Life is Strange: True Colors Wavelengths - Katy Bentz & Mallory Littleton Interview

Audio transcription

"Hey friends and welcome to well another game writer interview 2 And this one is exciting because 3 Too long ago 4 Life is strange True Colors released 5 We're already getting closer to well the first DLC wavelength that will give us 6 Bit more of a peek into stuff 7 The 8 Well the returning character from life is strange beyond the storm 9 Which 10 I can admit I was personally very happy to see you 11 In the game in her element in the the radio station which is 12 The focus on in wave 13 But 14 Before we talk about 15 The new DLC 16 I want to talk a little bit 17 Just in general about life is 18 True colors I mean first of all 19 We're pretty 20 Close after release 21 So 22 What has the reception 23 I've been like 24 For you guys 25 It's been incredible I just the the fans 26 Response to the game has just been 27 Overwhelmingly incredible and it's amazing and not only just for 28 Myself as an actor but just seeing the love just thrown out all over social media 29 Or every single member who was involved in making this game possible from from Square to deck 9 to 30 Everybody involved and I think that's just such a 31 A really amazing thing that everybody is getting you know the recognition that they deserve 32 Yeah it's been an absolute blast there are a few things in the world I think that are more fun than getting 33 Games with your friends and when the game comes out and everyone can see 34 Each other's work and and watch streamers 35 Hi Katie and 36 See the chats react to everything it's just it's a really good time yeah 37 Yeah 38 For you Katie like how how was it 39 Getting the chance to 40 Step back into the the shoes of staff and I 41 In this case quite literally 42 Stop talking to her shoes 43 Yeah I got to do I got to do full performance capture and motion capture for stuff this time which is incredible because 44 Back in before the storm I only did voice acting for her and you know yeah for four years 45 Years ago I would never have expected this to be happening and I'm just so grateful and honored 46 That I had the opportunity to come back and stuff 47 And it's just been it's been amazing honestly like 48 Like I mean that's the dream of an actor is to be able to reprise a role 49 And 50 It's happened and so I just feel like I said incredibly grateful 51 Now 52 Mallory you are the lead narrative 53 Design 54 At the tech nine 55 Can you tell me 56 Well what was the approach 57 Going into 58 Life is strange true colors I mean there's there's a lot of 59 A lot of things here that are new 60 I mean 61 A big one is a this is not a 62 A chapter based game is not episodic 63 So 64 Yeah what was the approach and did the 65 Did the fact that this is you know 66 A full game all in one change kind of the writing process and the 67 Yeah it definitely did but 68 Not so much the the content that 69 Came out of it more so just the way we went about writing it because even though we knew that it was going to be 70 Released all this one package you still obviously wanted to have it kind of divided 71 Went to Chapters 72 And we still wanted each of those chapters to have their own unique arcs and until stories about particular things 73 As well as movie overall plot forward 74 And we wanted to end some of them on Cliffhangers and leave people on the edge of their seat so that they pick up the next 75 Episode 76 So a lot of those things are really similar 77 When it's all released together we do get a little bit more time to 78 Make sure the story feels really cohesive and that things are set up properly and things that we did set up get paid off 79 So we just got to 80 A little bit more thorough about crafting the entire experience when we get to 81 Release the whole game at once like that 82 Is really interesting 83 Yeah but 84 I mean we have a new 85 Protagonist we were in the new town new power but we're still tying into what has come before with the 86 Character of 87 Can you tell me a little bit about how you know the approach there 88 Like 89 How much to do how much to 90 To stay 91 In tune with the 92 The series 93 Yeah well we we at Tech 9 are all life is strange 94 Fans before we were developers in the franchise and so 95 Whenever we sit down to 96 To sort of think about what we want 97 To go into the game we really thought about what we loved about life is strange and what we continue to love like about 98 That was too and 99 All of the stuff along the way and 100 You know I think 101 What stuck out to us is the same thing 102 Sticks out to a lot of the fans the down to earth experiences 103 Emphasis on people and their relationships and 104 Relatable circumstances 105 So all of that was very much at the at the front of our minds when we sat down to 106 Even something like a like a small mountain town that maybe most people don't 107 Have a lot of direct experience is with we wanted to make sure that 108 That really relatable down to earth 109 Ceiling was was maintained 110 Yeah 111 There's one thing that 112 Been wondering with the change from going episodic to 113 To releasing everything 114 At once 115 What when you were doing for example life is strange beyond the storm 116 When you were doing it episodic where you kind of adjusting where the story was going 117 Based on player choices in the previous chapters or was it all locked down 118 And yeah if you were adjusting 119 Then 120 Kind of difficult here making like a firm decision and just hoping that yeah we we nailed 121 Yeah you know we have the the stories largely plotted out before we even sit down to write the first 122 Episode and so 123 There isn't a whole lot 124 A wiggle room even when we do we were doing the episodic with before the storm but it was 125 Really heartening for us to be able to see 126 Fans react and what they were reacting positively to and see if we can 127 For example include more stuff in the future episodes because players just really seem to like her and we wanted to 128 To give them more of her and so we were able to make 129 Some of those smaller adjustments in before the storm 130 Yeah we didn't have that sort of 131 Check 132 In in making true colors because we did it all at once but 133 You know I think we like especially with decisions like 134 Bringing stuff back 135 We felt like 136 We knew what hopefully what fans wanted to see and 137 Tried to just push forward 138 Believing in our product 139 Yeah and I would say if you 