- The Amberfield Archive -

The first thing I did was question what would happen in Chloe’s absence. I came to three resound conclusions: One, Max stepped into Chloe’s role for Rachel and visa versa. Two, Max would, similarly to the alternate timeline, form a friendship with Victoria. And three, Max needed a place to stay that wasn’t Seattle: therefore, she would stay in Chloe’s room, with Joyce and a William who didn’t die.

The second thing it did was lead me to question how much it costs to keep people in comas alive on average. After some research, the price (pun not intended) came up to a whopping 228,315 dollars per month (give or take). Now, I have a hunch the Price family can’t afford allat, so I came to the conclusion that Max would be the kind of person to volunteer to help pay for it. But there’s not many ways for someone who’s, like, fourteen to make 230 grand a month, unless you’re either A. Extremely lucky, or B. Fucking your (future) girlfriend’s rich dad. Guess which one I had Max do?

Yeahhh, it doesn’t really end there; never fear, I’ll preface the visual novel with a warning about all potential sensitive content it may include. But I’ll delve into that later. Needless to say, after a little bit of writing and stewing on my ideas, I for some reason absolutely fell hard and fast for this version of Max, whom I dubbed “Mirror” in the original Negative Space fic. I immediately knew I wanted a prequel and set out to begin writing. Then, I hit a roadblock; I couldn’t tell the story I wanted to tell in standard fanfic format. And so, I arrived at the glorious and wonderful visual novel, allowing for multiple directions, interactions, and fun concepts and characters to flesh out. Thus, Life Is Strange: Through The Lens (the Visual Novel) was born.

One problem: I can’t really do it by myself. Between grappling with whether I want VAs (probably not unless y’all got some DAMN good impressions and don’t mind me not having jack shit to pay y’all), the struggle to make character sprites, the soundtrack, graphics, and background art, plus the need for play testers, I’ve essentially backed myself into a corner. So either this is gonna take a while, or I need a team. (Will I ever get one? No. Actually no, I’m doing this by myself. This is gonna take a while).