For my critical play, I chose to play Her Story, a mystery video game developed by Sam Barlow in 2015. I would say that Her Story has an audio of explorer players who are 14 or older, and able to handle themes of death, crime, and drugs, as they are referenced throughout. I played Her Story on iOS on my iPhone.
Throughout the gameplay of Her Story, the narrative is woven into the mystery through the use of brief, context-poor video clips and a keyword search system that tells the story of Hannah non-linearly, where the player has to keep track of the narrative. The constrained setting of a single computer interface focuses the narrative exploration, limiting access to information. These mechanics create a dynamic loop, where players revisit earlier clips with new insights, and also form a narrative arc that builds as players piece together the fragmented story.
The narrative of Her Story unfolds through a series of brief video clips that offer minimal context, compelling players to actively engage in reconstructing the storyline themselves. These clips range from just a few seconds to a couple minutes, intentionally designed with significant gaps in information. Because of this, the responsibility of piecing the narrative together lies on the player. Unlike more traditional narrative formats where the sequence and relevance of information are predefined, the keyword search system in Her Story leaves players to discover the sequence and relevance of information independently. Critical keywords are not given or suggested to the player, but must be discerned from the content of the video clips themselves. This process of discovery is iterative, as each new keyword tried can lead to new clips and insights, reinforcing the non-linear narrative structure that allows the mystery to unfold over many searches. The mechanics of these brief video clips and keyword search form an emergent narrative, as discussed in lecture and readings, since information is given slowly over time, and it is up to the player to reconstruct the storyline using clues. The result of this is that the player feels like a true detective, piecing together a crime to find who is truly guilty, as well as considering the evidence supporting or opposing each possibility. Many of the clips also reference specific locations and times, such as Eve revealing that she lived across the street from Hannah, and Eve traveling to Glasgow during the alleged murder of Simon. These scattered details allow the player to create a mental map of the narrative’s events, making an effective spatial game even though there are minimal spatial elements besides simply referencing them in clips.
The architecture of the setting is confined to a single computer interface which shapes both the story and the player’s interaction with it. The constrained setting limits the player’s access to information, reinforcing the theme of a police investigation as the player must sift through a database of interview clips without external resources. Moreover, the game incorporates minimal, but effective, other setting elements such as background police siren audio and visuals. This further sets the tone of a dark mystery, and builds expectations for the emergent narrative. The constrained setting also compels players to form a deep mental model of the events, imagining and reconstructing the storyline in their minds, since they are unable to see the actual events that are referenced. This process not only engages players more deeply but also makes the revelation of the narrative’s full scope profoundly personal and impactful, as each player’s understanding evolves uniquely based on the fragments they uncover and piece together.
The mechanics of Her Story also create a dynamic loop as well as a gradually unfolding narrative arc. As players delve deeper into the database using the keyword search system, they frequently encounter the same video clips. This repetitive exposure is an important mechanism that allows players to revisit earlier clips with new insights. Each re-watch can reveal previously unnoticed details. For example, early into my play I noticed that Hannah tapped strangely on the table. I later learned that it was “Knock Code”, used by Hannah to communicate with Eve and vice versa. When I later re-discovered the initial tapping clip, I now understood that she was communicating with her sister off screen. Moreover, the game’s interface allows the player to save clips for easy reference in the future, supporting the iterative process of hypothesis and revision as players learn new information and rewatch previous clips to see if their understanding of them has changed. A screenshot provided below shows how I was able to add video clips to easily access later, after learning what the tapping was when I first watched it. Through this loop, a narrative arc naturally forms as the story’s fragments piece together into a more coherent narrative.
