'In Oxenfree 1, there's that one big moment where you can choose whether or not to prioritize Ren or Clarissa, and we wanted a lot more of those,' says Hines.

They weren't interested in reinventing the wheel - even with the addition of the walkie-talkie, the conversations in Lost Signals take place in the same style as conversations in the first game - but they wanted to open the game up, giving players more agency. The walkie helps achieve one of the Night School team's design goals for the sequel. It became a thing to make things even creepier at times, which you'll see a lot of in the game, and it also became a method to tell new stories.' The walkie was a thing that was a vessel for hints, but it became a vessel to interact with new characters. I bet if I call them, I can learn about something. I know that this person knows these woods well. Or I can choose to call people and interrupt my own game progression because I want to talk to somebody who's familiar with this location.

'It feels really simple, it pretty dramatically changes how the player interacts with the world,' Krankel explains, 'because now I am communicating with people that are physically right there with me, but I also could be getting a call from somebody at that time that I can choose to accept and have that interrupt things and interact with them and their own story, while they're off somewhere else on Camena. Riley carries a walkie-talkie that allows her to participate in the same signature real-time conversational dialogue from the original Oxenfree, but with the broader cast of characters spread across Camena. The walkie Hines mentions is a new addition to the game.

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