11 questions we had for Life is Strange: Before the Storm's narrative director

The critically acclaimed story hazard game Life is Strange: Before the Storm was recently concluded in the 3rd and final episode that released terminal Tuesday.

Read: Life is Strange: Before the Tempest episode 3 review

Although the narrative was finished, questions remain almost both the backside the scenes process of creating the game, and the future of the series moving forward. Fortunately, we were given an opportunity to interview Zak Garriss, who works on the Deck Nine development team every bit narrative director, for answers.

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Some minor spoilers for Life is Strange: Before the Storm are below!

Brendan Lowry, Windows Fundamental: What has been the toughest function of developing Before The Storm?

Zak Garriss, Deck 9 development: Post-obit in DONTNOD'due south footsteps in making a new Life is Strange was pretty terrifying, frankly. They achieved something incredible in the first game, something so unique and beautiful and thoughtful. So even though we fought fiercely to go to make this project, even though we loved the first game with all our hearts and desperately wanted to tell a story in Arcadia Bay, the prospect was nevertheless intimidating.

In the end, it's been a privilege to tell Chloe's story, and the community's response has been overwhelming to all of us at Deck 9.

Which character has been the most fun to write for and develop so far?

Chloe is my favourite. Her complexity takes the shape of seemingly opposing forces that even so are quite real – she'southward fiercely contained and also incredibly lonely, wildly aroused but also vulnerable, brittle in her pain just at the same time funny – getting to tell her story has felt like a story that almost anyone tin relate to, in that.

Has information technology been a challenge to faithfully recreate Arcadia Bay from the perspective of a prequel?

Certainly! On the one hand, DONTNOD crafted a brilliant and unique world with bold strokes that nosotros, as diehard fans of the first game, could follow. But on the other, we wanted to tell a story that wove in and out of the version of Arcadia Bay fans knew from the first game – a story that could feel both familiar and, at the same time, new. That'due south ever difficult.

In the first game, Max's spirit animal was a deer. In Earlier the Storm, the frequent appearances of the raven seem to imply that'due south Chloe'due south. Is there whatsoever meaning behind that?

In that location is! I had a very specific fix of meanings intended with the raven, which I will (maybe frustratingly) refrain from sharing! All the details are there in the game; I volition leave it to the community to decipher the symbol for what it'southward supposed to mean.

Rachel stands out in Earlier the Tempest as one of the few main characters who we never met in the original game. Has creating her from the ground upwardly with nothing to reference been difficult?

Well…in a way, we have had a sort of reference from the first game. Each character who spoke about Rachel served equally a sort of mirror darkly, an indirect indicate in the constellation of her life. In that, she's the kind of person who leaves impressions everywhere she goes, impressions which often reveal more virtually the character impressed upon than the source itself. But nosotros found a harmony in the ways the showtime game presented her, enough of one to construct a version we fell in love with for Earlier the Storm.

What inspired y'all to apply The Tempest every bit a manner to tell the story of the relationship between Chloe and Rachel in Episode ii?

Partly we wanted to visit the spectacle of theatre as a means of talking about high school, both considering it's a matter that happens (ofttimes desperately!) in schools everywhere, but also as a metaphor for the imprisonment of high school, the imprisonment of this particular time in a young person's life. For Rachel, performance has a freeing quality to it. For Chloe – or so she thought at outset – the thought of performing on phase felt perhaps similar the opposite, something frightening and forced, where she is scrutinized and staged. But in practice, Chloe found a freedom on that stage to trust, to promise, that she had still to feel.

In that, it's Rachel's power at work. Only similar Prospera, Rachel has a souvenir for unlocking people's desires and for imbuing them with inspiration. And Prospera's relationship with Ariel, a creature of great ability – like Chloe – simply also imprisoned, felt too good to refuse.

What I like most about Rachel and Chloe's Tempest experience is the question of consent; in the play, Ariel asks Prospero for its freedom but the magician denies information technology. In Rachel and Chloe's experience, though, Rachel doesn't merely condemn; she pleas with Chloe. She goes off-book, taking Chloe off-book into a realm of thought she wasn't prepared for, presenting a fantasy she might not be ready to believe in, yet – just she even so asks Chloe to comply. That'south the true strength of Rachel's power: to persuade.

Information technology's an interesting question I promise player ask, and so, however swept up they might be in the dazzler of the moment. Rachel's ability to persuade Chloe is spectacular, and real…but is it good?

Choices take always been a huge part of Life is Strange. In data tracking, accept whatever of the choices people have made in the majority so far surprised you? If so, which ones, and why?

I'm still surprised there are people who don't share earbuds with Rachel on the railroad train.

Before the Storm features several areas that previously appeared in the first game, such as the Junkyard. Which of these locations has been your favorite to piece of work on?

Returning to Chloe's room was a lot of fun, using it as a space to curate the differences in her life at 16 compared to nineteen in the first game. Blackwell, too, only considering high school is and then horrible, it'southward a space charged with potential drama.

Exercise you retrieve that the Life is Strange universe has the potential to expand? Are novels, comics, or fifty-fifty a Boob tube show a possibility?

Admittedly. Bang-up stories are always evolving.

Building off that final question, do you think that it's possible we may encounter a sequel to the first game after Before the Tempest's conclusion?

Nosotros're not announcing annihilation yet, just anything is truly possible. We'll have to see.

Are there whatsoever plans to support the Xbox Ane X with additional visuals?

Yes, Xbox 1 X users can enjoy the game in native 4k resolution.

Your thoughts

What's your stance on everything Zak Garriss said in this interview? Permit us know your thoughts downwards below.

Life is Strange: Before the Storm is currently bachelor on Xbox Ane for $16.99.

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