Telling Lies

A Structural Critique of IMMORTALITY

Ian Bryce JonesLeave a comment

Ian here—

Five years ago, I posted a video analysis of Sam Barlow’s game HER STORY that I’m especially proud of. Now, I follow it up with a lengthy discussion of Barlow’s 2022 game IMMORTALITY. This video serves as the twelfth video in my Shape Up! series, and I’m also considering it the long-belated sixth entry in my detective games series.

Full script below the jump, with ample citations. (I leaned heavily on the newly-released book IMMORTALITY: Design Works for background research on this one.)

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“We Had a List of Rules”: An Analysis of HER STORY

Ian Bryce Jones2 Comments

A fourth entry in my video series on detective games. It’s not real surprise that this game would end up in this series: I’ve taught it twice now (including in one class this term), I’ve written about teaching it, I named it one of the games of the decade, and right before the term launched I published a full transcript of it. What I didn’t expect was for it to be quite this long—definitely among the longer analyses of a single game I’ve done, in any format.

Script below the jump.

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