Illustrative photo by Javier Martínez on Unsplash, not game footage.
Rewind can restore a conversation. It cannot make the player forget what the other character just revealed.
That is the interesting design opportunity in a choice-driven game: the world can return to an earlier state while the person holding the controller now knows more.
Square Enix describes the original Life is Strange around rewinding time and changing the past, present and future. Without discussing plot spoilers or claiming access to its implementation, we can use that mechanic to ask a practical question: what exactly does your own prototype rewind?
Start with two ledgers
Here is a proposed design exercise, not a description of Life is Strange's code.
Imagine an original scene in which a player promises to return a borrowed key. A conversation reveals why the owner needs it. The player rewinds to before making the promise.
Write down two separate ledgers:
- World state: where the key is, whether the promise was made, which conversation has occurred in the current timeline, and which characters remember it.
- Player knowledge: what the human learned about the owner, the outcome they observed, and the alternatives they are now considering.
The first ledger belongs in the game's state model. The second is partly outside your software: you cannot reset someone's memory with a checkpoint.
A character's memory is a third design decision inside the world model. A time-aware protagonist might remember a discarded timeline. Other characters might not. Make that rule explicit rather than treating every speaker as if they share the player's knowledge.
Give the rewind a testable contract
For this invented scene, specify that the owner forgets the discarded conversation while the protagonist remembers it. Then test the contract:
| Moment | World-state expectation | Design question |
|---|---|---|
| Before conversation | Key ownership and promise flags have known starting values. | Can the player understand what they are choosing? |
| After conversation | The promise and its immediate response are recorded. | Is the consequence legible rather than merely a score change? |
| After rewind | Ownership and promise flags return to the checkpoint; only intended memories persist. | Does new knowledge open a meaningful reconsideration? |
| After choosing again | The scene resolves from the restored state without duplicate rewards. | Can the player explain why they repeated or changed the choice? |
This makes QA more useful than checking whether an undo animation plays. Test dialogue gates, inventory, promises, quest rewards and character knowledge together. A forgotten flag can accidentally make a character react to an event that no longer happened.
There is no requirement that every branch become a different ending. A repeated action made for a different reason can be interesting too. The important thing is not to promise consequences that the game never acknowledges.
Keep the evidence in its lane
Ali Razizadeh's study on philosophical concepts in interactive narratives analyzes 40 games using a qualitative, interpretive approach. Its abstract explicitly says the analysis concerns game structures and themes, not user self-reports or ethnographic data.
That supports a conversation about how games frame responsibility and agency. It does not establish that playing these games measurably improves a person's moral reasoning or real-world behavior.
The paper also identifies a useful design risk: reducing complex questions to binary choices. A good alternative is not necessarily a larger menu. It might be clearer consequences, competing commitments, or space to reflect after the action.
Ask about the reason, not the virtue score
In a small playtest, ask: “What did you believe would happen?” and “What made you keep or change your decision?”
Treat those answers as feedback on this scene, not a diagnosis of the player's character or proof of an educational effect. If someone made an unexpected choice, first check what information your game actually gave them.
That is why I like rewind as a design lens. It can make the relationship between knowledge, intention and consequence playable—without needing to declare a universally correct answer.
In your favorite choice-driven game, what made reconsidering a decision satisfying: a new outcome, new information, or a new reason to stand by it?
Sources: original Life is Strange description · Razizadeh's study and methodology.
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