Tell Me Why is a milestone in LGBT representation with gaming’s first transgender lead character
- Tell Me Why’s transgender lead character Tyler Ronan is a rarity in all of mainstream entertainment, but especially in video games
- The game balances Tyler’s ‘transness’ with not making it the central focus in a story about siblings uncovering the truth about their mother’s death
When it comes to interpersonal relations, there’s something far worse than a broken heart: the restless mind.
At least that’s one reading of Tell Me Why, a three-part narrative game from the studio behind 2015’s Life is Strange. But Tell Me Why has ambitions beyond the tricks our brain can play on us.
The latest from Dontnod Entertainment reflects the French studio’s obsession with American culture and telling stories that capture the weight of our prejudices.
Life is Strange 2, which wrapped last year, zeroed in on the ruptured promises of the American dream, telling its tale from the point of view of two young Mexican-Americans from Seattle who feel consistently out of place in the country they call home.
Tell Me Why immediately attracted attention when it was announced, in part because Dontnod Entertainment also released an extensive list of questions and answers that sought to explain how it handled the portrayal of its transgender lead – a rarity in all of mainstream entertainment but especially in video games.