Developer Tale of Tales are proving more and more interesting with each project. Their work to date includes The Path, a finalist at this year’s IGF awards offering that turns the story of Red Riding-hood in to a commentary on the expectations we place on young girls in our society, the trials of moving into adulthood, and life in general, The Endless Forest, a smallish MMO in which all the players are deer with the freedom to wonder the woods and do deer things, and 8, another fairy tale turned on its head to serve as a filter for social commentary and general creepiness. Having tackled a variety of life’s different aspects with the same beautiful, haunting approach, it’s only appropriate that the Belgium-based studio look to explore new ground. Like death.

First, just to get it out of the way, The Graveyard is not a game. Not really. In the press release that appeared when the game launched last week, Tale of Tales referred to it as “an explorable painting”, which is about as close as anybody is going to get to nailing down what’s happening here. There are no interesting choices, no real rules to obey. Instead your job in The Graveyard (free demo for Mac/PC available at the link above) is simple: you steer an old woman down a straight path through a graveyard to the bench waiting at the end and then help her sit down. After a few seconds a song begins to play, the sort of thing Tom Waits might sing to himself while washing dishes. At any time you can leave the bench – stay and the song continues to loop, leave it begins to fade away – and walk back down the path towards the exit. The game ends when you both leave the graveyard.

So that’s the “explorable” part, but what about that says “painting”? The devil is very much in the details here, as The Graveyard does more in its ten minutes of play to create an atmosphere than most longer titles ever manage. Realistic birds twitter around you, landing on the path to peck at unseen morsels before taking off again. Clouds pass overhead, momentarily blocking out the sun and covering the graveyard in shadows. The sounds of traffic and the outside world fade out the farther you get from the main gate only to swell up again to welcome you back to the world when you leave. For all the little details in the environment, however, the old woman remains the star. As you walk together her limp becomes more pronounced, her reliance on the cane increasing as she makes her way past the gray slabs. She moves slowly, visibly creaking down the path, and when you reach the bench you both let out a sigh of relief at the chance to finally rest. For all its non-game status, The Graveyard still manages to capture what it is that makes games so unique: if this were a short film on YouTube, it would a pretty, if ultimately forgettable experience. By putting you in limited control of the old woman, however, it creates an immediate bond between you and what happens to her that adds weight in a manner nothing else can quite manage. By allowing you to take every slow step with her, Tale of Tales has created a thoughtful piece that, despite (intentionally) not saying anything specific, makes you pause to consider what’s happening and what feelings it’s stirring up in you, if any.

But wait, there’s more. As mentioned above, this is just a “demo”, an incomplete experience offered to entice you into purchasing the full product for five dollars. Complete the demo, and you get a screen with this text:

If you enjoyed this trail version of the Graveyard, you may be interested in acquiring the full version. The full version completes the experience with one extra feature: death.

Giving us this information beforehand is an interesting approach on the part of the developer, if only because it makes us ask so many questions of ourselves. If I know that all my five dollars gets me is the same game with the added possibility of the character dying during a given playthrough, do I still spend the money? Is knowing what the experience will be the same as seeing it happen, or will her death provide some new context to appreciate the game through? Am I paying because I want the full experience of what they’ve created here, because I support what they’re trying to do, or out of some morbid curiosity? Or all of the above?

I think ultimately that whatever reasons people buy the game for, they will all fall under the scope of Tale of Tales stated objective of giving people space to think about the themes The Graveyard touches on in its slow walk there and back again. Love it, hate it, or waffle somewhere in between, its a worthwhile endeavor on a number of different levels: the environment and mood it creates, the contemplative nature it handles life and death with, the anti-climax of her head slumping forward and eyes closing, and a dozen others. Choose the one you like most and spend a few minutes walking in the sunshine.

Filed under: Monday Games