RETINA: searching LOVE, 'Searching...' over the first match

About this game

Developer: Sam Barlow / Half Mermaid · Publisher: Annapurna Interactive · Platform: PC (Steam) · Art style: Realistic 3D · Screen type: Encyclopedia / Codex

More Telling Lies screens in the Gallery

What to study

This is the one frame the scene-change pass caught, and it catches the game mid-thought: the word LOVE has been typed, the 'Searching...' popup is still up, and the screen underneath already tells two stories, the clip being watched ('Viewed: 1', 'Bookmarks: 0') and, in the right pane, '1 match:' pointing at 04:17 in another clip. That match pane is Telling Lies' core invention stated as layout: meaning lives between clips, so the interface's job is to name the exact second where one recording answers another. Around it, RETINA dresses the search as intelligence work, an eye-and-globe banner, Search / Bookmarks / History tabs, and a footer stamped 'TOP SECRET // SI // ORCON // NOFORN', while the desktop clock (12:02 AM) quietly admits what the player is doing at this hour. Frame at about 1:10 in the Telling Lies Trailer (Steam), from the pipeline's scene-change pass (candidates/v1_0017.png, 70.4s).

Patterns

How the screen is arranged.

diegetic-controls master-detail modal-panel

Components

Parts on screen.

Window Tabs Banner Resource bar

Screen inventory

• window title 'Database Server - RTNANSA.DB: 55' over the RETINA banner, an eye logo on a wireframe globe, with tabs 'Search' (active, blue), 'Bookmarks' and 'History'
• the query field holds 'LOVE' beside a blue 'Search' button, and a dark 'Searching...' popup sits over the results while the search runs
• behind the popup, the clip already on screen shows 'Viewed: 1' and 'Bookmarks: 0' under its thumbnail
• right pane: '1 match:' with a thumbnail and '04:17', a match is reported as another clip's address inside this one
• the window's footer carries a classification string: 'TOP SECRET // SI // ORCON // NOFORN'
• desktop top bar reads 'Sun 12:02 AM' and '82%'; below the window, the drive's 'RETINADOC.pdf' and 'RTNANSA.DB' icons stay in view

Top 3 colors

#372b41 24%#100f10 22%#251e28 17%

Top three palette colors by share. The remaining colors make up the rest.

Source and credit

© Sam Barlow / Half Mermaid / Annapurna Interactive, Telling Lies screenshot: Telling Lies Trailer (Steam), Sam Barlow / Half Mermaid, shown for design study and commentary. PlayCraft is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Annapurna Interactive.

Source tier 2 (publisher-released) · screenshot: Steam store page · Steam page

Source details

Fetched 2026-10-25. verified 2026-10-25: scene-change frame candidates/v1_0017.png @ 70.4s in the Telling Lies Trailer, MD5 b23fe3ed0b474278884a5c5763c40134, from the pipeline download videos/steam-762830-Telling-Lies-Trailer.mp4 (86,216,359 B, MD5 927c60524dfad12531ed7c00656f0339; full decode to null wrote zero error lines, decode-trailer.err empty), inspected visually at full resolution (1920x1080); the 'RETINA' banner, Search / Bookmarks / History tabs, 'LOVE' query, 'Searching...' popup, '1 match:' / '04:17', 'Viewed: 1', 'Bookmarks: 0' and the 'TOP SECRET // SI // ORCON // NOFORN' footer all legible; no trailer text or marketing overlay in frame

no published policy found (checked 2026-10-25); fair-use study use, takedown honored within 48h

Rights holders: see Copyright & takedown.