Sam Lake can’t escape Alan Wake. Unlike the titular character making an attempt to interrupt freed from the Dark Presence’s clutches in Remedy’s psychological thriller, although, he doesn’t need to both.
A decade has handed since Alan Wake launched on Xbox 360, however Lake continues to be as passionate concerning the character because the followers who bombard his Twitter account asking for an overdue sequel.
It’s that unbridled enthusiasm that helped to spark wild fan hypothesis about how Alan Wake and Control could also be linked. Alan Wake Easter eggs found in Control’s Panopticon section teased such a chance however, as a lot as their inclusion have been a type of fanservice, these secrets and techniques supplied some catharsis to Lake for a property he’s always revisited.
“I very much wanted to include them,” Lake says. “As I’ve said before, we’ve explored the possibility of an Alan Wake sequel a couple of times, but the timing hasn’t been right and things haven’t clicked into place. Having thought a lot about Alan Wake-related ideas through the years, it felt wonderful to put some of that in there.”
Following Max Payne 2’s launch in October 2003, Lake and Petri Jarvilehto – Remedy’s ex-creative director – spent a yr brainstorming concepts for brand new IPs. A Stephen King-inspired setting was ultimately determined upon, however components from different ideas – zombie apocalypse highway journey and humorous fantasy concepts to call however two – grew to become very important parts of Alan Wake’s last product.
“Even though we didn’t end up doing the others, bits and pieces of these different concepts stayed,” Lake says. “In that fantasy game, there was an idea of light and darkness being an element. At that point, work had started on the tech, engine, and tools side for an open world, and for dynamic day and night cycles. They stayed in all of the concepts, but the ideas evolved.”
While some components developed throughout that inventive course of, others remained untouched. The Twin Peaks-inspired, Pacific North-West city, Alan Wake’s protagonist, and its episodic format acted as anchors to construct the game round. With the setting and construction established, a mysterious plot and eclectic solid of characters have been the following necessities. A horror movie screenplay – written by Lake throughout his Theatre Academy of Finland research between Max Payne 1 and a couple of – and his personal childhood supplied the inspiration for each.
“In the screenplay there’s a witch-type character that was based on the Baba Yaga folktale, which influenced Barbara Jagger. There were these Swedish characters – the Anderson brothers – as neighbours in that, so that’s where they came from. And then there was this important component – a light switch called the Clicker – which was a toy of mine. I spent our summer vacations on a big apple farm and there was a lot of junk lying around. I used to love junk, so I had all these things that I didn’t know quite what they were, but loved imagining all kinds of purposes for them.”
Music additionally performed an influential function in designing Alan Wake’s characters and narrative. The game’s licensed tracks, similar to David Bowie’s Space Oddity, helped develop key people and themes – such because the battle between mild and darkish – that performed essential roles within the plot.
“I had the idea of getting these songs very early on in the project,” Lake explains. “Thomas Zane – the diver who floats round – his identify comes from Bowie’s alter-ego Aladdin Sane. Having Space Oddity be about an astronaut, and us having that character, I believe there are echoes between them. Another instance is Poe’s track Haunted, which is sort of a soundtrack for Mark Danielewski’s House of Leaves. Poe is his sister and, being an enormous fan of his e-book, I found the album and appreciated it quite a bit, so thematic concepts got here from that as properly.”
Light and darkness featured prominently throughout fight phases too. The Taken – individuals possessed by the Dark Presence – are enemies shrouded by shields of darkness that want eradicating earlier than standard weapons can be utilized. The concept to make use of a flashlight as a dual-wielded weapon was one other function from Alan Wake’s authentic idea. Determining how this could work virtually, although, took time to get proper.
“The flashlight was a key element from early on,” Lake says. “But one big question we struggled with for a long time was figuring out the enemies. How does this darkness take you? What shape does it take? How does that come about in the gameplay? The flashlight’s exact functionality, and the idea of boosting the light to make it drain faster, but remove shields quicker, took a lot of testing and lots of iteration.”
Combat mechanics weren’t the one points that Remedy confronted. The marriage of an episodically structured game, an open world setting, and a dynamic day and evening cycle proved problematic. Difficulties with programming NPCs to react successfully to day and evening cycles emerged, whereas the distinction in tones – between humorous larger-than-life characters, RPG-style missions, and terrifying evening time occasions – affected plot linearity and cohesion.
