Thank you for Life is Strange

NO game has ever reached out to me that much - and I have played a lot of games in my life already....and still, this one was maybe the best of all. Thank you for this peace of perfection: Thank you for the story, the makeover, the dialogs, the depth, the heights, the meanings, all scenes created with such love and detail, thank you for the music and for such a wonderful, enjoyable, beautiful, teary and thrilling time.

What are the chances to create such an emotional, life changing rollercoaster on purpose? Since you won’t have a million monkeys working on a million typewriters, your talent must be really incredible and adorable!

However, after my first playthrough (btw, I’m 44, male) I cursed you. I was literally destroyed. I haven’t cried, I never do, but you pulled out emotions I locked away 20-30 years ago and forgot them. I was happy with that, that’s what I wanted. Live in peace. Then you come around the corner and blow up my safe. I couldn’t almost handle the emotions and was about to go mad. Literally. I really wasn’t sure if I’d find the way back to normal. I needed some medicational help and after 6 weeks, I could start praising you and the game. It’s 9 weeks now since I finished and the game really changed the way I see other people. No therapy I ever had (and that were some), had that kind of impact to me. My first lesson was: You can talk to other people without having a reason! Sounds silly, but I never questioned that. There was always a reason. And to experience it kinda shocked me. I started the game running around for the mission to accomplish, ignoring all the people that weren’t supposed to help me, apparently. But then I was wondering why you have the possibility to talk to them. And I tried. And… it works! No reason, no idea of what to talk about, and you even get information you never thought of! I tried that in the real world and it works, too! Man, what is going on?

Another life changer came with the 2nd playthrough. In the first one, when Victoria and her minions were on the stairs to the dorm, I was full of revenge and enjoyed it very much to make fun of Victoria. In the 2nd playthrough, I was just curious and wanted to see the other outcome, just to see something new. But then I saw Victorias change. And it clicked a 2nd time in my head.

Of course, I’m also heavily influenced by all the other “usual” stuff, can’t stop thinking about it (man, I’m so in love with it! Of course I can’t!), the story is phenomenal, the graphics art is awesome, the voice actors so adorable, especially Hannah is so touching, the whole atmosphere is breathtaking and so on. You hear that enough from other fans, so I stop here.

Thank you all for creating this masterpiece of art!

I just want to say a massive thanks for producing what is my most memorable game in over 30 years of playing computer games.

The game is stunning on so many levels. The storytelling, amazing voices, beautiful artwork & music are all part of the experience that drew me into Arcadia Bay and made me feel part of the lives of the people there.

You proved that computer games can be a serious storytelling medium, an achievement I think you should never underestimate.

All of that came together to have a massive emotional impact on me and I really thank you so much for that - it made me care about the characters in Life is Strange like I have never done before in any other game.

To all of you: writers, voices, producers, programmers, musicians, sound engineers, techs, project co-ordinators, legal, assistants, office managers and.. everyone.. you are all amazeballs and every single one of you should be immensely proud for making Life is Strange possible.

Know that you created something amazing, something I will remember forever, and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for creating this masterpiece.

Oh and a hella special thanks for releasing LiS on Linux!

Thank you again,

Hello everyone at DONTNOD studios, I would like to offer my deepest gratitudes for creating the experience called Life Is Strange. I’m 28 years old male from Finland and I’ve been a gamer for over 20 years, I’ve played many kind of games, seen many kind of movies. I love those stories the most, that can make me cry because such moments I remember for many years to come. I never expected to find a game after so many years, that would touch my heart and soul so deeply like Life Is Strange…

It was a cold Christmas holiday night when I was thinking of getting a new game and LIS caught my interest. It didn’t take me long to notice how special it felt and I finished it in the last day of 2015. After finishing it, instead of going to shoot fireworks with others to celebrate change of year, I stayed home crying and thinking about what a special journey this was. The story totally surprised me, it pulled me into such an realistic and immersive world and made me cry more than anything else before in my life, which truly shows what an amazing accomplishment you all did.

