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), Telling Lies 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, his first venture in a genre he has called the "desktop thriller". In 2017, he founded Half Mermaid, a video game production company based in New York.
Interactive fiction Barlow was active in the interactive fiction 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, 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, while Silent Hill: Shattered Memories has multiple references to Twelfth Night). He has also been inspired by David Lynch, Mark Z. Danielewski, Paul Auster, Shirley Jackson, The Exorcist and Gene Wolfe. Consistently his most frequently cited influence is Hitchcock, 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's Cat People as showing how best to reboot an existing story.
Video games YearTitleRolePublisher1999AisleSole developerSam Barlow2004Serious Sam: Next EncounterDesignerGlobal Star Software2006Crusty DemonsLead designerDeep SilverWho Wants to Be a Millionaire: Party EditionConcept developerEidos Interactive2007Ghost RiderLead designer2K GamesSilent Hill: OriginsLead designer and writerKonami Digital Entertainment2009Silent Hill: Shattered Memories2015Her StoryDirector and writerSam Barlow2018#WarGamesCreative leadEko2019Telling LiesDirector and writerAnnapurna Interactive2022A Memoir BlueProject executive directorImmortalityDirector and writerHalf Mermaid ProductionsNetflix2028PrecognitionKinetic PublishingTBAProject DHalf Mermaid Productions
Cancelled games TitleRoleElveonLead designer and writerBrahms PDSilent Hill: Cold HeartLegacy of Kain: Dead SunDirectorProject B
References
External links
Half Mermaid