After the quirky release of Her Story, its creator Sam Barlow is ready to move on to bigger challenges. Telling Lies will be a “spiritual follow-up” to Her Story and feature a larger cast, a more intricate story, better production values, and will be an overall bigger project than his first. When speaking to Variety, Barlow describes the new game as something akin to a political thriller, primarily based on movies from the 1970’s.
“Imagine Steve McQueen’s ‘Shame’ mashed up with ‘The Conversation,’” Barlow said. For movies, he said, the 1970s “were such a golden age exploring the intersection of government, society and individuals.”
I’m all for a game resembling movies like The Conversation which portrays post Nixon-era political paranoia and surveillance perfectly.
Barlow is also trying to bridge the gap between video games and traditional movies. He clearly wants to bend the current traditional ways games and movies tell stories and I’m all for that. Even if games like Her Story or Telling Lies don’t resonate with everyone, I appreciate the experimentation.
Shooting for Telling Lies begins later this year or in early 2018.