In a recent interview with GamesRadar, the director of Life is Strange, Michel Koch, spoke about how the original design for the Life is Strange ‘universe’ was a simple one-and-done game. This was at the request of Square Enix – the publisher of the 2015 episode title – who didn’t plan a follow-up title until it saw how successful the first game was.
Nowhere Else to Go
It was explained by Koch in the GamesRadar interview that the desire was to create more than just one game – perhaps creating further expansions for Life is Strange. Unfortunately, Square Enix had different ideas in mind, and they only wanted one standalone game.
It means that we never wrote the story and the characters while having in mind anything that could happen to them after the end of the game.
Michel Koch, Dontnod
With that being said, Life is Strange does feature two endings, one of which is rather open-ended and leaves the door ajar for more adventures to follow. It was only following hte success of the first game that Square Enix went knocking on doors asking for more – and subsequently brought in more studios to produce spin-off titles such as 2021’s Life is Strange: True Colors.
It was lucky enough that Dontnod was able to concoct a follow-up story set in the Life is Strange universe that took place in a different location and featured fresh, new characters but still retained most of what made Life is Strange… Life is Strange.
Dontnod has since stopped working on the Life is Strange series and is instead working on a new IP named Lost Records, which was revealed recently at The Game Awards.
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It should have just been 1 game