# on sunset and tale of tales dear tot. hello! sorry to "hear this saddening news." but no time to wallow in the mire. "fail better" etc // video here i'm a uk based researcher interested in game development. i really dig your style. i'm writing in call and response - thinking out loud bouncing ideas around share some fresh perspective / alternative metaphors 1. a holistic systems approach: perhaps in the exact same way valve uses steam (expresses its internal values through steam as a platform for user generated content) consider reconsidering "tale of tales" itself as a social service (game-space / open narrative / ongoing adventure) that is to say: the most interesting dimensions of tot are not just any specific art it produces but the people who make up its world(s) - that is you auriea and michaël - and all the people who follow / play alongside you 2. perhaps the richest narratives you can offer is that of an evolving artistic perspective - an open creative space expressed multiple simultaneous ways by many voices (including your own) it's not that one can't make x (eg. specific games) but that you more generally consider yourselves playable scientists'; treat skillful playfulness itself as a community networking platform. "games are made of people" specifically: "tales of tales" would make an excellent open universe - an artistic ecology anyone can inhabit and add to - a distributed multiplayer narrative completely open source; to truly open up your worldviews and invite others in 3. rather than a game "sunset" could be even more interesting as a whole setting - a place which flans can then add to explore and play with/in from multiple angles - expressed many ways at once a rich multimedia mulch for new artistic forms to organically emerge imagine the equivalent of unity asset store / steam workshop for sunset (this however does not necessarily mean everything is fated to be a ftpmmorpg ;-) 4. indie devs are already a highly developed collective intelligence (a soviet in old marxist terms - and a rhizome in terms of new biology) but still seem to woefully under-utilize themselves as a living networked resource / energy-potential a pervasive rockstar / lone-wolf mentality still exists. merely being online and having a website isn't nearly enough: one now has to explore and expose the deeper meanings and implications of truly social (artistic) networking as a modern concept-space the short version: be susceptible to evolution if this was interesting andor remotely relevant feel free to contact robert what for a friendly chat sincerely robert what ps. the very reason to keep on making excellent philosophically engaging games like yours is intellects like these ## update patch in tale of tales decide to have a religious fit and erect a cathedral to ir own holiness // republic of bob