Weird artsy games were once hard to find. The Path came out in early 2009, just as the indie game renaissance was kicking off, and although we’d seen games Trying To Say Something before, I hadn’t seen anything as experimental and dark and vague as this.

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A mix of the fun and serious is what I am bringing to you in this week’s roundup of great free games. We have wacky games about boxing and surgery, games requiring quick and precise movement, and a lovely adventure about someone looking to find a lost artifact. We then move into two more serious games: one about a girl trapped in a broken home, and the other about the effects of an eating disorder on an individual. Sometimes, sombering games are exactly what you re looking for… (more…)

Bundle bundle bundlenews! Indie Royale have launched their latest, hoping to soak up the cash for another collection of out-turned pocketed developers. This time it’s the Evolved Bundle, because, um, they’ve called it that. And it’s a good-un. In there you’ve got the utterly splendid puzzler Unmechanical from Talawa Games (check out our review), Tale Of Tales’ super-creepy The Path, Fatshark’s latest, Krater, Turtle Cream’s Sugar Cube: Bittersweet Factory, and physics puzzler OIO from Uncanny Games. Which I’d say is the best pack they’ve had in a while.

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I dunno about that Citizen Kane of videogames nonsense, but one thing we definitely have is the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of videogames. Bring up the name Tale of Tales, most renowned/notorious for The Path, and you will be sure to spark a war. A war between those who believe games can be anything and those who believe games have to stick to a strict definition of games. It’s a very boring war and I don’t understand why people object to the existence of things they do not themselves enjoy, but THE INTERNET. Personally, I’m not quite sure ToT’s games have always lived up their promise or the concepts they explore, but this does not preclude me from being grateful for their existence, and for their continued dedication to experimentation.

So, their new game software product Bientôt l’été. It’ll be out later this month, all being well, and appears to be an even more overt departure from traditional game objectives and systems than before. (more…)

I kept on meaning to Sunday Paper this, but seeing the amount of actual content in, I think it deserves a post. A year on from the controversial talking point of 2009, Tale of Tales do a really elaborate postmortem of their work. As well as the traditional look at the work itself, there’s individual essays about each of the girls and their respective wolves. Lots of stuff to look at, in short, all showing the passion which Tale of Tales brought to the work. Central linking page is here. They’ve since closed the blog, and plan to close-to-disappear for the next eighteen months to work on two new projects. Good luck to ‘em.