Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Interview

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage features two different timelines and a mysterious event that separates the four friends. All of these, I feel, are very reminiscent of Stephen King’s It, but was there anything else that influenced the setting?

Michel Koch: There are a lot of things that haven’t been a direct, heavy influence on the game. As you mentioned, we got some inspiration from It with the different timelines, but we do not have a murderous clown in the game. Other Stephen King’s books have influenced the game, as did some TV Shows, like Twin Peaks, with the way they use these supernatural elements as something that is around the show rather than in every episode. We really love the use of mystic and supernatural elements to strengthen the story and bring more chaos and higher stakes to what’s happening to the characters. Other TV Shows that had an influence are Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects. The latter is another show that blends different timelines well. Other games like Oxenfree and Nights in the Wood were also an influence with their group dynamics.

Cathy Vincelli: In terms of the two timelines, Twin Peaks is my main inspiration, and Yellow Jacket is another.

Luc Baghadoust: Like Michel said, there’s no direct inspiration. We want to do things our way, and it’s really all the culture, movies, and music that inspired and influenced us in some way or another.

Michel Koch: We also watched a lot of movies from the 90s just to get the vibe, like E.T. or The Goonies. Although the characters in the game are older than the kids in these movies, we still love the group dynamics of these movies, which show a group of kids bonding together.

So, we can say that Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is a coming-of-age story?

Michel Koch: It totally is. It is something we did in most of our games, and we love this type of story. Teenagehood is the transition from childhood to adulthood, a perfect moment of life where everything you make is forging who you will become as an adult, and this is something we like to talk about.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, as opposed to the Life is Strange series, is all about group dynamics. How difficult was it to create these dynamics, and what did it bring over your previous games?

Cathy Vincelli: I wouldn’t say it was difficult. For us, every main character is important, and we have tried to develop each of their personalities so that the group dynamics can make the player understand the essence of each character. The group dynamics also helped us make the game more diverse, as each character has a distinct design, and there are more points of view and more interesting dialogue options.

Michel Koch: It was very important for us to make the group work as one strong entity, but also to make sure that each girl was properly developed. Swan is the main character in Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, but the others have been developed the same way as if they could still be the main playable character in their own game if we wanted to. Even when you’re not seeing them on screen, you still know what they did off-screen thanks to a timeline feature, which made sense to have in the game for us as the adventure takes place over one summer in the past, and we won’t see every day of this summer. With the timeline, these off-screen events can still be talked about in dialogues, giving a feeling of realism to the whole experience.

As you mentioned, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage features multiple timelines. How do they alternate? Are there gameplay differences between them?

Michel Koch: The timelines alternate as the storytelling dictates. At the beginning of the game, you play as Swann in the present, a 45-year-old woman who heads to the bar where the reunion with her friends takes place. As she meets these women she has forgotten, she starts reconnecting with them, and, as this happens, there will be dialogue options that will make the player jump to the other timelines. As such, there’s really no systemic way to jump from one timeline to another. It’s driven by the discussion between these friends who are reconnecting after having forgotten about each other for the past 23 years. It’s a realistic way of doing something like this. Like going someplace with a friend you haven’t seen in a long time and remembering things that were forgotten. As for the gameplay differences, the present timeline is played in first-person view, while the past timeline is in third-person. In the present, Swan is coming back as a single individual who’s no longer part of a group, and we wanted the gameplay to reflect this difference.

In the preview build, there are plenty of greyed-out dialogue choices that only become available after some exploration. How important are those, and how much is missed with limited exploration?

Michel Koch: There’s a lot in the game that can be missed, with the dialogue system and with the camcorder, because we wanted the experience to be more dynamic than in our previous games. We wanted the players to look around, to find new things, and to talk about the objects they found. At the same time, it’s perfectly fine not to unlock these options, although you will be interacting less with the group. We put these in to place the player in the shoes of someone who is trying to fit in with a group of friends, so it’s up to the player to not say much, stay a bit in the back, or be part of the discussion.

You mentioned the camcorder. How did the idea come about? How does editing the footage impact the experience?

Cathy Vincelli: The camcorder is both a narrative tool and a gameplay mechanic. It’s Swan’s way of interacting with the world around her. She is an introvert, so she is using the camcorder to bridge the gap between herself and the world. During the game, there will be objectives directly tied to filming specific things, but there are also collectibles that can be discovered using it. It also ties into dialogue options, as some objects cannot be seen without a camcorder.

Michel Koch: Editing footage is mostly for fun. We think players will enjoy it because it allows them to express their creativity. We hope that they will share their edited footage online with others.

Luc Baghadoust: We’re really happy with the feature, as it adds something to the experience without forcing players to do anything. Whatever the player decides to do while shooting a sequence, it’s still satisfying to see the exact shot that was taken when a memoir has been completed.

You mentioned collectibles. How many of them are there in the game?

Cathy Vincelli: I can’t give you an exact number, but there will be quite a bit. As for the rewards, they will offer some more insight into Swan, as sometimes, you will unlock a voiceover from Swan narrating how she filmed a certain object. The collectibles are also linked to trophies and achievements, but we feel the additional insight on Swann will be a very good reward, even for those who aren’t into collecting trophies and achievements.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is being released as two separate episodes, and the gap between them is rather short. Why?

Luc Baghadoust: We know there are a lot of people who don’t like episodic games, but we like this distribution model because we like seeing players discuss and theorize about an episode while waiting for the other to release. The small gap between the two episodes allows this sort of online discussion without alienating those who would prefer playing the complete experience.
I think the gap between the two episodes also hits a sweet spot.

What’s next for Lost Records: Bloom & Rage? DLC expansions? New games?

Michel Koch: We are thinking about a lot of things. Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is an IP we own at DON’T NOD, and we have the luxury, as creators, to also start thinking outside the box about what we can do with this universe and with these characters. Stephen King, as we said, is a big inspiration, and I love the way he links all his books together. They can be part of something bigger, but they are also standalone stories. So we are thinking about world-building in this sense, and we already have ideas about how to continue the story, but as for what we will tackle first, we can’t say for the time being. Depending on the reception of a specific character, or the setting, we will decide where we want to go.

Thank you for your time!