text: her story ( video game ) her story is an interactive movie video game written and directed by sam barlow . it was released on 24 june 2015 for microsoft windows , os x and ios . in the game , players search and sort through a database of video clips from fictional police interviews , and use the clips to solve the case of a missing man . the police interviews focus on the man 's wife , hannah smith , portrayed by british musician viva seifert . the game is barlow 's first project since his departure from climax studios , after which he became independent . he wanted to develop a game that was dependent on the narrative , and avoided working on the game until he was settled on an idea that was possible to execute . barlow eventually decided to create a police procedural game , and incorporate live action footage . he conducted research for the game by watching existing police interviews . upon doing so , he discovered recurring themes in the suspects ' answers , and decided to incorporate ambiguity to the investigation in the game . at release , her story was acclaimed by many reviewers , with praise particularly directed at the narrative , character performance , and unconventional gameplay mechanics . the game has sold over 100 , 000 copies , and was nominated for multiple year - end accolades , including game of the year awards from several gaming publications . gameplay her story is an interactive movie game , focusing on a series of seven fictional police interviews from 1994 . as the game begins , players are presented with an old desktop , which contains several files and programs . among the programs are instructional text files , which explain the game 's mechanics . one of the programs automatically open on the desktop is the " database " , which allows players to search and sort video clips within the database , of which there are 271 . the video clips are police interviews with a british woman : hannah smith . the interviews are unable to be watched in their entirety , forcing players to view short clips . in the interviews , hannah answers unknown questions to an off - screen detective , prompting players to decipher the context of the answers . hannah 's answers are transcribed , and players find clips by searching in the database for words from the transcriptions , attempting to solve the case by piecing together information . as players select clips , they can enter user tags , which are then available as searchable terms . one of the files on the desktop is a database checker , which allows players to review the amount of clips that have been viewed ; as a clip is viewed , the red box in the database checker changes to green . the desktop also features the minigame mirror game , based on the strategy board game . plot the interview tapes feature a woman who introduces herself as hannah smith ( viva seifert ) , whose husband , simon , has gone missing , and is later found murdered . hannah admits that the two had a difficult relationship , but has an alibi placing her in glasgow at the time after an argument . as more pieces of the interviews are discovered , it is revealed that " hannah " is actually two women : hannah and eve , identical twins separated at birth by the midwife . the twins were unaware of each other 's existence until years later , at which point they decided to act as a single person , keeping a common diary and a set of rules defining their actions as " hannah " . hannah eventually began dating simon , whom she met at a glazier where they both work . despite their rules , hannah sleeps with simon and becomes pregnant , which upsets eve , who makes an effort to get pregnant but is unable to do so ; hannah miscarries in the eighth month . years later , simon meets eve in a bar . the two begin an affair , and eve becomes pregnant ; by this time , hannah is infertile . on their birthday , simon gives a handmade mirror to hannah , but they have an argument , and hannah reveals that she has a sister who is pregnant ; simon realises he is the father . the following day , eve has an argument and flees to glasgow . hannah , wearing eve 's wig , confronts simon . unaware that she is hannah , simon gifts her another mirror . hannah becomes furious , shattering the mirror and accidentally lodging it in simon 's throat , killing him . when eve returns , the two agree to hide simon 's body , and use eve 's trip to glasgow as an alibi . at the end of the interview , eve notes that hannah is " gone " , and asks to speak to a lawyer . as players uncover enough of the story , a chat window appears asking if they are finished . once players answer affirmatively , it is revealed that they are sarah , eve 's daughter . the chat asks sarah if she understands her mother 's actions , and asks to meet her outside . development her story was developed by sam barlow , who previously worked on games such as silent hill : origins ( 2007 ) and silent hill : shattered memories ( 2009 ) at climax studios . barlow had conceived the idea of a police procedural game while working at climax studios , but decided to become independent to create the game , in order to develop a game that