How to deceive the player so that he likes – the phenomenon of nostalgia for Life is Strange

In what method of Dontnod Entertainment causes a player in Life Is Strange a feeling of nostalgia. Pleasant viewing!

Nostalgia, as a game phenomenon, can take a variety of forms: re-releases full of remakes and remasters, sequels and continuation, or even ordinary spiritual heirs.

However, in order to successfully use the sense of nostalgia for the audience, companies need to create projects that look and feel like they are from the past, but remain close to a modern player. And this is what becomes a catalyst for the appearance of something completely new, but at the same time to the pain of a friend of almost everyone. And this is what became the basis for creating a series of Life Is Strange.

And since recently Remaster of the original part and Spinoff under the heading of “Before the Storm” came out, I decided to plunge into this universe again, in order to understand how this unusual experiment from a small French company was able to show the dualism of time so competently and cause nostalgia for those places where the player had never been even events that he never lived?

Therefore, today we will study the features and techniques with you, which allow us to feel the atmosphere of the small and mysterious coastal American town Arkady Bay so vividly.

I must say right away that I will not go deeply into the details of the plot, so as not to spell those who have yet bypassed the game.

“The word“ nostalgia ”is the first thing we began to create our game … Our game about the time in which we can move. She is about growing up and it is constantly struggling between the present and the past. “

In the distant 2009 Five enthusiasts from Paris – Ervi Bonin (Hervé Bonin), Alexy Brilcons (Aleksi Briclot), Alan Damaso (Alain Damasio), Oscar Gilbert (Oskar Guilbert) and Jean-Maxim Maurice (Jean-Maxime Moris) decided to start creating games, which subsequently resulted in the foundation of Dontnod Entertainment.

Their very first creation was Remember Me – a game whose key feature of the gameplay was the “mixing of memory”, which allows the player to change the memories of other people, thereby influencing their behavior and actions.

Later, it was this technique that the beginning of Life Is Strange gave, the development of which began already in the spring of 2013 under the working name “What if “.

“We thought that Advencura, based on the elections and their consequences, is just suitable, because this feature will become part of both gameplay and the narrative, which will allow the player to explore various options and plot branches. But so that this ability would not become “fifth leg”, we needed to find a suitable story and characters, and it was very important that the plot and gameplay were combined without contradictions.

That is why we did Max [protagonist of the first part of the series] a shy and uncertain student who is nostalgic for the past and experiences problems with making decisions and their consequences in his present life. The ability to rewind time creates the basis for an interesting story and complements the personality of the girl. “

It is the character https://rizz-casino.co.uk/ Maxin (or Max) that acts as the voice of the past, which is expressed both in its visual performance and the thoughts and actions that are performed during the plot.

The creators deliberately constantly contrast her character for other peers – instead of modern technology, she has a vintage Polaroid, a written diary with paper stickers and manual sketches, vinyl records, and the same effect of the burnt film when using superpowers.

And the problems of socialization with other students and mutual misunderstanding – all this becomes another addition to the image of the “priest” from another time – a person who was as if born half a century later than was supposed to.

However, if the whole game were filled only with references to the past, the player quickly felt a catch – since events take place in the modern world, which reflects his social problems, such as bullying, drug addiction, abuse of social networks and other things, then there should be a place for the modern era.

It is as the face of such a time that the character of Chloe Price acts – the best friend of the main character and, part -time, her complete opposite. This is a sharp, violent, “stormy” girl acting more in the impulse than from a reasonable calculation.

The developers using artistic means correctly emphasized the difference between two girls, including in their visual design.

What can easily cause you associations with the past? With conditional 80s?
Sunset, coastal small towns, lush hairstyles, strange clothes and faded shots of granular film?

Suppose. Well, what about the future? Cyberpank. With their technologies, poisonous flowers, neon, throwing and rebellion?

