Sam Barlow is a British video game designer, best known as the writer and designer of '' Her Story,'' the two British '' Silent Hill'' games, '' Silent Hill: Origins'' and '' Silent Hill: Shattered Memories,'' and '' Immortality''. He previously worked as a game director at Climax Studios, before leaving in 2014 to become an indie game developer. He published his first independent game, '' Her Story'', in June 2015. In 2017 he founded Half Mermaid, a video game production company based in Brooklyn, New York.

Interactive fiction

Barlow was active in the

interactive fiction '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...

scene of the late 1990s, most notably releasing the game '' Aisle'' in 1999. It won the XYZZY Award for Best Use of Medium. Like his later ''Silent Hill'' games, ''Aisle'' features a psychologically damaged viewpoint character, a contemporary setting and a positive meaning at its heart. In March 2016, during the Game Developers Conference, Barlow announced he had joined the interactive media firm Interlude, later rebranded as Eko, to help them develop an interactive media reboot of the 1983 film '' WarGames''. The work '' #WarGames'' launched in early 2018.

Influences

Barlow frequently cites novelists and film directors as having influenced his work. He claims that

Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

, Luis Buñuel and J. G. Ballard influenced his work on '' Silent Hill: Shattered Memories''. Both ''Silent Hill'' titles reference Shakespeare ('' Silent Hill: Origins'' features a performance of '' The Tempest'', whilst ''Silent Hill: Shattered Memories'' has multiple references to '' Twelfth Night''). He has also been inspired by

David Lynch David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, visual artist and actor. A recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and the César Award for Be ...

Mark Z. Danielewski Mark Z. Danielewski (; born March 5, 1966) is an American fiction author. He is most widely known for his debut novel ''House of Leaves'' (2000), which won the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award. His second novel, '' Only Revolu ...

Paul Auster Paul Benjamin Auster (born February 3, 1947) is an American writer and film director. His notable works include ''The New York Trilogy'' (1987), ''Moon Palace'' (1989), ''The Music of Chance'' (1990), ''The Book of Illusions'' (2002), ''The Broo ...

, Shirley Jackson, '' The Exorcist'' and Gene Wolfe. Consistently his most frequently cited influence is

, for example: "I bored everyone with Hitchcock and talking about his techniques and his ideas of suspense" and "Hitchcock said that all horror goes back to childhood, that's why it's a universal thing – it's a fundamental". Barlow cites Cronenberg's '' The Fly'' and

Paul Schrader Paul Joseph Schrader (; born July 22, 1946) is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. He first received widespread recognition through his screenplay for Martin Scorsese's ''Taxi Driver'' (1976). He later continued his collabo ...

's '' Cat People'' as showing how best to reboot an existing story.

Video games

Canceled games

References

External links

Her Story
Her Story official website
Climax Studios
Climax Studios' official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Barlow, Sam Living people Silent Hill Video game designers Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) British video game designers Video game writers Interactive fiction writers