Lost Records: Bloom & Rage’s Nora has acne. It’s no big deal

Developer Don’t Nod released a new first-look trailer for Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, its new original franchise, during Gamescom’s Opening Night Live in August. The game, like the Life Is Strange games before it, centers on the real lives of teenagers, often with a bit of magic or fantasy. The 1-minute, 34-second trailer has a lot to like: gorgeous Michigan scenery, ’90s throwbacks, and a spooky mystery. But the first thing I noticed was a minor character detail — skin textures. Specifically, I noticed that teenage goth Nora has a spattering of acne and acne scarring across her cheeks and chin.

I’ve had acne — sometimes a lot of it! — as both a teenager and an adult. I have acne scars on my temples and near-constant dryness from my benzoyl peroxide cleanser. You don’t see acne portrayed very much in entertainment, especially not in a positive or even neutral light. Acne is a normal thing in many teenagers’ lives, yet it’s so rarely shown as just that. Researchers have found that people with acne are often stigmatized, both socially and professionally. In media, it’s used as a dramatic plot device — a big ol’ zit before prom — or to denote a character as unattractive or nerdy. And that’s if it’s even there at all; even in acne medication commercials, actors typically have largely perfect skin. That sort of thing isn’t really helping fight that stigma.

And so it stands out when there’s a pretty, seemingly confident character who’s just got acne. “Lost Records has a more realistic style,” Don’t Nod lead character artist Juliette Devillers told Polygon. “We can see even the pores of the skin, which is different from the previous project we worked on, Life Is Strange. It came pretty naturally when working on the textures, especially since we’re working on teenagers. Most of them have pimples and skin blemishes, but on Nora it’s more pronounced, the acne.”

It became so normal that Devillers said the team doesn’t really even think about the acne anymore. Don’t Nod studio director Michel Koch told Polygon that Nora is a character who likes to be the center of attention, who wants to take up space. Unlike in other media, acne isn’t something that defines her experience. It’s just there. Devillers said she was inspired by a friend she had in high school — a boy who was popular and charismatic and had acne. It was important to Devillers, Koch, and the team not to make a big deal of it. “I don’t think we ever talk about Nora’s acne in the game,” Devillers said. “We’re not making a big deal out of it. She just has acne.”

This sort of mindset extends to Bloom & Rage’s other characters, too. The game’s different art style, alongside newer technology like Unreal Engine 5, allows for more realistic detail. “That’s why we were able to work on more of those details for the skin, but also for clothes,” Koch said. Devillers described some other small, intentional details that make up these characters: Swan is covered in freckles, but Autumn has some, too. “We even have one in her eye, which is a very nice detail,” Devillers said. “We had to tweak the eye shader to be able to have one.” Kat’s skin is pretty pale, and you can see the blue veins under her skin. “It’s genuinely more fun to take care like that with telling a story [about these characters with their designs].”

Koch added that the team also thought about symmetry — and asymmetry — in character faces. “You almost never find someone who has perfectly aligned eyes,” Koch said. “Almost each of us have an eye that’s slightly higher than the other, or slightly bigger than the other. That’s something we try to do with the characters to make sure they’re not perfectly symmetric, because, again, it gives a naturalism.”

“We tried to do something real, like a true thing,” Devillers said. “We’re not trying to push anything. We’re just trying to create characters that feel real and that you can get attached to because of that.”