Exploring multimedia poetry without commercial constraints.

I want to apply my 12 years of experience with videogames to the creation of new digital works of art. Works that defy categorization, that are interesting and moving, and easily accessible yet not commercial. Please join me in my journey. I have no fixed destination but I promise many delightful sights along the way.

How did I get here?

I have devoted 12 years of my life trying to create artistic videogames with Tale of Tales, a studio I run out of Ghent, Belgium, with my partner Auriea Harvey. Our goal has always been to create beautiful interactive things for people. That was true when we were making net.art with Entropy8Zuper!, before we started exploring videogames. And it will continue to be true now. It is the reason why we are moving away from games.

Throughout our involvement with videogames we have continuously attempted to “make games for people who don’t play games.” We wanted to use videogames as a mature medium and work with subject matter and form that could be appreciated by anyone, whether they’re familiar with games or not. After a decade or so we realized that this plan wasn’t working.

Only gamers play games. That was true ten years ago. And it remains true today. With that realization came the desire to escape. We felt locked up, restricted when we wanted to explore and reach out. But we were willing to give it one last shot.



The last game we created was an attempt to fall in line. To use the tropes and conventions that seem necessary for gamers to enjoy the medium. Sunset was always going to be a unique effort. We had made no plans for our life after its release. It was a gamble and we lost.

We are proud of the beautiful thing we have created and deeply grateful for the audience and positive response it found. But we failed at expanding our reach within the gamer niche. We always knew this game was going to be our last. We just hoped we could walk away with some money in our pocket to help continue our journey.

Which is where you come in.

Away from the market

The kind of research and creation I want to do is impossible within a commercial sphere. While I am deeply concerned with accessibility and clarity, I cannot be sidetracked by demands and expectations of consumers. They always seem to want more of what they already know. But my entire purpose is to move beyond that.

To fund production without relying on sales, I will seek non-commercial subsidies like art grants, run crowd sourcing campaigns and attempt to persuade generous patrons to support my work (you!).

It’s uncanny how commerce has penetrated our daily lives and how little creation is being done without commercial ties. It has become almost impossible to imagine what people would create if their livelihood didn't depend on it. No need to say I’m very excited to see what will happen thanks to your support!

Process

As I am slowly moving away from videogames, I’m beginning to realize how much games have held back my creativity. So much so that I need to re-learn how to be really creative with this medium again. So much of my mind is now still occupied with concerns about the play styles of gamers, with fitting our work in a market place, with toning down ideas so they’re not immediately rejected. Also in terms of technology. I’ve been so used to work minimally, because everything is expensive in game technology, used to defaulting to the bare essential as the solution to any design problem. I need to escape this narrow mentality!

Suffice it to say that a lot of searching and experimenting will be necessary. Please bare with me as I fumble my way through this. I want to share it all with you. You won’t just hear me present an idea and then follow its production. I also want to share the thought process towards ideas with you, disregarding whether any of it will lead anywhere. Possibly with some prototypes along the way. This seems like a very suitable project for Patreon to me. You’re not only funding the production of a piece. You are helping the very conception of ideas.