Here are the main characters of Life is Strange reflect these two hypostases: hipstroughly checkered red, pale pink, pale-gray and beige shades of max with a disheveled lush hairstyle, in contrast to which the burning blue and rich black, with a complementary contrasting tattoo or the same spikes on clothes.

As the characters themselves reflect the time characteristic of their spirit, and the surrounding world, which we see from the face of Maxine, looks the same faded (in a good sense of the word), like the main character himself.

As if you were looking at the ordinary representative of the author or indie of the movie from the Sandance Film Festival, which, to a certain extent, were inspired by the developers.

The whole game strives to look like an animated and even “tube” concept art, which is facilitated not only by the specific style of textures of models and environment, but also special lighting.

At the same time, the scenes with the tornado, which are the personification of the inevitable unknown future, have a palette similar to Chloe’s character – a dark and bluish shades, which once again creates the effect of dualism – the struggle of the past and the present. Now not only in people, but also surrounded.

The special technology of light complements all this, designed specifically for this game and thanks to which the effect of “seeping” arises-the entry of light into the image, creating a feeling of warmth, which not only highlights the characters, but at the same time makes the picture truly comfortable.

Well, the most important thing – all of the above directly affects the perception by the player of the pouring narrative.

It is no secret that it is easier to perceive stylized characters whose features are more obvious and open to read. There are fewer restrictions, as is the case in the case of a photorealistic picture. If you try to show exactly the same contrast between people using a realistic visual, then this will rather give the effect of caricature.

Moreover, the “manual painting” used and soft tones allow the player to invest his own imagination and his own memories of what he sees on the screen, thereby only pushing to nostalgic feelings.

The episodic format chosen by the creators for presenting the plot allowed not only to change the game on the move, based on the reaction of the public, but also to stretch the feeling of immersion in this world, creating a kind of small “movie synthesis” so that the player could sufficiently think and feel the game without drinking it in one volley.

Thanks to this, there is a feeling that you are watching a series like Twin Peaks David Lynch, the plot of which, by the way, is also unfolding in the north-west of the Pacific Ocean and is concentrated around the mysterious disappearance of her beloved teenage girl. The image of a “quiet town with secrets” is supplemented by many other references in the creation of Lynch, including the names and images of the heroes, like Dr. Jacobi, the namesake of a psychiatrist from the series and officer Berry Anderson, similar to Brennan Andy (an option for reducing the name underwear).

There are also direct Easter ladies: for example, the car number – TWNPKS. In fact, such intersections are many times more, but this is a topic for a separate video.

School or student everyday life, the atmosphere of early autumn and the beginning of academic days – all this becomes the perfect backgrand in order to dip a player who has, though different, but extremely comparable memories from his life, in this warm sense of nostalgia.

And here the so -called “pink retrospociation” has already played a role – a cognitive distortion, in which a person perceives past events more positively than when he actually experienced them. For sufficient realism, there is no idealized world without problems and suffering, and previously mentioned social problems become instruments for a point hit in those who have somehow encountered similar situations. Almost everyone will be, for which he will cling.

I would like to note amazing music, which also becomes an instrument of the nostalgic mood of the game: José gonzález;alt-j;Message to Bears;Angus & Julia Stone;Sparklehorse;Syd Matters;Local NATIVES;Breton;Bright Eyes;Mud Flow;Amanda Palmer;Mogwai;Foals.

Most of the involved performers are typical representatives of India Rock. This genre, in turn, originated in the 80s and meant music released on independent labels. And the prototype for him was, which was not surprising, college scene, and broadcasting at student radio stations, which becomes a final bar for the atmospheres built by developers of warm memories of the times of student youth.

Unfortunately or fortunately, the last part with the subtitle of “True Colors”, due to certain teoks about copyright, was developed by another, this time by the American studio-Deck Nine Games, which was directly affecting the components of the project elements. But it seems to me, the last game of the series today, as well as the second part (license plate, and not prequel), has no longer had that enchanting effect of returning to its native place. Even if you have never been to it before.