The creator of Her Story and Telling Lies goes to Fun and Serious 2019 to talk about writing and directing narrative experiences. We chat with him.
A computer screen and a video file search engine were Her Story's cover letter, an adult title that treated the other rules of the game very experimentally, based on interaction and fragmented narrative. Sam Barlow, its creator, took risks, as he also took them by doing something similar with Telling Lies, his new work. We have been able to talk with the British designer about his particular way of building scripts in Bilbao, on the occasion of Fun and Serious 2019.
Mixing the point and click genre with FMV (Full Motion Video) has its advantages and limitations, but for Barlow they are not disadvantages. Our first question was clear: what is an interactive narrative videogame for him?
When the order of the factors does alter the product
“I think the games that I have been creating start very differently than other narrative games do. Most titles teach you the gameplay first and then present the story to be told. I do it the other way around: first I teach you the story and then the game mechanics (…) My games are not telling you that you have to control a series of Luke Skywalker-like characters, none of that: you will experience a history, ”he explains.
Sam Barlow at Fun and Serious 2019, Bilbao | Meristation
Because Barlow wants you to play that story and that the dozens, hundreds of pages he writes in his notebook are devouring books — what he likes to do in his spare time — are what weighs the most in the balance. “My games seek to find the metaphor in things. The key to telling a good story through a video game, especially since we can render things in three dimensions, is that, unlike the cinema, when you see a room on the screen, in a movie you can only see it, while here you can interact with her in a thousand ways … and that provides many opportunities, ”he continues on his premise. “The foundation of any task that involves telling a story is imagination. To make a good story, no doubt, you must give a lot of room for the imagination to act. The player's interaction with that story must have a meaning. The worst example that comes to mind in storytelling are those in which you have moments of much action, where you participate in that action until a cinematic scene appears, lower your arms and … you just see, wait, ”he says.
In Sam Barlow video games you keep your hands on the keyboard at all times, you participate in the interaction constantly. “I think that the degree of videogame's ability to become a participant is one of the keys to good interactive videogames. You have to break the barriers of imagination. ”
Sex, politics and technology in current video games: problems attached
Barlow has dared to do things that, in his opinion, a great editor would not dare to do so easily. Sex, political dilemmas, social conflicts, technological fluctuations and how it affects the day to day of society. Delicate issues, in short, those that may precipitate the red sticker that warns that it is an adult content. "It's a problem when you want to sell a video game," he begins by saying. “We had problems with Apple to put our games on sale on iOS; They are not so bold. They have those rules of not allowing sex or politics in their applications. But we finally made it, ”luckily for its purpose.
Telling Lies | Sam Barlow
“It's something that frustrates me because… well, then you see in some news programs that‘ this game is full of politics and sex ’, they are all problems that the media generate, really. But I, however, am hungry to see more games that risk those issues, ”he says effusively.
Barlow says he notices certain limitations in the way we play video games. We jump, we shoot, we move from A to B to do a concrete action… One of its objectives is that we interact with the video game in another way while telling a story. "I think the phones are giving us the opportunity to reach an even wider audience and a large number of people who are not necessarily regular video game players," hence their interest in bringing their titles to iOS and Android devices. "Although the free to play business model is killing the design of many titles of great value," he says between laughs and disaffection.
Video games with actresses and real actors, an advantage for Barlow
There are more and more titles – especially if they are high-budget – that are launched to hire professionals from the film world for their video games. Quantic Dream, Kojima Productions, Rockstar … we can mention dozens, because there are very few studies that are committed to motion capture to represent their main characters. We say these examples because they are, precisely, those mentioned by Barlow in our meeting in Bilbao, an element that he believes adds more than remains in the final result, although he opts for Full Motion Video for a personal and budgetary issue.
Telling Lies | Sam Barlow
“A backbone when telling a good story through videogames is the acting of the characters. When an actor or an actress who reads your script arrives, learns it and represents it just as you had it in your head … it's amazing. It's something precious at the communicative level, ”he continues.
Barlow is nothing fan of seeing recreated characters without a soul, which do not transmit and, what is worse, that real actors are used only as a marketing ploy to sell their game more easily. “Sometimes I get frustrated with CGI techniques because they will never be as reliable as a characterization captured with real actors. In addition, in the case of Her Story I simply had to put a camera and record the performance; I could not worry about the economic expense that we would have had to do the motion capture techniques. And what is worse, there are times when only real actors are used as a marketing technique, even with the voices, ”he concludes in this regard.
Books, books, books
“The biggest trick I have to get inspired is reading books, many books. Today we have access to all kinds of content, but I find the greatest wealth of information in reading. To learn more about the detective theme, I read many academic articles and related novels. Some concepts were very useful for what he wanted to do and, no doubt, for what he wants to continue doing, whatever it is, but keeping a clear premise: the most important thing is how to tell each story.