Characters like Max and Chloe are the best I have ever seen and… I can relate to them so much. Especially to Max, because I have always been a shy person like her, I love them so much. I grew so attached to them, my past experiences in life were somewhat similar so it made the emotional impact even more bigger. Like school bullying, separation from friends so it was a trip down the memory lane too. I’m forever thankful for this game, or no…it’s actually more than a game, because it is a life changing experience.

Thank you so much Michel Koch, Raoul Barbet, Luc Baghadoust, Christian Devine, Jean-Luc Cano from DONTNOD for everything, you managed to do something that no other developer have managed to do before. For creating such a mindblowing game with hella feels and tears. Thank you Hannah Telle and Ashly Burch for bringing my most favorite characters ever alive in an incredible and touching way, your performance left me speechless many times. Also thank you Nik Shriner, Dayeanne Hutton, Derek Phillips, Cissy Jones, Daniel Bonjour, Joe Ochman, Don McManus and many others for the amazing work and performance. You all brought this to life in such beautiful way. Thank you Syd Matters, Jonathan Morali and every other artist that shared the music, which brought me so many feelings. To the rest of the LIS crew, thank you very much.

I finished LIS almost 9 months ago and still think about it every single day, listen the beautiful music every single day and still play it. I had to play Remember Me after LIS, which is an amazing game also and you are my favorite developers now.  Honestly LIS changed my life, it made me think about life and what matters. It effected me so much, that I started again my drawing hobby from many years ago and I’m so happy for this and also made me read quite a lot. It made me discover some of the best friends and communities I’ve ever had from all around the world. The amazing thing of this is also, that they all share similar experiences and love LIS. I really do love these people from the fan community, especially from www.lifeisstrangefans.com . Every day feels amazing and fun when I visit there. I’ve always been a polite and kind person, but I believe that playing LIS  can change people to become better, care for others and that it can make the World a better place. It’s hard to describe just how much LIS means to me…

I love you all and wish the very best things to come for you!

This is a celebration and thank you video, I did on my first anniversary of “Life is Strange”.

First and foremost, I just want to thank you all for making this amazing game, though I have a hard time to call it a just game, it’s more of an experience. A piece of art fits better in my opinion. 

I’ve always been rather introverted and shy myself. Playing video games in my free time made me escape the real world and feel like I’m some sort of super hero, at least in most of the games I played prior to Life is Strange. In hindsight this sounds rather pathetic to me. 

My favorite games are those, which are story-heavy and have great plots and characters. Almost by accident I found out about a little gem called Life is Strange. To be honest, I didn’t expect much of it and bought the first episode on a whim during the steam winter sale just to try it out and see what the hype is about. After falling in love with it, I immediately purchased the season pass to continue. Playing the game during Christmas was kind of a bad idea and made for rather sad holidays. I haven’t cried in years, but choosing to sacrifice our precious punk in the ending broke me and had me bawling afterwards. I then rewound the game to rectify my decision by saving Chloe (Bae > Bay). When I found out that a Limited Edition with the soundtrack CD and an art book was going to be released, I preordered it at once, something I usually never do, because I somehow felt like I ripped you off buying this amazing game for such a low price.

One of the main reasons Life is Strange resonated so strong with me are the characters and their development throughout the journey. Never have I ever encountered a game with characters that are written so real to life and so relatable. Huge respect to Jean-Luc and Xtian DaVin (yeah, I found you at the gallery!) for achieving this hella hard, yet apparently not impossible task. It’s also amazing how you tackled all the difficult topics in the game like suicide, bullying and euthanasia in such a respectful manner. 

As an introverted person, I immediately connected with Max like I never did with any other character I played as before. Seeing Hannah portraying her in a way that seemed so natural made it all the more easy for me. I just can’t imagine Max (or any other character in the game for that matter) being voiced by anyone else. Over the course of the five episodes we see Max growing in confidence from her shy self to her being “Super Max” and playing through Life is Strange and experiencing Max’s growth certainly boosted my confidence in a similar way. Now that I don’t need to play video games anymore to feel better and confident in myself, I have more time to practice on my acoustic guitar, which I bought specifically because of Life is Strange. 

