“Her Story" -- FMV game from Silent Hill: Shattered Memories writer & designer

Hi,

I'm just launched the Steam Greenlight campaign for my game, Her Story, alongside a teaser trailer and pre-orders.

You can watch the teaser trailer over on the Steam Greenlight page.

I've had some great coverage so far, including these great in-depth articles:

• Rock, Paper, Shotgun: Text, Lies And Videotape: Her Story Interview
• Polygon: Her Story is a Serial-style mystery, blending FMV and adventure games

Here's an excerpt from the press release to give an overview of what the game is all about. There's more information, including my dev-blog over on the game's website www.herstorygame.com.

A crime fiction game with non-linear storytelling, Her Story revolves around a police database full of live action video footage. The game stars Viva Seifert, actress and one half of the band Joe Gideon and the Shark. It is due to release early in 2015 on PC, Mac and iOS.

Her Story grants players access to a police database of archived video footage that covers seven interviews from 1994 in which a British woman is interviewed by detectives about her missing husband. Players take on the role of the person sat before a police computer terminal, their own computer or device playing the part of the fictional computer. They type search queries and the database returns clips of the answers where the woman speaks those words.

Sam Barlow says, “If you can Google, you can play Her Story. The mechanic of searching for clips in the database is so simple that anyone can pick up and play. But it’s a mechanic that quickly reveals its richness and complexity. At times it can feel like you’re engaged in a genuine dialogue with this woman and her story. It’s a unique way to interact with a narrative, a sculptural way of viewing a story -- and something that can only be done interactively.”

Referring to the use of live action video in the game, a novelty in modern videogames, Barlow says “The aesthetic is True Detective via Blair Witch. I’m interested in showing that accessible technologies such as video offer a powerful way for indie games to showcase a performance. I am also putting the spotlight on the modern phenomena of the Youtube Jury, in which police forces distribute the footage of intimate suspect interviews for armchair detectives to dissect. You see it in cases such as those of Jodi Arias and Amanda Knox -- cases where the suspects’ stories themselves get lost amongst the torrent of cliches and prejudices that the videos elicit.”

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the game, and happy to answer any questions!

 

Hi,

I don't know if you are still following this thread, but just wanted to congratulate you on your game. I've actually read up on your game on one of those "top new fmv game lists" and have to say well deserved.

I'm actually hoping to create a fmv japanese Visual Novel game myself.

Tell me please, did you do all of the programing in basic Unity or did you use a tool that made it easier for you to design the game?

Cheers,

 

Hi!

Thanks

It was all basic Unity with some (hacky) scripts of my own. The video stuff was using AV PRo and VTP plugins.

--Sam