Less than three months after its initial release, Tale of Tales are adding a new chapter to their introverted psychological horror trip."The Path - Prologue" is a standalone application that is free to download for everyone. As such, it functions as a trial version of the game, even though it contains content that is not part of the full release.
"The Path - Prologue" is available as a free download for Mac or PC
The Path is a short horror game inspired by Little Red Ridinghood. You play six sisters, the Red Girls, who are sent to their grandmother's house, one by one, with the explicit command to stay on the path. But not all young women can resist the seductive allure of the dark forest along the way. In the new chapter, entitled "The Path - Prologue", you take control of the mysterious character of the Girl in White, who roams the forest and can assist the Red Girls in their explorations.
"People who have already finished The Path will recognize some aspects of the Prologue," admit designers Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn. "It is similar to a certain part of the game. But not the same. A prologue should show what happened before the events in the story. But in this case, it may seem like it's showing things that happened after. A mystery that will make more sense after playing the full game.
We didn't want to simply give away part of the game as a trial. We wanted to add something to the story instead. And give everybody something new to play with, including those who have already played the full game. But it does function as a free demo for the game: it gives users a taste of the atmosphere and a means to check if their computer can run our technology."
Since its release on 18 March, The Path was met with an impressive amount of high praise. And also an, albeit smaller, amount of passionate rejection. Some claim that the indie title is pretentious mumbo-jumbo and others see it as a veritable mile stone in the evolution of the medium. This controversy pleases the designers tremendously. They'd be worried if suddenly everyone would like their work. Tale of Tales explores the artistic potential of games technology. Sometimes this requires leaving behind all known territory and confronting the audience with the unusual, the unsettling, the sublime.
The Path was created by Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn with the help of Jarboe and Kris Force (music), Laura Raines Smith (character animations), Hans Zantman (technical art) and Marian Bantjes (logo and calligraphy). Production of The Path was supported by Creative Capital, the Flemish Authorities, Flanders Audiovisual Fund, Design Flanders, CultuurInvest and Villanella.