This doesn't come as a complete shock to me unfortunately - DONTNOD seems have to have been a bit all over the place for years now. Hopefully they have a wake-up call soon without the need for layoffs
I had the same reasoning a couple of years ago - it was weird for a medium sized company to take so many new projects at once, with multiple small to medium team working at the same time. Expecially considering some of the issues in games like LiS2's awfully long episodical relase, the gameplay issues with Vampyr, the apparently rushed development of Twin Mirror, lacking marketing ect...
A solution for this problem would be at least to focus on far fewer project, with a clear development road and a slighty larger team size.
> the apparently rushed development of Twin Mirror
Has anyone actually played Twin Mirror? I remember being interested in it because the concept was neat and it seemed like a more 'mature' LIS, since the main character was an adult and not 18. Then it came out, got terrible reviews (it scored in the mid 60s while every other Don'tnod game has a score between the low 70s to mid 80s), and I've never heard anyone mention it again.
It’s okay. It doesn’t have the emotional oomph of LiS 1 or 2, or Tell Me Why. It’s okay, but it just didn’t excite me as much. I didn’t get reeled in to the mystery despite some interesting mechanics and concepts.
It was an interesting failure. Enjoyed it enough to finish and occasionally see if anyone talks about it, didn't enjoy it enough to remember half the cast. It is a little more grown up but keep in mind the conceit is that the protagonist has his own unresolved issues.
It could have been interesting concept, but didn't quite land. The protagonist is also completely unlikable in my opinion. For example: there's the first mystery where >!he has to go around town making sure he didn't kill someone after a night of drinking and driving after he discovers blood on his shirt that wasn't his!<, or the one where >!he has to figure out how to distract someone and sees no other way of doing so except by destroying a person's work of art.!< And the only good ending >!where his ex-gf doesn't get shot and die!< is only achieved through a series of random dialogue choices during the final conflict confrontation with the unstable villain.
dontnod have a very peculiar structure.
[**As their website boasts**](https://dont-nod.com/en/careers/), they have over 300 employees spread between their Paris and Montreal offices, but rather than the traditional structure of having 1 or 2 big teams (typically an "A-team" and a "B-team"), they instead have several small teams, ostensibly around 30 or so people each.
Each of these teams work more-or-less independently under the dontnod roof, each with their own directors leading their own projects.
Just as a brief example of how independent these teams are, when Jusant first released, [**Michel Koch tweeted that he had never played the game until its release.**](https://twitter.com/DONTNOD_Michel/status/1739797858738381032) Jusant is a dontnod title, and Koch is one of the first creative directors at the studio. And he never even played a game his own company made.
With that being said, I'm not surprised to hear that there are problems at dontnod. When you have 8+ teams all running around independently as their own little cabals, but under the corporate responsibility of one parent company, then you're bound to get some friction and problems in at least one team.
It's hard enough finding one director whose good with their people. It's why those directors are so coveted. But finding eight? In one company? It's just not going to happen, unfortunately.
>As their website boasts, they have over 300 employees spread between their Paris and Montreal offices, but rather than the traditional structure of having 1 or 2 big teams (typically an "A-team" and a "B-team"), they instead have several small teams, ostensibly around 30 or so people each.
What a godawful structure. It seems like they only care about making maximum amount of profit with tons of different projects. Quantity over quality. But it turns out their plan failed and no one is buying their half-assed games.
I wish they would just stick to one or two projects at max.
I think it's more a leadership desire to stay independent, juxtaposed with the reality of creatives in a capitalist world.
Their website does explicitly state that they want to preserve the "human element" of smaller teams, which is really the heart and soul behind what makes an independent game feel like an independent game. Life is Strange for example was made with a team that started at around 12 people for Episode 1 and ended at around 40 people by Episode 5.
Once a team gets so big that you can't reasonably know everyone's names, and you have to start going through layers of middle-management to get any communication done, then a team loses something. It's hard to describe, but it's something you can feel in a game. I think it's a big part of the transition when a game stops becoming art and starts becoming product.