is " deep on story " . he became frustrated by publishers using kitchen sink realism as the reason behind rejecting game pitches , and found that becoming independent allowed him to create his own game of the sort . he also wished to become independent after playing games like year walk ( 2013 ) and 80 days ( 2014 ) . barlow avoided development until he had an idea that was possible to execute . " i could probably quite easily have gone and made an exploration horror game ... but i kind of knew that there would be big compromises there because of budget , " he said . barlow spent his savings to work on the game , allowing him a year of development time . he followed through with the concept of her story , as it focused on an " intimate setting , dialogue and character interaction " , which he found was often dismissed in larger titles . barlow felt particularly inspired to develop her story after seeing the continuous support of his 1999 game aisle . when referring to how her story challenges typical game conventions , barlow compares it to the dogme 95 filmmaking movement , and alfred hitchcock 's 1948 film rope . her story was approved through steam greenlight , and was crowdfunded by indie fund . it was released on 24 june 2015 for microsoft windows , os x and ios . barlow wanted to launch the game on all platforms simultaneously , as he was unsure where the audience would be . " if i 'd just gone for just one i 'd have lost a lot of the potential audience , " he commented . barlow found that playing her story on mobile devices is a " ' sofa ' experience " . he also noted that it felt " natural " for it to be released on mobile devices , as they are regularly used to watch videos and search the internet ; similar tasks are used as gameplay mechanics in her story . the iphone 's smaller pixel size of 640 × 480 as opposed to 800 × 600 led to barlow 's doubts of a release on the platform , but he was influenced to release it upon receiving positive feedback through testing . as development neared completion , the game underwent testing , which allowed barlow to " balance some aspects " and " polish items together " . an android version was released on june 29 , 2016 . her story runs on the unity game engine . gameplay design barlow 's immediate idea was to create a game involving police interviews , but he " didn 't know exactly what that meant " . he then conceived the idea to involve real video footage , and the ability to access the footage through a database interface ; he described the interface as being " part apple ii , part windows 3 . 1 and part windows 98 " . the interface design was inspired by barlow 's appreciation of the police procedural genre , commenting that " the conceit of making the computer itself a prop in the game was so neat " . he also compared the searching mechanic to the google search engine , and wanted to " run with the idea " that players are " essentially googling " . the game 's concept was inspired by the tv series homicide : life on the street ( 1993 – 1999 ) , which barlow found depicted police interviews being a " gladiatorial arena for detectives " . barlow intentionally made the game 's opening screen to be " slightly too long " , to immediately notify players of the slow pacing that would follow . inspiration to work on her story stemmed from barlow 's disappointment of other detectives games : he felt that l.a. noire ( 2011 ) never allowed him to feel like " the awesome detective who was having to read things and follow up threads of investigation " , and he called the ace attorney series ( 2001 – present ) " rigidity " . when barlow began development on her story , he added more typical game aspects , but the game mechanics became more minimalist as development progressed . the initial plan for the game was for players to work towards a definitive resolution , ultimately solving the crime . however , when barlow tested the concept on pre - existing interview transcripts of convicted murderer christopher porco , he began to discover themes surfacing within the interviews , particularly relating to the concept of money , which was ultimately a large factor in porco 's trial . he took this concept of recurring themes and threads , and decided to " move beyond the clearly scripted stuff " when developing her story . barlow felt that the story 's appeal was the ambiguity of the investigation , comparing her story to the podcast serial ( 2014 – present ) , which he listened to late in development . he found that the attraction of serial was the lack of a definitive solution , noting that " people lean towards certain interpretations ... what makes it interesting is the extent to which it lives on in your imagination " . story and characters barlow decided to feature live action footage in the game after becoming frustrated with his previous projects , particularly with the technical challenge of translating an actor 's performance into a game engine . barlow set out to work with an actor on her story , having enjoyed the process while working at climax studio , albeit with a larger budget . he contacted viva seifert , whom he had intermittently worked with