That brings me to my next point, the music in the game. If I told the younger version of myself that I would listen to Indie Folk someday, he would call me crazy. The soundtrack introduced me to so many awesome bands and singers like Syd Matters, Angus and Julia Stone, José González and many more. It’s so crazy how fitting the music is in every scene, you did an amazing job in selecting those pieces there, Spanish Sahara still makes me teary eyed. Jonathan Morali’s OST is really awesome as well and so relaxing, I love to listen to it while studying.

After Life is Strange I just had to try out your first game Remember Me and all the things I loved in Life is Strange like the characters, setting and story were amazing there as well. I’m absolutely looking forward to playing Vampyr when it’s released next year, because after Life is Strange and Remember Me you certainly became one of my favorite developers now. 

It’s been more than 7 months now since I finished the game and I’m still thinking about it every day, browsing fan art and reading fan fictions and fan theories. I’m so glad I found out about the game and I’m really proud to be a part of the wonderful community you created through this masterpiece. To put it in a nut shell I just want to thank anyone involved in the game, you are all hella amazeballs!

One year ago, we launched this project on the run-up to the finale, to thank DONTNOD and the LiS cast for their dedicated work. Our aim was to show the cast and crew how much this game meant to us as we prepared for the final episode.

The game may have ended, but Life is Strange is still going strong nearly a year later. In the past year since the finale, we have seen the launch of a Life is Strange social media site, fan-made comic series, livestream events and even fan-made games based on Life is Strange. Our community is stronger than ever and has continued to grow since the games ending.

With all this being said, we are excited to announce the LiS Thank You Project: 2016!

We are reopening the thank you project to the community on the run up to the anniversary of episode 5!

This year we have two aims:

To show the cast and crew how much we love this game and how it helped us even a year later.

To give another opportunity to those who didn’t get to submit last year.

We are very excited to open this project again and hope you guys are too!

For more info, see out FAQ page or leave a message in the Ask box and an admin will help you as soon as possible!

Wishing you all the best in 2016. Hope you all have a good and safe new year. Thank you for all the fun in 2015.

To the Life is Strange Cast and Crew,

This game has to be the best game I’ve played! I was playing the telltale game in around February and finished it and then I really needed another episodic game to play and I found a master piece! I loved every minute! I love how the game goes darker with each episode! And I must say the ending was spot on I love the soundtrack included obstacles by syd matters from the end of episode 1 and 5. I actually have a life is strange tattoo on my arm! Anyway thank you again! Good job!!!

I’m a woman who’s been gaming most of her life. I have never, in my whole life, felt this attached or been able to relate to a game and its characters like I experienced it in Life Is Strange. In a community where girls, women, LGBT and other minorities are often rejected and sometimes harassed just for liking something, especially if this thing belongs in an overwhelming white straight male community, few are the quality games that not only give us a sense of belonging but also touch our hearts and souls. Life Is Strange is one of these games and, dare I say, the best. But regardless of opinions, it exists and that alone is a true blessing. I lost someone very dear to me in between episodes 4 and 5 and waiting for the final chapter while following some of you people on Twitter, seeing this amazing community and its creativity and talent has helped me a lot to stay positive and it eased my mind a little. You made more than just a game, you made a real piece of art. Life Is Strange has a SOUL. Thanks to you, many players felt welcome and realized that their voices could be heard without having to switch to an online persona in order to fit, including adult straight males wh thought that it was, and I quote: “Tumblr, the game” before giving it a try. That’s what you have done. You created a fantastic game, you made some “hardcore” gamers think about what is important in a story, and you also gave a generally neglected section of gamers the message that it’s ok to like narrative masterpieces over FPS, to prefer complex and layered characters with a heart over supersized combat gear, to get absorbed into beautiful sceneries to the point of just willingly sit and enjoy the atmosphere instead of perpetual movement and speed. Don’t get me wrong, I love some of those games (and Square Enix has published one of my all time favorites, Sleeping Dogs) but something was missing. You reminded us that having a controller or keyboard in hand doesn’t mean that we have to stop dreaming or appreciate the emotions we are feeling during a playthrough. You managed to federate people from every gender, age group, country, color, orientation, and a tons of other things that usually are an excuse for being divided around your game, your universe and your characters. The premise and choice of leads of the game itself, the voice acting, the soundtrack, the mechanics, the pop culture references, the decision not to shy away from certain (some very dark) issues and the human emotions involved… everything was just fantastic. Others games have tried and sometimes managed to be open to everyone (The Sims being a prime example) but so far none has had the impact and has been as thought provoking as Life Is Strange has. Life Is Strange will forever be where it began to really change for me. That breath of fresh air comes at a time where many of us have been suffocating in an industry that has troubles to reinvent itself and relies too much on rehashing the same stuff over and over again while community-wise some players find themselves at the receiving end the online harassment, mostly young females but not only. I will never forget how I felt and how a studio one day had decided to be disruptive and to shake it up until it happens their way instead of selling out. THANK YOU.

