Sam Barlow's guide to making narrative games
Sam Barlow's guide to making narrative games
Sam Barlow's guide to making narrative games
By Alex Calvin
November 1, 2022
Summary
At our recent GI Academy Live event, Sam Barlow of Her Story, Telling Lies and Immortality fame laid out his thoughts on creating narrative-centric video games.
In his talk, which was aimed at inspiring and giving advice to students, Barlow first explained the specificities of narrative in games, exploring why the medium differs from other forms of entertainment, before sharing his own core ideas for building stories.
"The risk-reward of exploration, danger and discovery is really deeply hard-wired. It's very familiar across so many video games, [this] idea of exploration, particularly the exploration of a 3D space; so many games revolve around the joy and the pleasure of exploration."
Barlow's final element for narrative is simulation, which is arguably a core ingredient of most video games.
"The modern 3D video game is full of simulations," Barlow said.
With Her Story, Barlow actually tried to avoid the simulation element of video games.
Sam Barlow's core tenets for building narrative in games.
Reference
Calvin, A. (2022, November 1). Sam Barlow's guide to making narrative games. Retrieved November 08, 2022, from https://www.gamesindustry.biz/sam-barlows-guide-to-making-narrative-games