"Words and images are my life." — Christian Divine[1]
Christian Divine is an American writer and actor working with DONTNOD Entertainment as a writer since 2014. He is the Lead Writer, Co-Director and supportive Artistic Supervisor for all DONTNOD-developed Life is Strange related installments, the original Life is Strange (2015), The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit (2018) and Life is Strange 2 (2018).
Career[]
Christian Divine majored in English Language and Literature and Film with bachelor's degrees. He graduated from Long Beach City College, where he was the college's writer circle's president, in 1994 and from the University of California, Berkely in 1998.
From 1997 to 2000, he worked for as a screenwriter for American game developer Ion Storm where he worked closely with Designers John Romero and Warren Spector to implement story, character and dialogue for Deus Ex and Daikatana (both released in 2000). He wrote various scripts for game cut-scenes, branching dialogue using proprietary software and with programmers, art directors, artists, actors, musicians on the cinematic cut-scenes.[1]
Life is Strange[]
"But what I did put in Life is Strange that made me feel missed is the very first thing that Jefferson says in the game which is 'I could put any of you in a dark corner and frame you' and we had a lot of talk about that, because they were like 'Are you sure that's...?' and I'm like 'I think we're gonna get away with this if we just put it in the background, cause...' and later on people were like 'oh.. eerggh he tells you from the begi...' Spoiler art!"[2]
Personal Life[]
Representation and talking about diversity in different kind of ways is very important to Christian Divine in his work on the Life is Strange franchise, and as a writer and creator in general.
"And you know, in terms of diversity, you know, I'm disabled, so I look at, it's very important to me that we have representation. And I can count on my one hand really how many disabled or handicapped characters in the media there are and how many disabled writers or entertainers. There's very few. And so one of the things about writing for Chloe's scene [stay?] in the wheelchair - I do not know what it's like to be in a wheelchair. I would never assume that I can tell somebody what it's like, but I have friends in wheelchairs, and I understand the obstacles and the challenges and I know how dynamic they are. And so it's - it's a matter of putting yourself -- as a disabled person, you're often on the fringe of society, so that's what you bring as a writer, if you can, to the characters."[3]
"I know what it's like to be marginalized. I have spent my whole life that way. I'm disabled—I was born with one hand, so… I never say that I know what it's like to be a person of color or a Latino person or anything like that. Part of what you're doing when you're a writer is you're putting yourself in another person's shoes. Anybody who's reading this, if you're interested in being a writer, your first order of business is to be interested in other people. You really have to step outside yourself. It's not about you."[4]
"Well, disabled people are the biggest minority on the planet. It transcends race and gender and culture and as a writer for video games, I have always wanted to represent not only disabled, but all people that don't have a voice and lack diversity in games. [5]
Trivia[]
- Christian Divine is a great Star Wars fan.
- He describes himself as a "hardcore scion of Dungeons & Dragons and Donkey Kong."[1]
- He is credited as "Additional Voices" in the end credits of "Polarized", as he voiced several people who attend the "Everyday Heroes Contest" exhibition at the Zeitgeist Gallery.
- In an interview with Dontnod it was mentioned that Christian would show his scripts for the original Life is Strange to his nieces to "read it and see if it feels genuine and fresh."[6]
- Christian Divine has an older brother called Scott. He mentions him during an interview about Life is Strange 2.[7]
- Christian Divine lives in the San Francisco Bay area, which likely inspired the prominent appearance of San Francisco when Max Caulfield visits the Zeitgeist Gallery in Episode 5 of Life is Strange and other instances in the franchise.
- After the remastered edition of Life is Strange was announced on March 18, 2021, Christian posted an early picture he drew of Chloe to his Twitter account with the caption: "Hella pre-mastered Chloe circa my LIS notebook 2015."
Interviews[]
- Blackwell Podcast Episode 15 - Christian Divine (February 21, 2016)
- Christian Divine Interview - Musing from Arcadia Bay - FilmGamesEtc (May 31, 2016)
- GDC Europe Talk (August 2016)
- The hidden GENIUS behind LIFE IS STRANGE - "The Story's Behind" (October 24, 2016)
- PAX West 2018 Panel (August 31, 2018)
- Empathy is the Defining Core of Life is Strange: An Interview with Christian Divine (January 17, 2019)
- Life Is Strange 2 Writer Christian Divine on Politics, Realistic Romance, and Dysfunctional Families (August 15, 2019)
- Writer With Bionic Hand Creates Video Games to Represent All People (August 23, 2019)
- TBC
External Links[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Christian Devine's Linked In Profile
- ↑ PAX West 2018 Panel (August 31, 2018)
- ↑ PAX West 2018 Panel (August 31, 2018)
- ↑ Empathy is the Defining Core of Life is Strange: An Interview with Christian Divine (January 17, 2019)
- ↑ Writer With Bionic Hand Creates Video Games to Represent All People (August 23)
- ↑ Life is Strange: Ambiguous young love among leading ladies (August 14, 2014)
- ↑ PAX West 2018 Panel (August 31, 2018)