I saved Arcadia Bay. Not an easy choice, since I love Chloe so much, but because I do, I couldn’t bear the thought of her blaming herself for the deaths of hundreds of innocents - especially Joyce and David.

The thing is, I believe that if Life is Strange would have been a movie, or a novel, I wouldn’t have felt so broken after that last decision. It was thanks to Max, thanks to being able to identify with her, that I feel so devastated now. You didn’t only show me how much Max cared for Chloe; you made me care for her as well while doing so. Because of that I didn’t see the last decision as letting Max’s bestfriend go - I felt I was letting my bestfriend go, and the pain was so real the tears didn’t take long to take over my face.

What I’m getting at is - we say that videogames let us live another lives, but it was never so true as what you have done to me through this game. I was me, a 24 years old guy, but, at the same time, I was Max, and not only on that fateful decision - this feeling was continously there. We both went through so much, and we both took the decision of letting her go. 

I will never forget Chloe, my bestfriend; nor Max, the person I came to love Chloe through; nor Arcadia Bay, the place where I met her, and the place where I believe she will always lives, since, after all, it’s there thanks to her.

I can only thank you for Life is Strange.

(I’m not sure if there are any fans reading this blog before beating the game for some reason, but if so, major spoilers are ahead.)

First, thank you for the “Choices” menu. I’ve only just finished the game because the infamous PS3 glitch affected me, which meant I had to replay the game from the beginning. Being able to go back to see my choices before I restarted really helped to make the replay as similar as possible to the original save, so that I could see the consequences of my actions.

Now, onto my main message.

I want to be a videogame programmer. I’ve wanted to do this since I was 16. I’m 27 now. It’s slow going, but I’m currently trying to get a Bachelor’s degree in computer science to help me achieve this. If I ever work on a game that makes people feel even half of the intensity of the emotions you’ve made me feel, I will consider myself successful.

I beat the game last night (doing live reaction posts on Tumblr along the way). I sacrificed Arcadia Bay. I felt like a horrible person, because I loved all of those characters. But I just could not let go of Chloe. I am easily attached to fictional characters, but my God, I don’t think I’ve loved a character quite that much for a long time.

Chloe gave me permission, but I could not sacrifice her. I let an entire town be destroyed, I let so many innocent people die because I could not let my best friend go. You made me choose the complete opposite of what I would have done in any other game. In fact, I did choose to let my friend die in place of another in a different game (except not, because plot saved everyone, but I didn’t know that the first time).

So making me choose one character over all others? You are amazing for being capable of making me pick that option.

I cried some. Partly because of everyone. Partly from guilt. But Chloe lived.

I woke up early this morning. I had some time before I had to leave, so I went and got the other ending. I was sobbing less than thirty seconds after I made the choice. I’m tearing up right now as I type this. Choosing that option just completely devastated me. I’ve been sad at the death of a character before. I’ve cried for the death of several characters. But Chloe was just so full of life, and I grew so attached to her that I think I am actually grieving for her as if she were real.

I’ve heard the ending is unpopular, but I love it. I mean, I also hate it. But only because you wanted people to hate that choice. As much as that choice tortured me, as much as I cried for both options, as much as it hurts, I feel like you did exactly what you wanted to accomplish.

Thank you for the experience. This game broke me into so many pieces, and I love you for it.

Thank you.