It’s fair to say French developer and publisher Don’t Nod Entertainment are on a bit of a roll at the moment as far as their recent output goes. The past twelve months alone have seen the studio release not one, not two, but three critically-acclaimed titles of varying genres. Whether it’s the choice-led narrative of something likeHarmony: The Fall of Reverieor a complete surprise of a reveal via some dabbling in puzzle-platforming exploration withJusant, Don’t Nod have long banished the concerns of simply being “the Life is Strange studio.” Proving that while their strengths may still reside in narrative-led adventures, they’re more than capable of flexing their creative muscles.
In the case of this year’s Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, however, Don’t Nod look to be aiming to refine their craft in what will be a two-part release set across two time periods. Centering around the reunion of four childhood friends whom, for reasons unknown, are forced to go back on their word and reunite years later in the present day. We recently had a chance to sit down with the team at Don’t Nod Montreal to discuss this new project. A project that is both familiar and hopefully an evolution on what Don’t Nod have come to be known for.
[Hardcore Gamer] Regarding Bloom & Rages' setting, what was the main reason behind the focus on a ’90s setting? Was that something you wanted to create from the start or was that a by-product of how this project came into being?
[Michel Koch] I think it’s a bit of both. As a creative team, we worked together on Life is Strange 1 and 2 and nostalgia is something we like to deal with in a lot of our games. In this, it’s something we wanted to continue to push. We started by thinking about gameplay and because we had the luxury to start from scratch – since it’s not a part of the Life is Strange franchise – we had a lot of freedom with creativity to what we could do.
We knew we wanted to go back to our roots – to tell an interactive story about characters we love and that we hope that the players love. And when we started to think about the story, it was the beginning of the pandemic, in 2020. And with all the lockdowns and the lack of connections we were having, it was something we wanted to push to tell a story about friendships, about reconnections, about reconnecting with friends. That’s why we decided to have two timelines. To have part of the game that takes place nowadays – it takes place in 2022 – where the adult version of Swan will meet old friends she has not seen for 27 years, because they made a promise back then in their teenage years.
The game structure is to start playing in this present timeline. And as you reconnect with your friends, you bring up stories of your past and you will go and directly play those stories in the mid ’90s – in the summer of 1995 – where you will have a lot of agency, where you can recreate part of the story and you will alternate between those two timelines. As to why we chose to go back to the 1990s, I think it’s part of, first, as creators we were teenagers during the ’90s. It felt that it could be a story we could tell that would be, at least, part about ourselves. It’s something we care about and we feel like it could be interesting to bring to our audience or people who are the same age as us. But we also think that for younger generations, it’s interesting because it’s something that’s weird for them. Like, some of the analog technology, the fact that we don’t have any cellphones in the ’90s, all the gadgets from back then feel dated nowadays. I think there’s some great thing to play with there. Both for older players and younger players.
You talked about going back to your roots. Was this – as you said – more inspired by what was happening in the world during 2020, regarding COVID, the lockdowns etc?
[Michel Koch] I think creating a story, a new universe and characters is a blend of so many things. It’s really hard to pinpoint exactly why we are having those four characters. Why is it Swann and not other characters? Why is it that story? It’s a blend of time, when you’re working on it, people you are working with. I don’t think there’s a direct formula. We started for sure by adding this idea of what the game structure would be. How do we want to make the general narrative evolve? How do we create something that’s not just a carbon copy of what we did for Life is Strange?
I think that’s how we were in the development process. We wanted to play with those two timelines and play with the back-and-forth of playing into a discussion with your friends and going back in your memories as you recollect together how it was when you were a teenager. Giving players the ability to play with those jumps: starting a discussion in the present, going directly to play what you’re talking about in the past, make a choice, come back to the present and talk about how it happened. It’s something we wanted to push for this game, because we think it creates a lot of good back-and-forth – how your choice in the past will change the present. But also some of the choices you make in the present time will change the memories you’re playing as to what actually happened in the past.
Could you expand a little on the idea of these two timelines? In terms of gameplay mechanics, how will that actually function? Is it a case of finding interactive elements in the environment and choosing whether to hop back-and-forth?
