Telling Lies — Be Creative with Your Narrative

Think of a word… any word

Games come in many different forms. Some games even come in the form of something ultimately and utterly not a game. I mean that sometimes you play a game that presents itself more as a miscellaneous “interactive media” of sorts than an actual video game. But that’s ok because that just means that there are so many creative experiments out there waiting to be discovered. One of these experimental genres came in a “video game” called Telling Lies, a weird yet cool experience.

In Telling Lies, the goal is to review several videos that, when put together in the correct order, tell a story of an FBI agent who goes undercover to undermine a terrorist organisation (this is more or less what I remember because it’s been forever since I played the game). Additional subplots include the agent’s troubled family life because he’s away most of the time, his relationship with a webcam model, and the affair he handles with one of the terrorists. It’s interesting because the story is told based on the narrative you dictate to yourself.

Specifically, I’m referring to the coolest feature in the game: How do you select these videos? By writing down a word and it can be any word. But what significance does that particular word have for the game? It’s a word used by one of the characters in the video that you’re watching in the game. Basically, by writing down a word, you get a selection of videos that feature that word, and that’s how you realise the story. So, for example, let’s say you write the word “sandwich”, so then you get a selection of three videos because out of all the videos in the archive, these are the only three where someone said the word “sandwich”. And this is how you discover the story by writing down words of interest and watching videos. It’s definitely an interesting discovery.

Accessibility: only in English

So yes, it’s cool that the game lets you express yourself creatively, albeit in a limited fashion. I tried to enter that seemed unlikely to be in the game, and to my surprise, I found two videos with one word that I didn’t think I would find, but I found anyway, although the game is only good for a few hours is its main downside. But there’s something that concerns me even more.

The developers created a similar game, Her Story, with the “type any word to get the corresponding video” feature. The thing is, the game won’t work unless you know how to type in English.

I don’t know how it is a problem personally since my English language skills are excellent (I don’t mean to brag, but it is what it is), but I can only imagine how someone who doesn’t know English feels. Put aside that the characters speak English (I’m not sure if there were options for languages besides English), having to type correctly just to advance in the game, albeit in a non-linear fashion. This adds another complication to solving the problem of bridging language barriers since the game does require basic typing knowledge. Still, if the game were in Mandarin, it would present a whole new slew of problems.

Make this a genre so every country can have a piece

I’m a guy who wants to enjoy a good story, and I got recommended this “game”. I booted it, but then I realised I needed elementary English skills to browse the many different videos featured, and I didn’t have that. This is just something that you can press the same button all the time until you start shooting zombies because you need language for this one. What do you do in such a predicament?

One thing is to simply get a translation that the game may or may not have had because I never bothered checking. If the game doesn’t need translation, the next time the developers make a game, include multiple languages.

And then there’s the thing that I’m sure would work if applicable: make a genre out of these games. This way, you’ll have multiple developers who want to make a game similar to this, and then before you know it, this thing turned into a genre of its own. How would you call it? Probably something like “word-based video browser” or something like that. More interesting is that since this is a genre now (in this hypothesis at least), you’d have games in multiple languages (I would love to have a Japanese game in this style). The only issue is that this is unlikely to happen because nobody seems interested in inventing a new genre (then again, genres invent themselves over time).

What words did you use?

Did you play this game? If so, what were your impressions? I know that this game might not be for everyone, but for those that it mattered, how do you think this game could’ve evolved? Possibility for a new genre or something else?

In Conclusion…

Telling Lies is an interesting experiment that every person should at least give a chance and see if there is something for them in that game. It’s more of an interactive movie, but it’s still fun and somewhat challenging because you still have to be creative (albeit somewhat). Too bad there aren’t more of these.

That said, I would like to see more of these in different languages since that way, I would be able to write weird words in languages I don’t understand to get videos that tell a story that I do not understand either. Of course, that would be the case if there was such a game in Mandarin, but if it were Japanese, I would more than enjoy myself. However, the possibility of there being more games like Telling Lies out there is farfetched.

And with that, I just finished two articles today back-to-back, something I didn’t do in a long time. I would pat myself on the back, but that’s just silly. Regardless, I’m done for today, and you’re probably too… so, good night.