Tattletale: Standing Up To The Blood And The Bullets

It’s the Art History Of Games conference 2010. Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn, the founding members of Tale of Tales, have just concluded their talk on whether games can be art with a resounding no. “Make love, not games”, they say. The audience responds with an awkward applause that only adds decibels to the confusion. Out of everyone, you’d think it would be this collective of open minds that fully understood the development duo and their artistic creations. But Tale of Tales only remains stalwart to their solitude in thought and determination in pursuing what they believe games can be. They’ve been painted as the advocator of the ‘art game’, due to taking the medium to new places and encouraging players to discover different emotions through it. If only that was enough.

“I don’t agree with what my parents made of me. And I certainly hope I’m not making the same thing of my own children. I have to fight these tendencies all the time. But I don’t think it’s a battle I can win. The best I can hope for is damage control.”