Life is Strange full of hate symbols – that could be prevented. But a developer probably tried several times to incorporate Nazi symbolism in several places.
For many, the “Life is Strange” series has a very special place in their memories. Regardless of whether it is the first part of the game with the confusing time travel or the latest offshoot “True Colors” with the colors of human emotions: Life is Strange is full of relatable, likeable and diverse characters that will remain in your memory.
“True Colors” was also celebrated as one of the first games to have a “true” bisexual main character.
What has now come to light about the development studio Deck Nine is all the more bitter. Apparently an employee is trying to smuggle hate symbols into the next “Life is Strange” game.
What was discovered? As IGN reports, last year the Life is Strange development team made a strange discovery: Nazi symbolism appearing in various assets in the game. Those were:
At the beginning it was thought that this was simply a mistake – after all, the numbers 18 and 88 could also just be numbers. But the sheer abundance of these finds meant that doubts quickly arose. There were simply too many finds to be dismissed as coincidence. Elizabeth Ballou, a former narrative designer at Deck Nine, said:
I tried to leave room for the idea that one person built a series of extremely unfortunate coincidences. I find it very difficult to believe that. Especially because we told her to remove the “Sheeit” meme and they left it in, just smaller. So this is either a case of the worst miscommunication in human history… or it’s a case of Occam’s Razor, where the simplest explanation is that someone wanted to see how many of these things they could incorporate and get away with it.
There is no question that such symbols would be particularly problematic in Life is Strange (but of course everywhere else). After all, the “Life is Strange” games have received several awards, for the portrayal of various characters or the way they deal with social problems. At the Game Awards they even won the “Games for Impact” award several times.
The games are praised for their portrayal of diverse topics, relatable characters and a sensitive approach to a wide range of problems.
“Smuggled in” hate symbols would poison these games.
What other problems are there? The hidden Nazi symbolism is just one of many problems that the developer Deck Nine had, as the report shows.
Several developers stated that women were rarely considered for promotion. It always took the support of dozens of employees and letters to HR for women to even be recommended for promotions.
At the same time, there is a lot of criticism of one of the team’s former bosses, who allegedly approached women through “love bombing” and then wanted to exploit his position of power over them.
There is also talk of a lot of “crunch”. Many employees report having to put in between 60 and 80 hours of work per week for a month straight to complete the game’s production and meet otherwise impossible timelines.
The entire (very, very long) report from IGN is worth a look, and not just for fans of Life is Strange.
The next part of “Life is Strange” will soon be presented in more detail. But all of these reports cast a dark light on a developer whose games represent the exact opposite of what seems to be going on behind the scenes.
Life is Strange: True Colors was also criticized when it was released – because of a Tibet flag that caused review bombing.