Sam Barlow hinted at reviving his paused project, a 3D third-person game with a non-linear storytelling approach.
Sam Barlow, known for co-creating Silent Hill Shattered Memories, Her Story, and Immortality, has shared that a 3D, third-person narrative-driven game that he had worked on in the past could still be in development. According to him, the game may subvert the established genre tropes of God of War, Uncharted, and The Last of Us.
In an interview with PCGamesN, Barlow spoke about the project that was put on hold during the development of Immortality but said that there is a possibility that it may be revived.
"It was paused during Immortality," Barlow said. "It may be unpaused. With the 3D game, the conceit allowed us to be like, 'hey, it’s a third person, character-driven action game.' There’s movement through space; there’s exploration. But it’s not a game where the story is going to go 'A,B,C.'"
The developer elaborated that the untitled 3D game would present its narrative in a non-linear fashion, drawing from the experience of developing Immortality. According to him, the aim is to create a narrative structure that would be different from recent plot-driven games such as The Last of Us and God of War.
"[Those games] have the act breakdowns. They do five acts. And something like Last of Us translates directly to an HBO show, because they were treating it like when they made it," Barlow explained. "So the thing that was very different about this idea [of the unnamed 3D game] was to say 'actually, we don’t need any of that.'"
Speaking of how the game may function, Barlow said that it will move away from the traditional "branching narrative" structure that is common in some story or choice-driven games. Instead, it will prioritize "breadth" in its storytelling approach.
He clarified that the game won't rely on causality or allow the player to simply alter the course of the plot at critical junctures. Instead, it will focus on creating a narrative experience where players can explore a wide range of story content.
You can learn more by reading the full interview here. Also, don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.