Sunset developer Tale of Tales calls it quits
Delightful avant-garde indie Tale of Tales has announced an end to its commercial game productions.
Tale of Tales is a Belgian duo with a string of terrific experimental and artistic titles to its name, and it's calling it quits.
In a heartbreaking blog post the pair revealed that latest release Sunset has shifted a mere 4,000 copies even with the boost of the Steam sales. That's not anywhere enough to break even on the developer's investment.
What makes this all the more frustrating is that in the absence of funding Tale of Tales worked extra hard to try and make a commercial title, putting aside some of its own artistic notions and playing the marketing game. With this approach it managed to secure glowing reviews from critics - but not traction in the marketplace.
If you're on optimistic sort, there is a bright side: the pair will continue to work on their artistic projects, paying no more heed to the world of commercial games.
"Now we are free. We don’t have to take advice from anybody anymore. We were wrong. Everybody whom we consulted with on Sunset was wrong," Tale of Tales wrote.
"We are happy and proud that we have tried to make a 'game for gamers.' We really did our best with Sunset, our very best. And we failed. So that’s one thing we never need to do again. Creativity still burns wildly in our hearts but we don’t think we will be making videogames after this. And if we do, definitely not commercial ones."
You can support Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn on Patreon if you'd like to keep abreast of their future endeavours.
We'll really miss Tale of Tales. Its minimal MMO The Endless Forest was so beloved fans chipped in to keep it running when its funding run out, and it won multiple awards for The Graveyard. Successive titles The Path, Bientôt l'été, Fatale and Luxuria Superbia (perhaps you'd enjoy reading my impressions of this abstract sex sim?) ran the gamut of weird and wonderful.
Good luck and all the best to Harvey and Samym. Sunset is currently on sale at 50% off on Steam, and you can also grab several Tale of Tales games in a very thrifty bundle.