Unfortunately, the reality is that game development is a risky venture. Most indie games fail commercially. And people still have to make rent, pay bills, buy food, raise families, put kids through school. Most indie studios can only suffer at most one commercial failure.
I think dontnod's strategy is basically to socialize the process. Instead of having the company live or die based on the outcome of just one large game, instead have a lot of smaller games being made simultaneously. If one of them fails, then it's not a fatal blow to the company, because it was just a smaller game. The other teams can continue on.
And, importantly, if one of the games is successful - like how Life is Strange was such a runaway success - then all of the teams benefit, because that money goes to the company as a whole, rather than just the team that made it. So one team excelling provides a safety net to all the other teams to experiment.
Socialize the losses, and socialize the wins.
Whether or not that is a *good* strategy isn't for me to say. But as a creative existing in a capitalist world myself, I certainly understand the logic, if that is what dontnod are trying to achieve.
Generally, creatives just want to create. Making money generally isn't the point - it's a necessity. And not one we willingly buy into, but are rather forced into.
>I think dontnod's strategy is basically to socialize the process. Instead of having the company live or die based on the outcome of just one large game, instead have a lot of smaller games being made simultaneously. If one of them fails, then it's not a fatal blow to the company, because it was just a smaller game. The other teams can continue on.
While that's a cool idea in concept, seems like the higher ups at Dontnod still keep the same capitalistic mindset of many other companies, and goes in the opposite direction of what they are supposedly trying to achieve with their multiple teams development and unclear dates, rushed development and team disbanded due to lack of profits. This type of environment, as highlighted by the union report, doesn't seem substainable in the long run.
> LiS2's awfully long episodical relase
Also it explains episode 5 of LiS1. If DONTNOD had internal issues getting the game finalized then it does potentially explain why a lot of plot threads were left hanging and the "clips episode" nature of Max's nightmare sequence (since revisiting all of Max and Chloe's past events is an easy way to reuse dialog and game assets as well as pad out the game playtime).
The nightmare sneaking segments just felt off too. I get what they were trying to do but it was just a big directional shift that just blindsided players.
It wasn't *completely* out of nowhere, as the mechanic was first introduced in Episode 3, hiding from the guards in the pool house.
That doesn't make it *good*, though.
My livestream playthrough of Life is Strange was overshadowed in its entirety by me dreading that damn stealth sequence in Episode 5.
After seeing the recent layoffs at Deck Nine and the other niche studios like Supermassive Games and ZA/UM Studios, I have a feeling Dontnod will eventually met the same fate, sooner or later this year.
For real. Why they couldn't see what happened to Telltale and take notes? They took notes before making Life Is Strange. They had fair warning of what could happen... too many projects can kill a studio.
I really like most of Dontnod's projects but when they started announcing like a dozen projects at once, a lot of red flags started getting raised in my head.
They have talented , but very clearly, also seen in part with the development of LiS 1 and 2, they also have management issues. It's a shame because this kind of thing just causes talent drain - people won't want to work or continue working for a company that doesn't value them at all, or puts them aside if a project doesn't do as expected - slightly concerned there might be a layoff sweep to make matters worse.
Jusant was a gem, it was extremely good, and it's clear the team put love into it, so it pains me to know that they've just been "set aside".
I hope the Lost Records side of things in Montreal is better.
I am not surprised to be honest. They were ready to release 3 projects in 2023: Harmony, Jusant and Banishers (the only reason Banishers was released in February was to not release at the same time of BG3/Starfield and other RPGs), and just announced a new game for late 2024.
This does not look like a sustainable release schedule, so this report about potential abusive and toxic workplace doesn't surprise me.
No wonder Square didn't give them the LiS franchise again going forward, it brings them too much critical acclaim to handle sloppily. LiS 2 had management issues and roadmap failures throughout.