on legacy of kain : dead sun for a year , before its cancellation . he felt that seifert is " very good at picking up a line and intuitively pulling a lot of the subtext into her performance " , which led him to believe that she was " perfect " for the role in her story . when barlow asked seifert to audition , he sent her a 300 - page script , which he managed to reduce to 80 pages , by altering font size , as well as some dialogue ; she accepted the role . seifert began to feel pressure midway through filming , when she realised that " the whole game is " on her performance . she described the shoot as " intense " and " rather exhausting " , and felt as if she was " subtly being scrutinised " by barlow , which helped her performance . barlow also felt that the intensity helped seifert 's performance , taking cues from director alfred hitchcock , who would upset his actors in order to achieve the greatest performance . seifert felt that there were small nuances in her performance that may have " added some twists and turns " for players that barlow had not anticipated . the game 's seven police interviews were filmed roughly in chronological order over five days , in a process that barlow called " natural " . barlow travelled to seifert 's home county of cornwall to film . he felt that finding the locations for the interrogation rooms was the simplest part of production , because " everywhere has crappy looking rooms " , with footage being recorded in a council building in truro . when filming was complete , barlow wanted to give the impression that the videos had been recorded in 1994 , but found digital filters were unable to capture this time frame appropriately . instead , he recorded the footage through two vhs players to create imperfections in the video before digitising the video into the game . barlow played the part of the detectives during filming , asking scripted questions to seifert 's character , but is never featured in her story . when watching police interviews for research , barlow found himself empathising with the interviewee , which inspired him to exclude the detective from the game . he stated that the interviews typically feature " double betrayal " , in which the detectives are " pretending to be the best friend " . barlow felt that removing the detective from the game empowers seifert 's character , allowing players to empathise . when conducting research for her story , barlow looked at the case regarding the murder of travis alexander , which made him consider the manner that female murder suspects are treated in interrogations , stating that they " tend to be fetishised , more readily turned into archetypes " . this was further proved to barlow when studying the interviews of casey anthony and amanda knox ; he found that media commentary often ignored the evidence of the investigation , instead focusing on the expressions of the suspects during the interviews . barlow conducted further research by studying texts about psychology , and the use of language . after conceiving the game 's main mechanics , barlow began developing the story , conducting research and " letting [ the story ] take on a life of its own " . to develop the story , barlow placed the script into a spreadsheet , which became so large it often crashed his laptop upon opening it . he mapped out every character involved in the investigation , including their backstories and agendas . he spent about half of development creating detailed documents charting the story 's characters and events . he also determined the dates on which the police interviews would take place , and what the suspect was doing in the interim . once he had determined the game 's concept more precisely , barlow ensured the script contained " layers of intrigue " , in order to interest players to finish the game . barlow often replaced words of the script with synonyms , to ensure that some clips were not associated with irrelevant words . when writing the script , barlow generally avoided supernatural themes , but realised that it would involve a " slight dreamlike surreal edge " . working on the script , he often found that he was " very much in the moment , writing from inside the characters ' heads " . he found it difficult to create a new idea for the story , as detective fiction has been explored many times before . audio when searching for music to use in her story , barlow looked for songs that sounded " slightly out - of - time " . he ultimately used eight tracks from musician chris zabriskie , and found that his music invoked nostalgia , and had a " modern edge " . he felt that the music " highlights the gap between the ' fake computer world ' " and the game . the " emotional intensity " of the clips also influences the music changes in her story . barlow also intended to feature a song for seifert to sing in some of the clips that fit within the game . he settled on the murder ballad " the twa sisters " , which he felt would trigger the mythical elements of the game . seifert and barlow both altered the ballad , to fit the game . barlow intended for the sound design to be " all about authenticity " . he used an old