Sam Barlow breaks down the 'pillars of interactivity' behind Immortality
"Throw away the container." That's the advice Immortality co-creator Sam Barlow has for developers wondering how he pieced together the award-winning cinematic thriller, which asks players to unravel the mystery surrounding actress Marissa Marcel by combing through lost film footage.
Breaking down his approach to design at GDC 2023, Barlow suggests game developers must ditch the rules imposed by 20th century media. He explains the movies and television shows that we grew up with were constructed with certain parameters in mind, such as facilitating ad breaks or the need to physically ship movies to theaters in canisters (the container, in this particular metaphor).The advent of interactive digital media, however, means we no longer need to play by those rules, but ditching conventions that have been reinforced over decades can often feel uncomfortable.
Barlow suggests that, so far, the majority of disruptive media–think Netflix series that can be binged in their entirety on day one–has merely tweaked the container. "They're still writing this piece of television using the same structures," he explains. "So the real opportunity that we have from games is to throw these containers away.
"What happens then? What do you do in the absence of the container? For me, if you look at the core pillars of what video games do best, and can do best, these are the means by which we can navigate this much more open, interesting space for storytelling."
Barlow proposes developers use four core pillars–challenge, expression, exploration, and simulation–to explore the nebulous narrative aether that now surrounds them.
Where 'challenge' is concerned, Barlow notes that when you put any obstacle in front of players–be it a riddle or
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