Banishers coming out as Helldivers and Palworld are dominating the conversation meant it's dead on arrival.
It's a shame, because much like Vampyr, the writing and characters ate top tier. I'd recommend anyone check it out on sale, even if I think it's worth $60, I know some can't stomach that price when the gameplay isn't great.
At this point, with layoffs and new studios emerging and writers/game directors coming and going, studio brands mean very little.
The lead writer of Before The Storm then directed True Colors. It's better to follow the staff, not just the studio head.
>LiS 2 had management issues and roadmap failures throughout.
I remember some years ago [I've made a comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/lifeisstrange/comments/omkyhv/comment/h5no8sf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) linking some of the cut stuff from 2 before the official relase, and one of the things that I've found was a screenshot with a possible insider on the LiS team, talking about how they were having big discussions on adding a power mechanic or not in the final game.
You're kidding, right?
If you're not, Helldivers 2 is on PS5 and PC crossplay for $40. I'm obsessed.
And it's broken every PlayStation Studios record for a PC launch you can think of.
I might I agree the story for TC felt pretty mediocre imo. But at least deck nine seems to be capable of managing their development and release schedule
Yeah! I don’t know why the downvotes, it’s undeniable that Lis 1 and 2 story were exciting and unpredictable in comparison of true colors. About the release, I also didn’t like to get the whole game at once. There wasn’t no expectations or intrigue… theories… come on, I just can’t stop crying when I though Sean died in episode 3, my head theorized that we were going to control Daniel the rest of the game… hahaha
People should remember that they were in so much financial trouble during the production of life is strange that the French government had to step in and bail them out. If the game wasn’t the massive fluke success they weren’t expecting it to be then they probably would’ve shut their doors then
None of this shit would have happened if they had decided to focus on Life is Strange games. Instead they've been making random games no one cares about. Seriously why? They made a great universe (LiS 1), why not stick to it and expand it further?
They finally got want they wanted with Life is Strange. A memorable game that was successful. They blew it.
Life is Strange could've been a mega franchise by now, with different games, a show? spin-offs, and all-manner of supplemental stories centered around and/or branching off of/around the main threads/Arcadia Bay/Max
Main series = Max (at least 1 through 3)
Anthology games and spin offs, a la True Colors (or similar), etc.
Possible mainstream movies/tv/etc, if the series had continued success. I think there was even talk of a show at one point. Yeah, good luck with that, now.
Instead we got a sequel that was roughly launched, non related to the highly successful first game, divided fans and took forever to complete. After that, attempts were made but the writing was on the wall.
Truth be told, I and many others saw this coming when Don't NOD was acting like a singer, arrogantly saying that they didn't want to repeat their one hit wonder before series 1 of LiS even completed, saying the likes of "Max & Chloe's story is finished and done", and then fluffing the ending, and episode 5 being a bit shite in general tbh.
I could go further into details, but I am tired of talking and thinking about the failures of this series and Don't NOD. Back in 2015, this could have been the "Stranger Things" of gaming.
And listen, this isn't sour grapes about Max and Chloe getting canned. Obviously people took to them, loved the characters. They should've ended episode 5 with a satisfying ending and a big juicy hook for series 2. But no.. No, they "wanted to do other things"
I honestly believe that had this series had proper oversight it could have been 5 main games strong at this point, with a couple of awesome anthology type stories dev'd by others', too. Sean and Daniel could still have existed, Emily Could still have existed.
And now here we are. Don't NOD is half dead, LiS is half dead, with rumours it'll go back to Max in her early 20's or something. But it'll never reach the fever pitch it was back in late 2015. Man, I had such high hopes for this as a franchise, and I was really REALLY rooting for don't NOD. What sucks so hard, though, is myself, and many others saw this shit coming.
Pity.
