Tale of Tales Release New Screenshots of Upcoming Horror Title “The Path”

The Path is an independently created horror game inspired by the ancient folk tales of Little Red Ridinghood, but set in the present day.  Six sisters live with their mother in an urban apartment at the edge of a gloomy forest and each of them is sent on an errand to their grandmother on the other side of the woods. A straight path connects the city with grandmother’s house. It’s a safe journey. But will the girls be able to resist the temptation of leaving the path?

Game description: There’s something wrong with the forest. No matter how bright the sun shines, it remains dark and foggy. It smells like something died. Strange noises fill the rusty air. Squeaks and screeches. The dull thump of someone chopping trees. The wind playing eerie melodies on ghostlike flutes. She just left the city. Cars can’t drive here anymore. Mother told her to go visit grandmother. The old lady lives all alone at the other side of the forest. Quite a walk from here. It’s probably best if she stays on the path…

In The Path, you play Little Red Ridinghood. Not the cute blond toddler that we’re used to, but a young woman in the throws of teenage angst. When her mother sends her on this errand, she has no intention to stay on the path–and the forest is a dangerous place, especially for lonely girl with an interest in wolves.

According to the developers, The Path is a game of exploration, discovery and introspection with atmosphere and immersion being as important as any other element on the game. You control the avatar, but she also has a life of her own  which is directed by an alternative AI system. The foliage on the trees turns out to be careful arrangements of gothic ornaments. What first seemed like sound effects, is in fact a continuously changing musical soundtrack, and random signs of decay on the screen become helpful hints for navigation. The entire forest feels natural but closer inspection reveals its artificiality. This is not the real world. You have entered a fabrication, a story, a memory, a dream.

This extends to the three dimensional environments as well. The main area of the game, the forest, is never the same. It is re-arranged every time you play. Things are in different places, objects appear and disappear, giving the feeling of exploring a dream more than any factual reality. The same applies to the final destination of the protagonists. Grandmother’s house changes according to what you have done in the forest, furniture appears or moves, new rooms are added and put together in impossible ways. What seems like a cozy cottage on the outside, can suddenly turn into a nightmarish labyrinth upon entry.

Painting with the aesthetic palette of real-time 3D rather than using the medium for the simulation of reality, to some extent, the players themselves can decide what things look like. Walking down the path, for instance, changes the time of day. Depending on where you enter the forest, you will be wandering through a bright and misty environment or a dark and spooky one.

An early demo of The Path was nominated for “Excellence in Visual Art” in the Independent Games Festival of 2008. Other games by Tale of Tales include The Endless Forest and The Graveyard, both of which are available for free download here and here.

The Path is scheduled for release on PC in Spring 2009. Be sure to check out the official website by clikcing here and be sure and check out the developers journal here.