Dontnod Entertainment's episodic adventure game, Life is Strange, is already past its halfway mark. With only two episodes left in the series, many have wondered what might come next — and if the developer would consider continuing work on it with a second season.
The answer? Well, it's possible.
Speaking with Polygon during E3, producer Luc Baghadoust said that Dontnod has enjoyed its time working on the teen-centric drama.
"We would love to have the opportunity to do another season," Baghadoust said.
"We're working so hard to finish Episodes 4 and 5. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of stress. We have a limit of time to put out each episode. We want to stick to the eight week release between each episode as much as we can."
Whether or not Life is Strange continues with a second season, Baghadoust said that the series as it is now remains narratively complete. The idea was always to tell the story of Max and her best friend Chloe while delving into real social issues with relatable characters.
Co-game director and art director Michel Koch added that if Dontnot does pursue a second season, it's likely to feature a new cast. He likened it to series like True Detective or American Horror Story, which refresh each season with new characters.
"We can really go with other characters, other locations, but still keep the identity of the game, the themes of the game," he said.
Although its next game, Vampyr, isn't an episodic tale, Koch said that Dontnod has enjoyed tinkering with the format and, for the right story, would consider returning to it again.
"We're really liking working on an episodic format," Koch said. "I think it's a strong way to create a strong story to write the characters and to have good pacing and good control over the flow of the game. It can really pull the community together when the player can talk about the game together, making stories."
Dontnod has been paying attention to community feedback — and criticism — as Life is Strange plays out. Much has been said about both the game's lip-syncing and its dialogue, and not all of it has been positive. Koch agreed that the game's lip-syncing could be better but pushed back against complaints about the teen lingo, saying that Dontnod has worked with American writer Christian Divine to look at the slang used in Northern California and Oregon.
"We can relate to her because she's still stuck in-between time"
"One of the other goals [aside from location] was to have a timeless feeling," he said. "The way we created Max's character, she's a teenager that I think that teenagers from nowadays can relate to, but also us. We can relate to her because she's still stuck in-between time, even more with her power.
"But also with her ... she's always looking to the past. She has this old camera, she's reluctant to make decisions. Christian has been writing her [in a way that] sometimes she's using some older expressions."
Koch added that these phrases — particularly Chloe's fervent use of the word "hella" — help players connect with the character.
"You need some time to create worlds and ways of speaking to a character that will grow with you," Koch said. " ... But, starting with Episode 2, we've seen [people] saying that they love Chloe for saying 'hella' because it feels that they knew the character. They knew she would say that. When you are writing characters, you need sometimes to create expressions for them, if you want them to be different and relatable."
As for Life is Strange Episode 4 and 5, Dontnod is keeping the details locked up tight. The developer wouldn't touch on specific themes or places we might see in the coming episodes, but did promise resolutions of some kind as soon as Episode 4.
"The idea is that we try to keep the eight-week time frame between each episode, but we are still working on Episode 4," Koch said. "We are soon to be finished. It should be ready quite soon."