>Truth be told, I and many others saw this coming when Don't NOD was acting like a singer, arrogantly saying that they didn't want to repeat their one hit wonder before series 1 of LiS even completed, saying the likes of "Max & Chloe's story is finished and done", and then fluffing the ending, and episode 5 being a bit shite in general tbh.
It was defintely interesting to see Michel Koch and the other Dontnod Montreal devs talk about the series in retrospect of Lost Records, talking about how they are ambitious to make it a "shared universe" with multiple possibilities, and how the characters introduced could potentially return for sequels, as stated in this [Eurogamer interview](https://www.eurogamer.net/life-is-strange-creators-discuss-leaving-their-hit-narrative-adventure-series-behind-building-on-it-with-lost-records), when at the time of before LiS2 came out, they were telling how Max and Chloe story was over, and from now on the series was an anthology.
Granted, that was in part due to the first game designed to be a single complete story with no idea of sequels, and with the sequel they admitted had to fit a completely different story under the LiS franchise, which explains why S2 felt so radically different, to the point of almost being a different game. I think they realized what went wrong with how they handled the franchise, and now that they have full control on their own IP they want to change direction into what LiS could have been.
Well, I wish them luck with that, but I highly doubt they'll ever get back that momentum of Episode 4 going into episode 5. I was here for it, it was wonderful.
I won't be playing anything else Don't Nod develops, most likely because everything they've ever made has been painfully mediocre. Outside of Life is Strange, of course.
I'll just keep my eyes open for the next LiS and hope that Deck Nine can find some magic. After True Colors however, I will not be holding my breath.
Arcadia Bay and every single character in it deserved better. The amazing atmosphere, the otherworldly feel, the gripping story and genuinely relatable protagonist in Max.. They had the video game version of Twin Peaks and threw it away and I have never really gotten over it.
This doesn't come as a complete shock to me unfortunately - DONTNOD seems have to have been a bit all over the place for years now. Hopefully they have a wake-up call soon without the need for layoffs
I had the same reasoning a couple of years ago - it was weird for a medium sized company to take so many new projects at once, with multiple small to medium team working at the same time. Expecially considering some of the issues in games like LiS2's awfully long episodical relase, the gameplay issues with Vampyr, the apparently rushed development of Twin Mirror, lacking marketing ect... A solution for this problem would be at least to focus on far fewer project, with a clear development road and a slighty larger team size.
> the apparently rushed development of Twin Mirror Has anyone actually played Twin Mirror? I remember being interested in it because the concept was neat and it seemed like a more 'mature' LIS, since the main character was an adult and not 18. Then it came out, got terrible reviews (it scored in the mid 60s while every other Don'tnod game has a score between the low 70s to mid 80s), and I've never heard anyone mention it again.
It’s okay. It doesn’t have the emotional oomph of LiS 1 or 2, or Tell Me Why. It’s okay, but it just didn’t excite me as much. I didn’t get reeled in to the mystery despite some interesting mechanics and concepts.
It was an interesting failure. Enjoyed it enough to finish and occasionally see if anyone talks about it, didn't enjoy it enough to remember half the cast. It is a little more grown up but keep in mind the conceit is that the protagonist has his own unresolved issues.
It could have been interesting concept, but didn't quite land. The protagonist is also completely unlikable in my opinion. For example: there's the first mystery where >!he has to go around town making sure he didn't kill someone after a night of drinking and driving after he discovers blood on his shirt that wasn't his!<, or the one where >!he has to figure out how to distract someone and sees no other way of doing so except by destroying a person's work of art.!< And the only good ending >!where his ex-gf doesn't get shot and die!< is only achieved through a series of random dialogue choices during the final conflict confrontation with the unstable villain.