[Michel Koch] There is a bit of that. Without saying too much…you start the game in the present timeline and you’re going to this reunion because you receive a text message that you have to see your friends again. You go to this reunion and for better or worse, you’ll have to meet your friends again and start to recollect your past to remember what happened. And so you start talking with them and as you start talking, you start bringing up memories of your past. When those memories are brought up, you will see a jump-cut and go and play in the past.
Some of those jumps will be scripted. Some will be based on dialogue choices or an interaction you can do on some objects. And that will lead to a lot of different branching outcomes in both the past and the present.
How will relationships between the four characters be handled? Will there be some sort of gameplay element to that – something you have to manage or try and keep some form of balance over?
[Michel Koch] Yeah totally. I would say it’s the most important part. There’s a lot of different choices you can make in the game, with dialogue choices, interactive choices, more important choices at a specific moment in time. But the relationship between Swan and the other girls is at the very core of all the choices you can make in the game. How you attempt to find your place within the group – who you are getting close to, who you agree with, disagree with – will play a huge part as you advance. There’ll be a lot of choices and interactions that will please one of the other girls or maybe displease them.
Review: Harmony: The Fall of Reverie
Harmony: The Fall of Reverie sets a new standard for Don’t Nod with what might be their best, most rewarding work to date.
Is Swann the only playable character or will there be opportunities to play as the other girls?
[Michel Koch] No, Swann is the only playable character. That was something we thought about at the beginning; since we are making a game about a group of friends, we were asking ourselves should we play only one or should we play each of them at various moments in the story?
It’s maybe a more subjective choice, but I really like in a game like this when we focus on only one protagonist, so you can really project your own vision of this character. I think, for example, in the original Life is Strange, if you were to play Chloe, you wouldn’t have the same attachment. And the final choice you are making as Max – deciding whether to sacrifice Arcadia Bay or sacrifice Chloe – is very strong because you have all your own opinions on who Chloe is, based on how you played as Max. If you were to play as both, I think this choice wouldn’t be as strong and wouldn’t be as hard to make.
So outside of the player’s own choices, who is Swann as far as her background is concerned? Who is she in this world? What does she believe herself to be in this world?
[Michel Koch] We like to call Swann something like a “positive introvert” – she’s an introvert, she’s a loner, she doesn’t have friends. But she’s perfectly OK to be a loner, she’s happy like that. We tried to write her also as a quirky character; she sometimes says out-loud things that are a bit weird, but she doesn’t really care about that. That was something important for us, to not go fully into the shy, introvert stereotype. To not have her be too shy she’s not talking to anybody. It was important to reflect how someone can be a loner, but still be happy when she finally meets other people.
It’s interesting you brought up the idea of trying to avoid the stereotype of what an introvert might look like. Was that something you felt was important to include here?
[Michel Koch] Yeah I think we realized during the pandemic, as I’m an introvert myself, that I’ve had to fight with the stereotype that people were saying: “oh but you’re just shy, if you just overcome your shyness, you will see it’s cool to do all those things and to always be with people.” It’s not that we’re especially shy, it’s more that doing a lot of social interactions can drain a lot of energy. Where sometimes regaining your energy takes time, just by being by yourself.
And that’s something I think I realized with the pandemic, when we were forced to do remote work. I found myself sometimes being way less tired by having less social interactions and just having more time to focus on the work. It made us realize that yeah you can be an introvert in a positive way. Most of the time in media, introverts are portrayed as shy people that need to overcome that. On the opposite side during the pandemic, for extroverts it was hard for them, because they gain their energy by being around people.
This’ll officially be Don’t Nod Montreal’s first game. Does that bring any added pressure, the fact that it will be establishing the Montreal branch’s name?
[Luc Baghadoust] It’s huge for us, it’s very exciting. It presents so much work – to create the shape of the studio, the team, the project we work on – so internally for us, just seeing the logo for us was something special. Yes, it’s a lot of pressure; we know that Don’t Nod has this special identity for a while, even if there are different teams. Like theBanishersteam, we had Jusant – all these great games by Don’t Nod. So we have this pressure from Don’t Nod, but also the pressure of expectations from players that know the teams behind the Life is Strange games are behind this new game. So a lot of pressure, but a lot of excitement.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is planned to release sometime in late 2024 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S & PC.
