Life Is Strange is mostly defined by mixing the everyday life of young protagonists in our world, with the supernatural powers that these characters develop. These powers are mostly part of some sort of allegory about responsibility you have to shoulder as an adult. At the same time the games are shining a light on many issues of society and possible problems in life, like Date Rape, Child Neglect, Racism or Addiction.
Necessary Tropes
- Central Theme: While these are often spread out across the plot, it is important to have the core theme picked out, before getting to work.
- Coming of Age Story: Every game in this series is about a young protagonist on the way to growing up in one way or another. This makes the trope the basic foundation of writing a story of the same caliber.
- Choice-and-Consequence System: One of the other pillars the games stand on is the simple sentence "Actions have consequences". It is the choices you make that shape the way the game turns out later.
Choices, Choices
- How does your protagonist see the world around them? This can tie in with the specific supernatural power you are going to put to use in your specific work. A certain character trait of your protagonist can culminate in a certain power, like for example speaking to dead people for a protagonist who does not handle loss well or can not be alone.
- Plot and Characterization have to be laid out carefully. Despite the mundane setting of the story, it still has to be working towards a certain goal, in which each major character has to play some of a part in. These goal can range from personal wishes, like finding an estranged parent, to major issues, like an investigation of the disappearance of missing people, after the law gave up. The major characters can either play a part in helping or hampering the protagonist.
- The Love Interest. In games like these you can mostly make a choice between too different romantic options, which are often polar opposites to one another in many ways, creating a sort of yin yang effect in terms of a Love Triangle. Mostly you have one option, which is of the opposite sex to your protagonist and one same sex option. Those option differ drastically in almost everything. One is more introverted, while the other is more open, one is the kid of rich parents while the other comes from poverty, one is more grounded and brings comfort and stability, while the other is wild and jumpy and lights a spark of excitement in the protagonist etc.
- Growing up is a bridge that had to be crossed by young people ever since the beginning of time. There are other epoques in which your story can take place. From the times of Jeanne d'Arc over the Boxer Rebellion all the way to WWII everything is possible.
Pitfalls
- This kind of writing is not for the faint of heart. Be careful that Surprisingly Realistic Outcome is not kept out of your work and that the consequences of your characters actions leave a lasting impression in the end. Sometimes it is easy to be tempted to make the rules stop applying.
- The theme of Wild Love vs Stable love should be done very carefully in terms of Romance in your work, as you will probably pit some people against you otherwise, because they will think that you have given their representation all the problematic or boring traits.
Potential Subversions
In many ways Life Is Strange is pretty gloomy and growing up is presented as a violent Loss Of Innocence that is absolutely necessary and often pretty violent, but there is no one path to growing up and while those serious issues are there, not every adolescent has addicts amongst their peers or neglectful parents. Darker and Edgier is not a rule to make your work reach Life Is Strange Levels.- Maybe some supernatural powers to get a tween character through Middle School, with all of the problems that entails, but in a more light-hearted way.