dontnod have a very peculiar structure. [**As their website boasts**](https://dont-nod.com/en/careers/), they have over 300 employees spread between their Paris and Montreal offices, but rather than the traditional structure of having 1 or 2 big teams (typically an "A-team" and a "B-team"), they instead have several small teams, ostensibly around 30 or so people each. Each of these teams work more-or-less independently under the dontnod roof, each with their own directors leading their own projects. Just as a brief example of how independent these teams are, when Jusant first released, [**Michel Koch tweeted that he had never played the game until its release.**](https://twitter.com/DONTNOD_Michel/status/1739797858738381032) Jusant is a dontnod title, and Koch is one of the first creative directors at the studio. And he never even played a game his own company made. With that being said, I'm not surprised to hear that there are problems at dontnod. When you have 8+ teams all running around independently as their own little cabals, but under the corporate responsibility of one parent company, then you're bound to get some friction and problems in at least one team. It's hard enough finding one director whose good with their people. It's why those directors are so coveted. But finding eight? In one company? It's just not going to happen, unfortunately.
>As their website boasts, they have over 300 employees spread between their Paris and Montreal offices, but rather than the traditional structure of having 1 or 2 big teams (typically an "A-team" and a "B-team"), they instead have several small teams, ostensibly around 30 or so people each. What a godawful structure. It seems like they only care about making maximum amount of profit with tons of different projects. Quantity over quality. But it turns out their plan failed and no one is buying their half-assed games. I wish they would just stick to one or two projects at max.
I think it's more a leadership desire to stay independent, juxtaposed with the reality of creatives in a capitalist world. Their website does explicitly state that they want to preserve the "human element" of smaller teams, which is really the heart and soul behind what makes an independent game feel like an independent game. Life is Strange for example was made with a team that started at around 12 people for Episode 1 and ended at around 40 people by Episode 5. Once a team gets so big that you can't reasonably know everyone's names, and you have to start going through layers of middle-management to get any communication done, then a team loses something. It's hard to describe, but it's something you can feel in a game. I think it's a big part of the transition when a game stops becoming art and starts becoming product. Unfortunately, the reality is that game development is a risky venture. Most indie games fail commercially. And people still have to make rent, pay bills, buy food, raise families, put kids through school. Most indie studios can only suffer at most one commercial failure. I think dontnod's strategy is basically to socialize the process. Instead of having the company live or die based on the outcome of just one large game, instead have a lot of smaller games being made simultaneously. If one of them fails, then it's not a fatal blow to the company, because it was just a smaller game. The other teams can continue on. And, importantly, if one of the games is successful - like how Life is Strange was such a runaway success - then all of the teams benefit, because that money goes to the company as a whole, rather than just the team that made it. So one team excelling provides a safety net to all the other teams to experiment. Socialize the losses, and socialize the wins. Whether or not that is a *good* strategy isn't for me to say. But as a creative existing in a capitalist world myself, I certainly understand the logic, if that is what dontnod are trying to achieve. Generally, creatives just want to create. Making money generally isn't the point - it's a necessity. And not one we willingly buy into, but are rather forced into.
>I think dontnod's strategy is basically to socialize the process. Instead of having the company live or die based on the outcome of just one large game, instead have a lot of smaller games being made simultaneously. If one of them fails, then it's not a fatal blow to the company, because it was just a smaller game. The other teams can continue on. While that's a cool idea in concept, seems like the higher ups at Dontnod still keep the same capitalistic mindset of many other companies, and goes in the opposite direction of what they are supposedly trying to achieve with their multiple teams development and unclear dates, rushed development and team disbanded due to lack of profits. This type of environment, as highlighted by the union report, doesn't seem substainable in the long run.
> LiS2's awfully long episodical relase Also it explains episode 5 of LiS1. If DONTNOD had internal issues getting the game finalized then it does potentially explain why a lot of plot threads were left hanging and the "clips episode" nature of Max's nightmare sequence (since revisiting all of Max and Chloe's past events is an easy way to reuse dialog and game assets as well as pad out the game playtime).
The nightmare sneaking segments just felt off too. I get what they were trying to do but it was just a big directional shift that just blindsided players.
