Giant Bomb Presents: True Crimes and Family Histories: The Story Behind Her Story

Thanks for this!

Finished it last night. Chilling to say the least...

Beat is dope yo!

Dude that intro jam is so TASTY!!! That needs to be my A.M. alarm sound.

mmmm, that soft jazz

This sounds interesting I will have to check it out on the way home.

A small linguist part of me always grimace every time I hear the term "herstory".

This is great Austin, will definitely listen after i beat the game

Austin. Austin.

you're aces

After the QL I don't have to play the game to appreciate this work of art, but I think I will anyway. An impressive achievement on the actresses behalf.

Interesting!

Don't think I've played his other work, but Shattered Memories was incredible, so I'm certainly a fan!

Brilliant, beat the game last night and cannot wait listen to this!

Excellent interview with some fascinating subject matter.

How can I play shattered memories at this point? I don't have a wii or a PS2. And I can't find it on psn for psp/vita. I would have thought this was on PS3 by this point. Or on the vita store as a psp to vita compatible game.

Fresh.

Just finished Her Story, what a great, unique game.

Intro sounds Nujabes-esque. Love it.

This game was kinda, sorta on my radar...then I heard "Silent Hill: Shattered Memories" and it was upgraded to MUST HAAAAAAAVE.

Great conversation! Big shoutout to Homicide: Life on the Street. Knowing that young guys like Austin have even heard of it gives me hope.

Really good counterpart to the game itself. Thanks Austin!

Everyone should read the book the show is based on, by David Simon of The Wire fame (Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets). A stunning piece of journalism and true crime.

Great interview. I very much agree with Austin on the subject of 'only write what you know'. At a certain point, no one can fully know anything but their own experiences. It would be very hard on storytellers of all kinds if they were not permitted to write about characters who are not like them, or time periods they did not live in!

Looking forward to more interviews like this in the future. It's a feature of the site I've been missing since Patrick left.

Such a great interview. Thanks Austin and Sam!

Are there any spoilers in this interview? I haven't played the game yet but I want to listen to this!

@stonyman65: I asked Austin the same on twitter and he said notbut you may appreciate it more having played the game.

@flameboy84: Okay. Thanks!

I really enjoyed this interview. I'm not always up for audio but so happy I gave this a listen. I really like how Austin was on point with his questions and inquired, but mostly how natural it felt. It comes off more like a conversation between two interested parties than an interview and I dig that.

Dope music intro, dope game

That was pretty great.

Austin, you're doing a fantastic job!

Love that intro music

Potentially one of my favourite things to appear on this site. Smart and passionate people speaking intelligently about their passions. Just stellar. Austin has set a really high bar for himself and the content he produces in a very short period of time. Love it.

Excellent. Excellent excellent excellent.

Yeah, 'Her Story' is pretty killer. Great interview. Looking forward to future works.

great conversation interview

But for folk wondering if they should snag, "Her Story", the answer is yes. It is a game, it is smart as hell, and it goes in some fun directions.

This interview made me take pause and consider some things - why the true crime genre is so compelling, why the myriad cop shows on TV are so popular, how games should allow you to feel like you can walk away from them. There's so much good stuff in here. To summarise:

- I just purchased Her Story

- I'm looking for a copy of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

- I'm looking for a series collection of Homicide Life on the Street

- Thanks @austin_walker

I played the game in a group, and had an absolute blast. It made me think that there's room for "party games" that tackle dark subjects and with very cerebral mechanics. While initially turned off by the interface, the next day I started the game while we had a few people over to show them. And then the magic happened. After watching a few videos, someone would randomly shout out a search phrase. And then someone would posit a theory, "how do we know there was only one bracelet?" (fake example). That would spur a bunch of conversation and new search terms. Everyone was invested in the story and would "Shhhh!" anyone talking while a video was playing. We managed to hit every red herring landmine that the game dangled in front of us, and cheered after each major revelation. Returning to previously seen videos with new information and teasing out minor clues from the amazing performance of the actress was so much fun.

Thanks, @austin_walker, for putting this on my radar!

After playing this game, and now reading up on the Silent Hill games I missed out on, I'm also very interested to know. I gave my parents my Wii, and I think they still have it...

This was a great listen! I like the format a lot, great work Austin.

I'm pretty sure it'd work on a WiiU also, but you'd need a sensor bar and wiimote.

I don't want to cause any arguments, so try to answer me in as close to a one-word answer as you can. Do people in America, outside of racially motivated killings, think of people in terms of being a person of color or person without color all the time? A few times I've heard Austin refer to someone as being a person of color, when I wouldn't have thought that it was notable at all. It might just be me being a person without color and Austin being an American person of color, but it's just not something I think about.

now then. That intro song

Hm, not really sure I understand his vision of what Gone Home should be...

Bah, wrote a big post but got a generic "server" error. Argh!

In short, I was trying to be constructive in saying: Austin, guide the direction of the interview, but for me personally, it'd be more enjoyable with a few less interruptions. I was 15 minutes in when I wrote my now-gone post, now I'm 21 minutes in and there've been a few more interruptions just as soon as Sam starts replying so you can interject with an aside or to expand upon a subject.

Now, I've seen no one else say the same, so I'm probably the only one thinking this, but it's a personal bugbear of mine. An interviewee is the subject of the interview, you navigate the interview, but leave it to them to provide the bulk of the content! Or at least wait for him to finish talking before interjecting. :p

I remember Patrick before you also did something similar every so often, and you can definitely tell it's because you're both very excited and passionate about what you're discussing, you're very much enjoying the interview, but a little restraint would go a long way!

Not trying to be negative or a downer or anything, as the interview is friggin' excellent (And so is Her Story) -- keep up the good work and take my suggestions with a grain of salt. Keep bringing us quality content!

Watched the quick look, bought it immediately, played until i was "satisfied", listened to the interview.

Thank you Austin, for bringing this to our attention. Great work.

@xbob42: I'm kind of with you on this that there are a few too many interjections and that the interviewer should err on the side of keeping quiet and letting the interviewee direct the discourse. I personally get quite annoyed with questions that start out well but then go on and start to answer themselves, ending up with a really narrow answer when the interviewee finally gets a chance to respond.

Overall this was really awesome and gave me a lot of insight into the game and the process which shaped it.

Her Story is fantastic. An hour in, I had countless moments that made me look up from my notebook in utter fascination or confusion over what I had just found out.