomination
Title: The Graveyard (Multi-Platform)
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