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) "rigid".[29] When Barlow began development on Her Story, he added more typical game aspects, but the game mechanics became more minimalist as development progressed.[30] The initial plan for the game was for the player 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,[7] particularly relating to the concept of money, which was ultimately a large factor in Porco's trial.[31] He took this concept of recurring themes and threads, and decided to "move beyond the clearly scripted stuff" when developing Her Story.[7] 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".[7]