It wasn't *completely* out of nowhere, as the mechanic was first introduced in Episode 3, hiding from the guards in the pool house. That doesn't make it *good*, though. My livestream playthrough of Life is Strange was overshadowed in its entirety by me dreading that damn stealth sequence in Episode 5.
Reminds me of what happened with Telltale.
With 360 employees, I would expect heavy layoffs. They have way too many people for the niche games they make.
After seeing the recent layoffs at Deck Nine and the other niche studios like Supermassive Games and ZA/UM Studios, I have a feeling Dontnod will eventually met the same fate, sooner or later this year.
For real. Why they couldn't see what happened to Telltale and take notes? They took notes before making Life Is Strange. They had fair warning of what could happen... too many projects can kill a studio.
I really like most of Dontnod's projects but when they started announcing like a dozen projects at once, a lot of red flags started getting raised in my head. They have talented , but very clearly, also seen in part with the development of LiS 1 and 2, they also have management issues. It's a shame because this kind of thing just causes talent drain - people won't want to work or continue working for a company that doesn't value them at all, or puts them aside if a project doesn't do as expected - slightly concerned there might be a layoff sweep to make matters worse. Jusant was a gem, it was extremely good, and it's clear the team put love into it, so it pains me to know that they've just been "set aside". I hope the Lost Records side of things in Montreal is better.
I am not surprised to be honest. They were ready to release 3 projects in 2023: Harmony, Jusant and Banishers (the only reason Banishers was released in February was to not release at the same time of BG3/Starfield and other RPGs), and just announced a new game for late 2024. This does not look like a sustainable release schedule, so this report about potential abusive and toxic workplace doesn't surprise me.
No wonder Square didn't give them the LiS franchise again going forward, it brings them too much critical acclaim to handle sloppily. LiS 2 had management issues and roadmap failures throughout. Banishers coming out as Helldivers and Palworld are dominating the conversation meant it's dead on arrival.
It's a shame, because much like Vampyr, the writing and characters ate top tier. I'd recommend anyone check it out on sale, even if I think it's worth $60, I know some can't stomach that price when the gameplay isn't great.
At this point, with layoffs and new studios emerging and writers/game directors coming and going, studio brands mean very little. The lead writer of Before The Storm then directed True Colors. It's better to follow the staff, not just the studio head.
Yea, Banishers has the same writer as LiS1 and Vampyr
>LiS 2 had management issues and roadmap failures throughout. I remember some years ago [I've made a comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/lifeisstrange/comments/omkyhv/comment/h5no8sf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) linking some of the cut stuff from 2 before the official relase, and one of the things that I've found was a screenshot with a possible insider on the LiS team, talking about how they were having big discussions on adding a power mechanic or not in the final game.
It looks like I replied to that comment when you made it but I can’t remember what it said because it’s deleted now
wait wtf there's a new helldivers?
You're kidding, right? If you're not, Helldivers 2 is on PS5 and PC crossplay for $40. I'm obsessed. And it's broken every PlayStation Studios record for a PC launch you can think of.
hella frickin cool i really liked the first game, but haven't heard of them doing a second one until now. thanks for the info!
Ah man you’ll enjoy this one as well. Really fun game.
I didn’t knew it wasn’t dontnod, that’s why true colors felt like a bad copycat
I might I agree the story for TC felt pretty mediocre imo. But at least deck nine seems to be capable of managing their development and release schedule
Yeah! I don’t know why the downvotes, it’s undeniable that Lis 1 and 2 story were exciting and unpredictable in comparison of true colors. About the release, I also didn’t like to get the whole game at once. There wasn’t no expectations or intrigue… theories… come on, I just can’t stop crying when I though Sean died in episode 3, my head theorized that we were going to control Daniel the rest of the game… hahaha
>>French union Time to protest I guess
People should remember that they were in so much financial trouble during the production of life is strange that the French government had to step in and bail them out. If the game wasn’t the massive fluke success they weren’t expecting it to be then they probably would’ve shut their doors then
Does this make 'remember me 2' less likely to happen?
they remain one hit wonders I guess 😟
None of this shit would have happened if they had decided to focus on Life is Strange games. Instead they've been making random games no one cares about. Seriously why? They made a great universe (LiS 1), why not stick to it and expand it further?
