The Endless Forest

Tale of Tales release The Endless Forest Phase One

A social screensaver where you play a deer, or one step closer towards a "jeu d'auteur"? Gent, Belgium, 22 December 2005

The Endless Forest is an online multiplayer game where everyone plays a deer. It features non-violent interaction but no chat-functions. All communication happens through deer-body-language. You can roar, you can sniff, you can rub a tree. As a screensaver, The Endless Forest offers a peaceful oasis where you can be your (deer) self for a moment, sleeping in the forest or engaging with other players.

The project is being developed in phases by Tale of Tales, Belgium. Every phase is released to the public. Further development is influenced by the response of the players, who actively contribute ideas on the game's web forum.

Quote from the website: "The Endless Forest is a virtual place where you can play with your friends. There are no goals to achieve or rules to follow. You just steer your deer through the forest and see what happens."

The Endless Forest is also a virtual environment for artistic experiments. In September, as part of a contemporary arts exhibition called Tardis, a gothic ruin was erected based on the measurements of foundations uncovered at the location where the exhibition took place. And in February live performances will be held in the virtual world during Artefact, a yearly media arts festival in Belgium.

Tale of Tales is a games development company founded by former internet artists Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn, better known as "Entropy8Zuper!". Their goal is to explore the potential of the games medium as an artistically expressive form of entertainment.

The Endless Forest can be downloaded for free from http://tale-of-tales.com/TheEndlessForest/

For further information contact: [email protected]

Source:

Press release

Tale of Tales release The Endless Forest version 1.5

Between Phase One and Two: more space and divine magic!

Gent, Belgium, 28 February 2006

The Endless Forest is a social screensaver. An online multiplayer game where everyone plays a deer. Non-violent and chat-free, The Endless Forest is an ongoing exploration of non-competitive and non-goal-oriented interaction in a tranquil environment.

Version 1.5 is a release in between Phase One and Two. New in this version is a play area that is twice as large, including an idyllic pond surrounded by weeping willows. And Abiogenesis.

Abiogenesis is a new feature that allows the game's authors, Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn, to intervene in the virtual world in real time. Represented by the elusive Twin Gods, you can catch them sometimes roaming through the forest, thundering and storming or conjuring up fields of flowers or swarms of beasts. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it snows. Sometimes the beautiful music of Gerry De Mol is heard. It's all in the hands of the gods now.

The Endless Forest is being developed in phases by Tale of Tales, Belgium. Every phase is released to the public. Further development is influenced by the response of the players, who actively contribute ideas on the game's web forum. Abiogenesis premiered on February 15, 2006, at the Artefact festival for art and new media in Leuven, Belgium.

Tale of Tales is a games development company founded by former internet artists Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn, better known as "Entropy8Zuper!". Their goal is to explore the potential of the games medium as an artistically expressive form of entertainment.

The Endless Forest can be downloaded for free fromhttp://tale-of-tales.com/TheEndlessForest/

The Endless Forest has been downloaded 18.000 times so far and has more than 4.500 registered players.

Source:

Press release (1.5)

Dancing deer in strange disguises

**Tale of Tales release Phase Two of The Endless Forest

Gent, Belgium, 26 April 2006**

By far the most striking addition in version 2.0 of The Endless Forest is the ability of players to change the look of the deer avatars. This happens, primarily, by collecting the hidden magic of the forest to cast spells on each other. Next to this, several new activities have been added, from worshipping the Twin Gods to dancing to Gerry De Mol's ocarina. And many new ways for players to express themselves in the chat free world of The Endless Forest.

The Endless Forest is a multiplayer online screensaver in which everyone plays a deer. It is an experiment with non-violent, non-goal-oriented interactivity and new forms of narrativity in realtime 3D. Designed and directed by veteran new media artists Auriea Harvey en Michaël Samyn as a large game that is released in phases. The development of these phases is influenced by the response of the players and opportunities offered by arts organisations.

Phase One was released in September 2005 with a spartan approach to interactivity that stimulated the players to invent new ways of amusing each other with only a small amount of available actions. It featured a mysterious ruin and a graveyard built by visualisation of data generated by an art exhibition that featured the project.

In Phase Two, the play space has become twice as large and the amount of possible activities has increased considerably, many influenced by suggestions from the players themselves. The most significant addition is the introduction of enchantments that allow players to transform the appearance of others. So your avatar does not need to look the same as all the others anymore. Over the course of Phase Two, new guises will be added continuously. Also in this version, the game interface has been translated into French and German in addition to the original English and Dutch.

Phase Two also includes new destinations like a romantic stream and pond and a huge hollow oak. The Abiogenesis system was introduced at the Artefact new media arts festival in February 2006. It allows the authors to play god in their virtual universe by controlling the weather, day and night and all sorts of flying and non-flying objects and creatures. At times terrifying, at others hilarious, the interventions of the Twin Gods never endanger the deer who join the party.

Tale of Tales is a Belgian games development company founded by former internet artists Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn, better known as "Entropy8Zuper!". Their goal is to explore the potential of the games medium as an artistically expressive form of entertainment.

The Endless Forest is supported by Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean in Luxemburg, Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds, Design Vlaanderen, STUK arts centre in Leuven, and Provinciaal Archeologisch Museum Ename.

The Endless Forest can be downloaded for free from http://Tale-of-Tales.com/TheEndlessForest/

The Endless Forest has been downloaded over 30.000 times so far and has more than 6.000 registered players. You don't need to register to be able to be play. But registering gives you access to special features.

Source:

Press release (26th April 2006)