Sam Barlow's Insights on Crafting Narrative-Driven Games

At a recent GI Academy Live event, Sam Barlow, known for his work on Her Story, Telling Lies, and Immortality, presented his thoughts on developing narrative-centric video games, with the aim of inspiring and advising students. Barlow began by discussing the unique aspects of narrative in games, highlighting what sets the medium apart from other forms of entertainment, before sharing his core principles for building stories. He identified four key elements that elevate video game narratives: challenge, expression, exploration, and simulation. The developer explained that challenge is a fundamental aspect of human nature, driving individuals to overcome obstacles, and this element is essential to the concept of a video game. In his 2015 title, Her Story, the challenge lies in the player's task of deciphering the narrative. Barlow's next element, expression, is exemplified in games like Mario, where the design allows players to express themselves within the game's limitations. His own games, such as Her Story, also offer expressive gameplay mechanics, like the core search feature, which enables players to type in any English word, making the experience highly expressive and interactive. This ties into the third element, exploration, which Barlow believes is hard-wired into human nature. He views Her Story as a Metroidvania in terms of how it handles exploration and narrative progression. The final element, simulation, is a core component of most video games, but Barlow intentionally avoided it in Her Story, instead focusing on interactive narrative. When designing his games, Barlow adheres to three core tenets: emotion, idea, and metaphor. The emotion is what he wants the player to feel, the idea is the thematic or intellectual concept, and the metaphor is often the game mechanic. To illustrate this, Barlow explained how these elements work together in his game Telling Lies, where the emotion is the feeling of realizing someone you loved is not who you thought they were, the idea is that we never truly know those we are intimate with, and the metaphor is surveillance. By reducing a game's design to these core components, Barlow aims to keep things focused and ensure that the final product is a game worth making.