Hey y’all! I can’t get back to developing the game quite yet, but I would like to take some time for any fellow gamedevs here to draw attention to this series I’ve been meaning to recommend for a while now!
Deep Analysis: Life Is Strange
This series is a full playthrough of the game Life Is Strange which features moment-by-moment dissection of what the game does right and what it does wrong; highlighting narrative and design techniques and explaining how to use them and why they work in game design!
Some techniques the series helps discuss and demonstrate include:
color grading/lighting
theme
dialog
immersing the player
level design
significance of the shapes of your levels
player choice
character blocking
camera tricks
camera angles
and more tbh, this series is super great with a LOT to learn!
The analysis also does VERY well in acknowledging LIS’s imperfections and discusses what the game could have been done differently to better serve its design and theme, which is really great to see! Learning from a game’s faults is just as important as learning from its successes, y’know!
There’s so much here that is worth taking a listen to! I’ve watched it two or three times now and I’m probably gonna put it on again soon hahaha. I HIGHLY recommend it for gamedevs and frankly anyone creating content in a visual medium (games, film, webcomics, etc.).
Either play the game or watch an LP first, because this series is not a letsplay in the sense of experiencing the game. This is an analysis of design techniques! It’s best to go in knowing the game experience, and then be prepared to deconstruct everything!
Hope anyone will check it out and enjoy it as much as I did!