Life is Strange is a decision-based game following Max as she moves back to her hometown after being accepted to Blackwell Academy Art School to study photography. After witnessing another student shooting a girl in the school bathroom, Max discovers she has the ability to rewind time, effectively being able to go back and change the course of events. This proves to be an interesting aspect of the game compared to other decision based games, which usually lock in your choices without allowing you to go back and change them. Life is Strange allows the player to explore all potential outcomes before locking in their final choice.

The rewind ability is represented by a spiral on the top left corner of the screen. A decision that can be changed is represented by a dot on this spiral. The use of a spiral to represent time as opposed to a line I think is intentional. With each rewind, the spiral is unspooled, mimicking a film reel. This is fitting as Max is a photographer, so it not only fits better thematically than a line representation, but personally I find it quite visually satisfying.

In a game where progression of the story relies on the player making decisions, the rewind ability is designed in a way that encourages exploration while limiting it use. For instance, when Max is having conversations with other characters, the player will be allowed to go back and choose different responses and ultimately choose another outcome before locking in their choice by leaving the room/area. It is limited in the sense that you can only rewind in segments as opposed to rewinding the entire game at any given moment. If the player does something that will halt the story from progressing, such as Max getting hit by a falling tree, the game will signal to the player that its time to rewind. These force rewind moments serve as a sort of “game over” screen, alerting to the player that they must try again.

The player is far from having complete control over when and how they can use their rewind ability. But if the player is going to be allowed to rewind time, the designers must think about how to encourage or make the player do so. They do this in three ways that I’ve defined: the force rewind, the new information rewind, and the second guessing rewind. The force rewind as mentioned earlier, indicates that the player will not progress in the story unless they rewind. The game indicates this by switching to black and white and stopping time. Visual changes like this help clue in the player that something is amiss, and that action needs to be taken. In a FPS game, if the screen is turning red, the player knows that they are bleeding and will die if they don’t move or shoot. This technique is applied here with the black and white. And if the player still has a hard time figuring this out, Max will narrate to herself that she must go back and rewind.

The new information rewind occurs when Max learns something new that she can use if she were to rewind. This is indicated to the player with a text bubble in the top left of the screen. For instance, you may learn about skateboard trick names and use it to befriend and impress some skaters. Once again visual clues are important here if the designer wants to let the player know they’ve gained new information. The text bubble will alert the player of this, and a sound cue will always follow. Using both as opposed to just one, better helps indicate this to the player.

Finally is the second guessing rewind. Every time Max finishes a conversation, she will narrate to herself, contemplating whether or not she should have acted a certain way. This dialogue serves as a catalyst to encourage the player to rewind and try something else, even if they don’t force you to do so. The player will quickly learn though that Max will second-guess any choice that is made. Designers use this method to reassure the player that there is no right answer to the problem, even if there secretly is. They want you to explore the possibilities, but the answer wont be obvious nor will its consequences later on. Overall, the player may expect that the inclusion of the rewind ability will make the game “easier”. I think the designers included it for the exact opposite reason and this works effectively. Exploring every option does not make the right path clearer, it only makes them all appealing.