DONTNOD’S Life is Strange is set to become a live-action digital series.
[dropcap size=small]T[/dropcap]he award-winning, episodic, story-rich game Life is Strange is getting its very own live-action adaptation in the form of a digital series. The news emerged on the Life is Strange Tumblr account (via GameSpot), where they announced Legendary Digital Studios will be partnering up with Square Enix and DONTNOD to bring about the project:
“Both Legendary and we here at Square Enix & DONTNOD agree that Life Is Strange lends itself perfectly to live-action imaginings.”
Life is Strange is comprised of 5 episodes and follows the story of photography student Max Caulfield who begins studying at Blackwell Academy in the small town of Arcadia Bay. After a series of events Max discovers she has the ability to rewind time at any given moment, giving her the foresight to see into the future and change what happens.
The game-play mainly focuses on the choices you make as Max when using the rewind mechanic, since every choice you make will cause a butterfly type of effect, which will have different consequences as the story unfolds.
The rich, engaging narrative and episodic structure of Life is Strange makes it the perfect basis for a live-action series, and it’ll be neat to see how the rewind aspect and characters are realised in a live-action adaptation.
Greg Seigel, Legendary Digital Studio’s Senior Vice President of development, spoke about the excitment surrounding the project:
“Life is Strange is one of those rare properties that combines incredibly developed characters and storylines with deeply engaging game-play…It lends itself perfectly to live-action imaginings. We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Square Enix, Dontnod Entertainment and dj2 to bring the world of Arcadia Bay to life in an exciting new way.”
The captivating story-line, interesting game-play mechanic and incredible soundtrack are just some of the reasons why I personally rank Life is Strange amongst my favourite game titles of all time. It deservedly has a huge fan following and heaps of critical acclaim under its belt, and was undoubtedly one of the best games to come out in 2015.
It’ll be interesting to see what the studio does with the title and if they’ll make any major changes to the main story arc of the game.
A new trailer for the first episode was also released to celebrate the announcement, which you can check out below. It’s also worth mentioning that if you haven’t tried out the game yet, the first episode is available for free on all platforms indefinitely.
The live-action adaptation is currently in the very early stages of production. Legendary Digital Studio’s are still currently recruiting new writers.