140 If you read the the review on the game of the 141 A review 142 Elsa think 143 Nailed it so I mean 144 Bringing it back to stuff because 145 Let's talk about the wavelength 146 Is it wavelength of wave 147 It's wavelengths yes because I've seen it online 148 Both 149 The record is that straight with 150 DL 151 Well solely on stuff I guess 152 Because when I watch the trailer for it the first time 153 I wasn't quite 154 What 155 How we was going to be 156 Well played how it was going to manifest it but I got to see the first 15 minutes before this interview and now I have a much better idea but I want 157 Try to convey to the viewers so 158 What exactly is it 159 Players going to be doing 160 In the 161 Yeah so the player really gets to stuff into steps Booth run the radio 162 So 163 In a very staff way gets this kind of zany and out of hand almost immediately 164 Get to run the record store and kind of help it 165 Get along to the point where it's it's so pretty when when Alex first finds it 166 Can you use your favorite activity 167 Cleveland 168 I think 169 The phone the phone calls that you guys are going to be able to hear we're really fun to do 170 There's going to there's just a lot a good variety of 171 Fun there to be had 172 And 173 Yeah it's just it's just awesome to be able to 174 Get more 175 Into Steph's mind and quite literally cuz we are now you know using her as a playable character 176 So you get to hear everything you know of that she's thinking she's doing and I think that's going to just be fun for the play 177 Yeah and 178 Like I said watching those first 15 minutes they were even more activities in there that I that I previously thought because 179 Yeah you need to run the radio station and with that comes you know selecting 180 Taking calls from listeners and 181 Reading the ad copy and stuff like that and then there's 182 The whole taken care of and designing 183 The register which is going to be 184 In through four season 185 I guess so so you know decorating for Halloween 186 Or stuff like that right 187 Yeah and then 188 There's also 189 Well 190 Dating 191 On a dating app 192 Which I thought was 193 Well fantastic 194 Can you tell me 195 Yeah go a little bit deeper into that aspect because I mean we are really getting to know stuff 196 Yeah 197 We we suspected and we ourselves kind of had a lot of questions about how exactly stuff 198 Got to Haven Springs and 199 Why she chose to stay What She Likes about it how she ended up as a DJ and 200 I think we also had a lot of questions about how 201 Arcadia Bay impacted stuff as a character and and how she connects with people 202 And the dating app really is about 203 Starting your relationships and and trying things out and how scary that can be sometimes which is very much the 204 Part of stuff 205 Steph's life that she's in at the beginning of wavelen 206 Yeah and I mean it really ties into 207 What I've always felt 208 Is a big part of 209 Life is strange and that is 210 Representation 211 Representing a fully pleasure member of the lgbtq 212 Community 213 With everything that 214 With that I mean 215 You know I fully flashed person 216 With the needs and wants 217 It must be 218 Must be challenging 219 You are bringing forth representation 220 The spotlight is is 221 Everything that you were pulling forward 222 It doesn't need to be iconic or 223 It's like how much 224 The personality needs to be tied 225 Well 226 I don't know if I'm racing that's correctly I'm 227 Yeah I mean 228 For me I think 229 A really big thing that stood out to people was 230 Her sexuality you know 231 In and BTS 232 And what players get to experience now is 233 You know more of her right so yes she is she is she is gay and she 234 Is proud and she's excited and she's 235 Confident with who she is 236 But she also is super like nerdy and she likes D&D and now she's a DJ 237 And she's kind of nervous to start dating so there's 238 Such a great Arc 239 In that and there's so so much more for the player to get invested with with stuff 240 But also yes there's 241 A huge huge Arc with pride and all that like you saw in the trailer 242 It's exciting 243 Yeah exactly I guess that's what I was trying to 244 To get to and trying to find the wording of 245 Of course we want 246 Representation of members of the LGB 247 Community 248 We don't want to be 249 Just focused on that 250 You know if we wanted to be 251 A person with with Nita wants outside 252 Where was 253 Yeah absolutely 254 We really wanted to 255 Especially with the chance to take a character like stuff and explore all of those 256 Depth of those layers in Greater detail we really did want to emphasize that 257 Yeah she she is in a whole entire person and there's a lot to her she she does so much stuff and 258 So cool we really wanted to 259 To highlight all of those other really interesting aspects about stuff while also you know 260 Giving 261 Giving her sexuality 262 Room to breathe and and also be part of the story as yeah as one part of a whole complete character 263 I believe we are running 264 Close on time so 265 Let's hear a little bit about 266 When will players be able 267 To 268 To get their hands on wavelength 269 And 270 And how I mean I know it is 271 Included in the deluxe edition but 272 Can you buy 273 It's separately is 274 At all available Standalone or like how how is it 275 Why so starting on the 30th 276 Players who got the deluxe should have 277 Ready to go 278 Players that just got the standard edition definitely have the option to go in and buy that separately 279 Really starting on the 30th I don't believe it will be available stand alone 280 I mean reading and watching the trailer reading 281 The description it says the 282 TLC 283 For life is 284 Change true color 285 Are you already far along in development on the second one 286 I don't know that we're able to talk about that 287 I try 288 Presumably 289 We will hear maybe more about that 290 Soon and 291 All of you can 292 Stay tuned to game 293 For that but I would like to thank you guys so much for your time 294 And 295 Yeah September 296 30th wavel 297 Add the DLC for life is 298 True color 299 Which again 300 If you haven't read or watched our review on Game actor yet you should 301 Go do that or I mean 302 Spoiler just to go and get the game because 303 We had a a true life of stranger fan 304 Reboot 305 He gave it the 306 Seal of 307 So what 308 Congrats on that congrats on the lunch 309 And 310 Looking forward to the DLC and more"