Telling Lies (video game)
| Telling Lies | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Sam Barlow |
| Publisher(s) | Annapurna Interactive |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, macOS |
| Release | 2019 |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Telling Lies is an upcoming narrative video game developed by Sam Barlow to be published by Annapurna Interactive in 2019. As with Barlow's previous title, Her Story, the game uses live action full-motion video of four people (played by Logan Marshall-Green, Alexandra Shipp, Kerry Bishé, and Angela Sarafyan) as part of video calls made between them, and the player will need to use tools provided from the game to piece together events and what statements may be lies to determine the overall mystery.
Gameplay
Barlow describes Telling Lies as a "desktop thriller" like Her Story, where the player becomes involved in a drama that is played out through stored video clips and other information presented on a virtual computer desktop.[1] Telling Lies provides the player with numerous video segments that in the game's narrative, cover a two-year period and which have been stored on a stolen hard-drive taken from the National Security Agency. The player has the ability to search the hundreds of video segments on keywords as to piece together timelines, events, and interactions, all to try to understand why the four central people have been the subject of electronic surveillance, as well as the nature of the player-character's role in these events; this character appears female and can be seen in a virtual reflection of the in-game computer screen to the actual player. However, these clips only provide the video and audio from one side of the conversation, requiring the player to determine which clips may match the other participants, as well as potential interactions with around 30 other people.[2][1] Players can scroll forwards and backwards within segments, highlight certain words in the video subtitles to use as search, and keep notes within an in-game memo pad.[1] Barlow estimated that Telling Lies is about four to five times longer than Her Story.[3]
Development
Barlow's work on Telling Lies began in January 2016 as a "spiritual successor" to Her Story, with a narrative unrelated to the first game, though it will continue to use full-motion video as its central gameplay element.[4][5] Through some had urged him to make a direct sequel to Her Story by creating another murder mystery and putting another actor in place, Barlow wanted something that was more risky, and utilitising the aspects of Her Story where the player got to know more about the main character through the clips.[3] He came to the concept of electronic surveillance as a central theme in part of being a parent himself and wanting to keep track of his own pre-teen-aged son's online activities.[3] In reading up about surveillance methods used by the National Security Agency and MI5, Barlow read up on the Optic Nerve program and found that it had several similarities to Her Story, including the ability to search on stored video and audio through keywords.[3]
In July 2017, Barlow announced that the game, titled Telling Lies, will feature three to four key characters. He described the game as a combination of the films The Conversation (1974) and Shame (2011). The game will be published by Annapurna Interactive and shooting for the game was scheduled to start in late 2017 or early 2018.[6] For filming, Barlow wanted the conversations between characters to appear natural, ideally filming both actors as they conversed but from different locations. To accomplish this, they were able to rent out a compound that had a number of different homes and buildings that they could make appear like the different locations that were called for in the script, including scenes where they were moving about the compound. In this fashion, the actors recorded their lines in their separate locations over video conferencing calls, with Barlow and other directors running between the sets as needed to provide direction.[7] The shooting was done mostly in chronological order of the narrative story, with over 100 hours of footage captured. Only about ten hours of this were used for the game itself.[7]
By March 2019, Barlow released the game's first trailer, and stated that he was now aiming for a mid-2019 release.[3]
References
- ^ a b c Caldwell, Brendan (17 June 2019). "'I hate repeating a trick' - the writer of Telling Lies on going back to the desktop thriller". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
- ^ Stark, Chelsea (27 March 2019). "Her Story follow-up takes place on a stolen NSA hard drive". Polygon. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
- ^ a b c d e Clark, Tim; MacGregor, Jody (27 March 2019). "See the first teaser for Telling Lies, the next game from the creator of Her Story". PC Gamer. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
- ^ Morrison, Angus (25 January 2016). "Her Story 2 is on the way". PC Gamer. Future plc. Archived from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Muncy, Julie (25 January 2016). "Heavily Redacted Tweet Teases a Her Story Sequel". Wired. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Chalk, Andy (14 July 2017). "Her Story creator reveals new game will be called Telling Lies". PC Gamer. Future plc. Archived from the original on 11 August 2017. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ a b Webster, Andrew (16 July 2019). "Live-action mystery game Telling Lies needed a new way of filming conversations". The Verge. Retrieved 16 July 2019.