Dontnod CEO Oskar Guilbert explained "Before, what we wanted to do was make big games with large teams and long production cycles...

"[9][10] The Pacific Northwest was chosen for the setting to convey a nostalgic and autumnal feel, with the team eventually settling on Oregon as the location of the fictional town of Arcadia Bay.

[15][16] The textures were hand painted, adapted to achieve what art director Michel Koch called "impressionistic rendering".

[17] Sources of inspiration include the visual novel Danganronpa, in terms of balancing gameplay and story, and the novel The Catcher in the Rye, whose protagonist Holden Caulfield shares a surname with Max, the lead character.

[18] For the sake of realism, the supernatural elements were designed as a metaphor for the characters' inner conflict,[19] and experts were consulted to tackle difficult subjects such as teen suicide.

[22] Ashly Burch, who voiced Chloe in Life Is Strange, was replaced by Rhianna DeVries due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Prior to its official announcement, images had leaked online indicating that a prequel to Life Is Strange was in development.

[28] Dontnod had decided early on that prospective follow-ups to Life Is Strange would feature new characters and locations to the original, with the developers feeling that Max and Chloe's story had run its course over the first two games.

[32][33] Michel Koch and Raoul Barbet returned to direct the sequel,[34] with Christian Divine and Jean-Luc Cano reprising their roles as co-writers.

Dontnod conducted field research on the West Coast of the United States, meeting people and taking pictures there.

[41] A common theme of the Life Is Strange series has been based on characters with a type of super-human ability, though not like superheroes, that the developers can then provide "meditations on real experiences that regular people go through", according to Felice Kuan, senior writer at Deck Nine.

[42] This led to creating the story around Alex losing her brother early in the game as a driver for her to explore her empathy powers and reveal more about her past as she uses them.

[46] In April 2024, IGN reported about a toxic workplace culture at Deck Nine, which came to light early last year while they were working on the next Life Is Strange game.

The player can examine and interact with objects, which enables puzzle solving in the form of fetch quests and making changes to the environment.

In Before the Storm, Chloe has a "backtalk" mechanic that allows her to persuade and intimidate other characters through conversation, with either positive or negative effects.

Maxine "Max" Caulfield returns to her hometown of Arcadia Bay, Oregon, where she witnesses childhood friend Chloe Price being shot by Nathan Prescott.

[53][54] Three years before the events of Life Is Strange, Chloe Price is struggling with the death of her father when she meets and befriends popular student Rachel Amber.

As the two develop an intense relationship, they uncover long-buried secrets within the Amber family that lead Rachel on a search for her birth mother.

Christopher "Chris" Eriksen fashions himself into the superhero Captain Spirit to help his alcoholic father set up the house for Christmas.

He imagines his various chores as supervillains to be defeated - including his arch-nemesis Mantroid, an embodiment of his feelings surrounding the death of his mother in a hit-and-run.

After an argument with his father, Chris falls from his treehouse, but mysteriously levitates instead of hitting the ground, and spots two boys watching from afar (who appear in Life Is Strange 2).

The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit was released on 25 June 2018 as a free demo for Life Is Strange 2, and takes place during the events of that game's second episode.

[58] Sean Diaz and his younger brother Daniel flee their home in Seattle following their father's death at the hands of a police officer.

As they meet friends and foes along the road, including their estranged mother, the decisions Sean makes shape who Daniel will become, and eventually the ultimate outcome of their journey.

[65] On 11 August, the collection was delayed to early 2022, alongside an announcement of the Life Is Strange: True Colors downloadable content, Wavelengths, releasing on 30 September.

[75] During an Xbox Showcase presentation in June 2024, Deck Nine and Square Enix announced the next entry in the franchise titled Life Is Strange: Double Exposure.

The series is written by Emma Vieceli, with interior and cover art by Claudia Leonardi, and colours by Andrea Izzo.

Some criticized issues with the game's lip-syncing[90][91][92] and use of outdated slang,[92][93][94] but most lauded the character development[92][95][96] and time travel component.

[106] Critics praised the story, the relationship between Sean and Daniel and the choice-based gameplay while reception of the portrayed political themes were divergent.

Justin Clark of GameSpot enjoyed the story's themes, feeling that some of game's interactions were "powerful" and "emotionally resonant".