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The Path and The Graveyard developer Tale of Tales is now ten years old, and is celebrating its anniversary with a special games bundle. Dubbed the "Experiments and Prototypes" bundle, the package contains just that: a collection of 18 prototype projects from the developer's decade-long existence.

Many of the projects include multiple PC and Mac downloads for various renditions and experiments, from an experimental early first-person wind control tool for Fatale to special "Adam and Eve" character models for Quake. The bundle even features multiple demos and alpha versions of the unreleased game that started Tale of Tales, 8.

Those looking to acquire the Experiments and Prototypes bundle can set their own price for it, though the whole pack carries a minimum price of $5 and a suggested price of $15. Tale of Tales stresses that the bundle is in limited order, as the offer is available until December 25 and "contains many items that have never been released before and will not be available later."

Indie Royale has armed a new bundle of five games, headlined by Talawa Games' side-scrolling puzzler, Unmechanical. The "Evolved" bundle, which throws in a few soundtracks and some additional DLC if you pay a few bucks more, also contains The Path, a horror game for PC and Mac inspired by the classic tale Little Red Riding Hood.

Fatshark's Krater, a post-apocalyptic dungeon crawler in which Swedish adventurers scavenge for goods from the lost world, is sandwiched in the middle of this group. You'll also get Sugar Cube: Bittersweet Factory, a 2D platformer about a sentient sugar cube escaping a cookie-bound fate, OIO, a platform-puzzler starring a wooden boy who must save his kind from a frozen state.

Indie Royale's "Evolved" bundle will be around for the next week and, as of the time of this writing, has already moved 10,000 bundles.

Tale of Tales is known for developing obscure, sometimes creepy games such as The Path and The Graveyard. Its latest game, Bientôt l'été fits with the developer's track record, though it appears to be much more subdued and thoughtful in its tone compared to the aforementioned games. From what we gather, players walk around a beach while gathering chess pieces and phrases to make use of in the nearby café. It appears there's even a button for closing your player's eyes in the game, which leads to some interesting visual effects that are apparently more mechanical in nature.

Bientôt l'été is now available for PC and Mac for $10, with an "Extravagant" version available for $40 that includes the game's soundtrack and an eventual "special build" with higher res textures and uncompressed sound.

Tale of Tales drew inspiration for the game from novels by Marguerite Duras, specifically Moderato Cantabile, which provides the basic setting for Bientôt l'été: "a man and a woman meet in a seaside café." As for everything else going on in the trailer, we're as lost as you likely are.

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 be a strict definition of games. It’s a very boring war and I don’t understand why people possibly 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…)

Tale of Tales celebrate Day of the Dead with 3 games bundle in commemoration of the dearly departed in The Graveyard, The Path and Fatale.

Indie horror title receives European Innovative Games Award 2010.

Surreal horror/exploration indie title The Path was one of the finalists at last year's Indiecade festival, and it's been honored again with two awards at Bilbao, Spain's hóPLAY International Video Game Festival. The game won Best Sound and Best Design, and its creator, Tale of Tales, picked up a tidy sum of €12,000 ($16,000) in prize money.

To celebrate, the company is putting the game on sale, and you can pick up a digital copy right now for just $4.99, half of the usual price. Careful, though -- it's a creepy experience, combining a strange retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood tale with dynamically generated music and environments. Congratulations to Tale of Tales on the awards, which it says is the first actually won in its eight-year history. Always a finalist, finally a winner.

Tale of Tales celebrate first awards for The Path with discount.

One year on The Path.

Play The Path in your own language, and cheap, too. Tale of Tales releases translations patch for The Path and offers Anniversary discounts.