keyboard to provide sound effects for the computer , using stereo panning for the keys to have the correct 3d position in playback . sequel in january 2016 , barlow confirmed that a sequel was in development , under the working title her story 2 . barlow considered it a " spiritual successor " to her story , with a narrative unrelated to the first game , though it will continue to use full - motion video as its central gameplay element . reception critical reception her story was well received by critics . review aggregator metacritic calculated an average score of 91 out of 100 based on 10 reviews for the ios version , indicating " universal acclaim " , and 86 out of 100 based on 49 reviews for the windows version , indicating " generally favorable reviews " . metacritic ranks the game within the top 20 ios and windows games released in 2015 , and gamerankings ranks her story within its top 100 ios games of all time . praise was particularly directed at the game 's narrative , seifert 's performance , and gameplay mechanics . ign 's brian albert called her story " the most unique game i 've played in years " , and steven burns of videogamer.com named it " one of the year 's best and most interesting games " . adam smith of rock , paper , shotgun remarked that it " might be the best fmv game ever made " ; michael thomsen of the washington post declared it " a beautiful amalgam of the cinema and video game formats " . critics lauded the game 's narrative . kimberley wallace of game informer wrote that the " fragmented " delivery of the story " works to its benefit " . she appreciated the subtlety of the narrative , and the ambiguity surrounding the ending . polygon 's megan farokhmanesh noted that her story " nails the dark , voyeuristic nature of true crime " . chris schilling of the daily telegraph was impressed by the coherence of the narrative , " even when presented out of order " . eurogamer 's simon parkin found the effects of the narrative to be similar to well - received hbo thrillers , particularly in terms of audience attention . stephanie bendixsen of good game was disappointed that large plot points were revealed early in the game , but attributed this to the uniqueness of each players ' experience . seifert 's performance in the game received high praise from reviewers . gamespot 's justin clark felt that the performance " anchored " the game . katie smith of adventure gamers wrote that seifert is convincing in the role , particularly with small details such as body language , but was startled by the lack of emotion . game informer 's wallace echoed similar remarks , noting that seifert " nailed the role " . rock , paper , shotgun 's smith wrote that " the whole thing might collapse " without seifert 's " convincing " performance . ign 's albert named the acting " believable " , stating that seifert 's performance is " appropriately both grounded and absurd " . joe donnelly of digital spy wrote that seifert 's performance has the potential to inspire similar games , and andy kelly of pc gamer called the performance " understated , realistic , and complex " . burns of videogamer.com felt generally impressed by seifert 's performance , but noted some " occasional bad acting " . the unconventional gameplay mechanics also received positive remarks from critics . destructoid 's laura kate dale felt that the game 's pacing and structure assisted the narrative , and wallace of game informer found that making a connection between key points in the narrative was entertaining . burns of videogamer.com praised the game 's ability to make players realise their own biases , and challenge their " sense of self " . albert of ign felt that the searching tool was " gratifying " , and positively contributes to the pacing of the game , while the washington post 's thomsen wrote that the database mechanic created " contemplative gaps between scenes " , allowing for " poignance and power " within the narrative . bendixsen of good game described the desktop as " appropriately retro " , noting that she was " drawn in immediately " . the game sold over 100 , 000 copies by 10 august 2015 ; about 60 , 000 copies were sold on windows , with the remaining 40 , 000 sold on ios . accolades her story has received multiple nominations and awards from gaming publications . it won game of the year from polygon , as well as game of the month from rock , paper , shotgun and gamespot . it received the breakthrough award at the 33rd golden joystick awards , debut game and game innovation at the 12th british academy games awards , the award for most original game from pc gamer , and the seumas mcnally grand prize at the independent games festival awards . at the game awards 2015 , her story won best narrative , and seifert won best performance for her role in the game . the game won mobile game of the year at the sxsw gaming awards , the award for mobile & handheld at the british academy games awards , awards for excellence in story and innovation at the international mobile gaming awards , and best emotional mobile & handheld game at the emotional games awards , while the guardian named it the best ios game of 2015 ,