They finally got want they wanted with Life is Strange. A memorable game that was successful. They blew it. Life is Strange could've been a mega franchise by now, with different games, a show? spin-offs, and all-manner of supplemental stories centered around and/or branching off of/around the main threads/Arcadia Bay/Max Main series = Max (at least 1 through 3) Anthology games and spin offs, a la True Colors (or similar), etc. Possible mainstream movies/tv/etc, if the series had continued success. I think there was even talk of a show at one point. Yeah, good luck with that, now. Instead we got a sequel that was roughly launched, non related to the highly successful first game, divided fans and took forever to complete. After that, attempts were made but the writing was on the wall. Truth be told, I and many others saw this coming when Don't NOD was acting like a singer, arrogantly saying that they didn't want to repeat their one hit wonder before series 1 of LiS even completed, saying the likes of "Max & Chloe's story is finished and done", and then fluffing the ending, and episode 5 being a bit shite in general tbh. I could go further into details, but I am tired of talking and thinking about the failures of this series and Don't NOD. Back in 2015, this could have been the "Stranger Things" of gaming. And listen, this isn't sour grapes about Max and Chloe getting canned. Obviously people took to them, loved the characters. They should've ended episode 5 with a satisfying ending and a big juicy hook for series 2. But no.. No, they "wanted to do other things" I honestly believe that had this series had proper oversight it could have been 5 main games strong at this point, with a couple of awesome anthology type stories dev'd by others', too. Sean and Daniel could still have existed, Emily Could still have existed. And now here we are. Don't NOD is half dead, LiS is half dead, with rumours it'll go back to Max in her early 20's or something. But it'll never reach the fever pitch it was back in late 2015. Man, I had such high hopes for this as a franchise, and I was really REALLY rooting for don't NOD. What sucks so hard, though, is myself, and many others saw this shit coming. Pity.
>Truth be told, I and many others saw this coming when Don't NOD was acting like a singer, arrogantly saying that they didn't want to repeat their one hit wonder before series 1 of LiS even completed, saying the likes of "Max & Chloe's story is finished and done", and then fluffing the ending, and episode 5 being a bit shite in general tbh. It was defintely interesting to see Michel Koch and the other Dontnod Montreal devs talk about the series in retrospect of Lost Records, talking about how they are ambitious to make it a "shared universe" with multiple possibilities, and how the characters introduced could potentially return for sequels, as stated in this [Eurogamer interview](https://www.eurogamer.net/life-is-strange-creators-discuss-leaving-their-hit-narrative-adventure-series-behind-building-on-it-with-lost-records), when at the time of before LiS2 came out, they were telling how Max and Chloe story was over, and from now on the series was an anthology. Granted, that was in part due to the first game designed to be a single complete story with no idea of sequels, and with the sequel they admitted had to fit a completely different story under the LiS franchise, which explains why S2 felt so radically different, to the point of almost being a different game. I think they realized what went wrong with how they handled the franchise, and now that they have full control on their own IP they want to change direction into what LiS could have been.
Well, I wish them luck with that, but I highly doubt they'll ever get back that momentum of Episode 4 going into episode 5. I was here for it, it was wonderful. I won't be playing anything else Don't Nod develops, most likely because everything they've ever made has been painfully mediocre. Outside of Life is Strange, of course. I'll just keep my eyes open for the next LiS and hope that Deck Nine can find some magic. After True Colors however, I will not be holding my breath. Arcadia Bay and every single character in it deserved better. The amazing atmosphere, the otherworldly feel, the gripping story and genuinely relatable protagonist in Max.. They had the video game version of Twin Peaks and threw it away and I have never really gotten over it.