Michel Koch, the co-creator of Life is Strange and Don’t Nod creative director, has shared his thoughts on certain fans’ reactions to Double Exposure.
Don’t Nod hasn’t worked on a Life is Strange game since the second one back in 2018/ 2019, with Deck Nine taking over the franchise in 2021 with True Colors. The latest entry in the series, Double Exposure, is once again coming from Deck Nine and is due out next week, this time focusing on an older Max Caulfield, itself a point of contention amongst fans. Those who pre-ordered the ultimate edition of the game have already been able to play it for a couple of weeks now, which led to the discovery of what happened between Max and Chloe post the OG games, and not everyone is happy about it (I’ll avoid spoilers for now, you can look it up yourself if you’re desperate to know).
This, of course, led some fans to send Deck Nine devs some not so friendly messages, we’ll just say, and as spotted by PC Gamer, it prompted a response from co-creator Michel Koch on his personal Twitter account. “Since the release of [Life is Strange: Double Exposure] I’ve seen a lot of tension and hateful messages against Deck Nine devs,” Koch wrote. “I didn’t play the game yet, and I have no idea where they are taking the story. But what I know is that nothing justifies hating on people for how they wrote their game!
“You can be disappointed, you can want other narratives for those characters you love, or different stories… but ultimately creation is hard and very subjective and if [Double Exposure’s] story does not please you, it does not erase what you imagined.” When one user responded noting that harassment isn’t alright, but healthy criticism and discussion is, Koch noted, “Yes of course, I was talking of violent messages and harassment I’ve seen. I know how bad it feels to be on the other end (when we announced Sean and Daniel we got our share of toxicity for not bringing back Max and Chloe). Constructive criticism and civil disagreement is good!”
Koch did also share in response to another user that “From what I read I think we would not have written things the same way. But I felt the same with the comics and before the storm and I kind of accepted it. I’m pretty sure when I play the full game I won’t recognize my characters but that’s also inevitable with different writers.”
Essentially, the age old lesson here is, don’t harass people! It’s a pretty simply lesson that no one ever seems to be able to remember, and like Koch said, you can just keep using your imagination.
If you’re not someone that likes to harass people, and do want to pick up Life is Strange: Double Exposure on release, it’s due out next week, October 29.