Bringing Lisa to Xbox

Hey, I’m Austin Jorgensen, the creator of LISA, and I’m excited to finally bring LISA to Xbox fans around the world alongside Serenity Forge! LISA is a side-scrolling RPG filled with quirky characters and moral desolation, told in two parts: The Painful and The Joyful. These games take you on a journey that forces you to confront yourself through tragedy, comedy, and brutality. Lisa takes place in Olathe, a place that’s still reeling from “The White Flash,” an apocalyptic event that wiped out all women. The resulting land and its inhabitants vary wildly, from the quirky and funny to the cruel and twisted. Along your journey and all its encounters, there’s one constant: consequences. Whether you are greedy, selfless, risk-taking or shy, the game will make you remember those choices… Over and over again.

Revisiting a Cult-Classic Ten Years after Launch

Originally the project was just porting the game to consoles. Mentally, I thought I was done with the game–I had finished it years ago and had started on future projects. But as I worked with Serenity Forge, questions about certain design choices came up. As I started to address these issues, I had to explore what it meant for the game’s story. And after almost ten years away from LISA, I found myself facing down my old writing. Pretty soon, I started noticing there was a little more I wanted to say about Brad, Olathe, and its people. Lisa deals with themes regarding mental health, personhood, and purpose, and the way those interact with problems like generational trauma, suicide, and abuse. Behind this and all the humor, there’s a meaning. When I finished Lisa, I left the story very open-ended. Revisiting the game with fresh eyes has given me the chance to really expand on the meaning I was originally aiming for. So alongside remastering the game, we started working on new content, the final piece of the puzzle, and I’m really excited for old and new fans to experience Lisa in its complete form. At the end of the day, I hope that with the new story (in all its forms), perspectives are changed and someone out there is able to find meaning in the game–to find something that really resonates with them.

Delivering the ‘Pain’ with Xbox Features

Bringing the game to consoles has been a fun ride. The team at Serenity Forge has brought in features for the Xbox release like a 120 FPS mode and pixel-perfect upscaling for full HD displays and beyond. One of my favorite moments was testing the game and experiencing it with proper controller vibration for the first time. Every stumble, fall off a cliff, and machine-gun punch got more ‘oomph’ than ever. The pain felt even more real.

Keeping True to the Original

Despite the new content, and remastering of the game, I want to assure old-time fans of the games that this is still Lisa. Serenity Forge and I have worked extremely hard to keep the game as close to the original as possible. That said, there were a few jokes in the original that we’ve updated, as I think they actually distract from the specific kind of humor that Olathe is known for (like the Black Salvation Ranger scene). Every change is one that I made personally. As a result, this new version is what I truly believe in, and I think the love I’ve poured into this title will be obvious to all.

Lisa has always been about perspective. With the release of the Definitive Edition, new fans will be welcomed into Olathe with fresh eyes, and returning fans get the chance to help Brad all over again–perhaps making different decisions along the way. I hope that everybody will learn something new about themselves. So please check out Lisa: Definitive Edition when it releases on July 18th on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. Thank you all for the support throughout the years. Lisa is finally complete.

LISA: Definitive Edition

Serenity Forge:

• Explore Olathe and unmask its twisted secrets with LISA: The Definitive Edition, including the original narrative-driven RPG LISA: The Painful and its sequel LISA: The Joyful.