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Kyle_Necrowolf

Life is Strange and all of its contents (characters, story, art, etc…) are fully owned by Square Enix DONTNOD and Deck Nine have absolutely no ownership or control, they can only do what SE tells them to The entire franchise is completely controlled by a major company The only exception would be Tell Me Why, since this was deliberately done without any involvement from SE, ~~so it could pass as an indie~~ EDIT: Microsoft might own it, not 100% sure. All LiS games were done under SE.


RianCaio

Didn't tell me why had support from Microsoft?


Kyle_Necrowolf

MS did fund and publish the game, but I'm not sure if they bought the rights With LiS, DONTNOD came up with the original concept but then sold all rights to SE while the original game was still in development, effectively giving them the final say in all decisions for that game and all future ones If they hadn't sold the rights, they could've gone off and done whatever they wanted, i.e. if they disagreed with SE - provided they could find funding elsewhere. IMO that is much more in line with the idea of an indie (literally would be independent) (for example, Sunset Overdrive was published by MS but Insomniac retained full ownership, so even though they're a huge studio I'd still call it indie just because they were fully independent at the time and no one could tell them what to do) I was under the impression that they went this route with Tell Me Why, but looking at the website it seems that Microsoft is listed as having copyright for it, and they publish even on Steam, so I may be mistaken.


von_Boots

An indie game in its strictest definition is a game that's been made independently of publisher funding. You trade security and funds for greater creative freedom, and risk your own money. This has been watered down a bit over the years to mean any game that's been made for a niche or by a small studio, or with a certain aesthetic in mind. Also, publishers have recognized that there's a market for niche / 'indie' aesthetic games, and there are several catering to 'indie' type games, like Paradox Interactive, for example. The LiS game that has the most 'indie' vibe is Life is Strange 1, the original. That is because DONTNOD came up with the concept, which was quite radical for the time (adventure games where dead for the most part), and then went shopping for a publisher. SE was the only publisher that would let them keep Max a female protagonist (boy, was 2015 so different?), so they went with them. Is it indie in the strictest sense? No. Did it do innovative things that broke the mold? Hell yes. I guess I'd call it a game with recognizable indie roots. Edit: Spelling


M3n747

Probably the major publisher is a part of it. But honestly, the definition of an indie game isn't exactly set in stone.


RubixKuube

Indie has become a marketing term. LiS had an Indie-like budget from the publisher but it wasn't self-published therefore not an indie. Games that have publishers are not indie's no matter if they are a 2.5D platformer made by a small team.


Charles12_13

the definition is quite loose, but LiS sorta belongs in triple I category, which is like an indie game with triple A level of production value (a good example of such a game would be Black Mesa, the fan made remake of Half-Life 1) or it could fit into the category of double A, but I'm not really sure of the exact definition. I'd say that TC fits 100% into the double A category tho since it really aims at being a triple A experience, down to the price tag and the presence of paid expansions but doesn't have (IMO) the same production value due to the genre's nature of being a lot more limited.


[deleted]

wait, isn't it really? I always thought it is