How the "magic" of Immortality was informed, but not defined, by film technique

gamedeveloper.com:

Immortality is an interactive game that captures the work of fictional actress Marissa Marcel, giving you access to three of her lost films, some behind-the-scenes footage, and multiple interviews with her and the cast of her movies. Through scrubbing through the footage, clicking on actors or props to see their connection with other works and a careful eye for detail, you’ll strive to find out why Marcel has disappeared.

Game Developer spoke with Sam Barlow, writer and director of Immortality, about what draws him to create puzzle games where there are rarely any clear answers, how he chose what editing abilities would work best for players wishing to explore Marcell’s film career, and about creating the Dark Souls of watching a bunch of movies.

Game Developer: Immortality leaves a great deal of the real story of Marissa Marcel in the player’s hands to figure out. Much of your work leaves a lot up to player interpretation. What draws you to this storytelling style?

Barlow: I played Dark Souls, originally. And obviously, I was plugged into the discourse around Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls and all the From stuff. But I started playing Dark Souls when my son [was] very young. And, my God, it makes it sound like I'm getting really old now, but now my son is old enough that he got into Dark Souls. He and his friends were playing Dark Souls Remastered and he's getting extremely deep into the lore. When Elden Ring came out, that was the first time since he's been really into this stuff that we both got to sit and play our own separate sides.

It was interesting playing that as it was coming out – seeing, in real-time, people trying to dig into the more obscure things. As a game designer, I like the brazen “We don't give a fuck”