Life is Strange Dev: Publishers Wanted to Change Protagonists into Men

Dontnod Entertainment released a developer diary going into many behind the scenes details of its time-travelling adventure game about friendship, Life is Strange. While some of you might remember Dontnod for Remember Me, you'll definitely remember it for this new story.

"In Life is Strange, you're playing as Max, a teenager who just came back to her hometown of Arcadia Bay after being away for five years. And you're getting back to know again your old best friend, Chloe," said Michel Koch, one of Dontnod's Co-Game Directors. "But you discover Chloe has really changed, she's really a different person, and one reason for this change is one of her friends, Rachel Amber, just went missing a few months ago."

Max and Chloe will decide to investigate Rachel's disappearance together. The team mentions Remember Me's Memory Remix being a primary inspiration on Life is Strange's gameplay. As a result, time-traveling is a formal mechanic of the game. Every action has good and bad consequences, and they range in scope as well.

Surprisingly, most publishing companies that Dontnod Entertainment approached for Life is Strange wanted to change Max into a male character.

"Square Enix were basically the only publisher that didn't want to change a single thing about the game. We had other publishers telling us make it a male lead-character. And Square Enix didn't even question that once," Dontnod co-founder Jmax-Moris said.

Luc Baghadoust, the game's producer, explained that the sisterhood and conflicting yet complementing personalities between Max and Chloe were needed for the story:

"It felt natural to have Max as a female character for this game. Max is a bit shy, but she's also a bit different, so we wanted for her to define the way she's moving; she's not all flashy like Chloe, she has more subtle movements. And for Chloe on the other-hand, with the motion-capture actress, we asked her to be much more, like dancing/moving."

Life is Strange's first episode will launch on Jan. 30 for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.