The writing team of Life is Strange: Before the Storm has a message for the fans.

To the Life is Strange: Before the Storm community:

Hello! My name is Zak Garriss. I’m the lead writer on Before the Storm, but I speak for the whole writing team when I say how incredibly excited we are to share Awake, our first episode, with you. It’s coming out today!

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Looking back at the journey it’s been writing this story, I’m so thankful. Thankful to Dontnod for crafting such an amazing world in Life is Strange, full of dark and lovely characters. Thankful to Square Enix for caring so much about this franchise and the community that loves it. Most of all, thankful to you, the fans, for your passion. It’s because of you that we’re returning to Arcadia Bay in Before the Storm.

When we first imagined what kind of a story we would tell, we considered nearly every character from the original game. Time and again, though, it was Chloe who stood out to us. She’s such a bundle of contradictions, like all of us maybe. Anger and love. Ferocity and fear. Strength and sadness, all rolled into one.

In some ways, telling Chloe’s story has been telling all of our stories. It’s a story about loss and grief, about the things in life that break us. And it’s a story about the people who come along and make us stronger in the broken places. A story everyone can resonate with, I think. Here are a few examples from a video we’ve created of real people sharing with their own best friends how grateful they are to have them in their lives.

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In the end, every writer on the team spilled blood on this game, pouring our hearts and pasts into the crafting of Chloe’s own. So thank you, from of all us, for giving Before the Storm a chance. We hope you love it as much as we’ve loved making it.

See you around.

Jon, Felice, Mallory, Alex, Ross, and Zak