“I firmly believe that the story and writing needs to click with the game design for it to be meaningful,” Lake says. “For example, we had one version where the darkness had already invaded and taken over. We had survivors who had boarded themselves up in houses – where they had generators and lights set up – and they gave you missions, but it was losing this base and foundation of a real world. We also tried it where the gameplay was about driving around, trying to find gasoline, having a mobile generator that you can fuel and lights that move around to set up traps and defend doorways, but that didn’t quite click into place.”
With Remedy struggling to mix Alan Wake’s completely different concepts into one bundle, the tough determination to discard the open-world component, and reinvent Alan Wake as a linear expertise, was taken in early 2008. Instead of scraping three years of environmental work, nevertheless, Remedy determined to repurpose its current map, and dynamic day and evening cycle, into its reworked mission.
“Though the game became a linear experience, that whole map is still there,” Lake revealed. “Even though we’re controlling what time of day it is, the day and night cycle is there in the background. The sun is always in the right direction and the map makes sense. I think that these add, in a weird way, to the believability and that this is a real place.”
Alan Wake’s launch ended its in depth five-year growth cycle however, regardless of the issues Remedy bumped into, the studio wasn’t able to stroll away from its new franchise. The game’s cliffhanger ending left the door open for a sequel and, whereas the workforce had plans to proceed Alan’s story in future titles, discussions with then-partner Microsoft resulted in a change of route. What adopted was The Signal and The Writer expansions – two extra episodes that explored the darker, extra psychotic facet of Alan’s psyche.
“It was quite late when we started talking about DLC,” Lake admits. “One of our concepts again then was that the DLC could be a Night Springs arrange known as Alan Wake’s American Nightmare. We had discussions with Microsoft concerning the concept and so they weren’t actually eager. They felt that the DLC ought to proceed from the place the story left off. We felt that the DLC couldn’t go ahead with the place we ended. So, as a substitute of going ahead, we went inward into Alan’s thoughts.”
Alan Wake’s American Nightmare was launched in February 2012, however served as a spin-off moderately than a mainline collection entry. Hopes for Alan Wake 2 haven’t diminished amongst its fanbase however, despite Remedy revisiting the franchise between other major projects, concrete concepts haven’t materialised.
Control’s Easter eggs have modified that. Those Alan Wake secrets and techniques, coupled with artwork for Control’s upcoming AWE expansion, have closely instructed a connection between the games. With Quantum Break also teasing the possibility of Alan Wake existing in a similar realm, the concept of a linked Remedy universe is one that’s been speculated about until now.
“We didn’t want to talk about it beforehand, but we’ve had the idea for a connected Remedy universe,” Lake completely reveals. “Now that Control is out, it’s obvious that what happened to Alan Wake – in the game – and Control share the same world. It felt interesting from a narrative perspective that – if we think about Alan Wake as a subjective story – it’s Alan stuck in this situation trying to understand it. Now, with Control, we have this government agency who are looking into these things. They have a scientific approach of calling them “Altered World Events”, analysing them, and making an attempt to grasp them.”
How Alan Wake and Control are inextricably linked stays a thriller. The AWE growth isn’t launched till later this yr however, whereas naturally steering away from spoilers, Lake did tease what followers can anticipate from Control’s subsequent DLC.
“Through AWE you’ll learn more about the Bureau’s involvement, research, and interest in Alan Wake and the events that took place 10 years ago,” Lake stated. “We’re really happy to give fans of the original game a bit more of Alan Wake-related content.”
Alan Wake is ingrained in Remedy’s DNA. Quantum Break and Control owe their growth to discarded sequel ideas. Remedy’s Northlight game engine was born out of its dynamic day and evening cycle and in-engine climate situations. Fans proceed to find the game after discovering Control’s secrets and techniques, and it’s helped to spawn an interconnected game universe.
Alan Wake might not have offered as properly, or obtained as many gaming gongs, as different Remedy titles, however its legacy impacts work on Remedy’s new initiatives. Lake’s work on CrossFireX’s story marketing campaign, and unannounced Epic Games Publishing projects, have been aided by what he realized when writing Alan Wake’s plot. It’s unsurprising, then, that Lake continues to look again on it with a selected fondness ten years on from its authentic launch.
“Because of this upcoming anniversary I’ve been going through some old documents,” Lake says. “It’s one of those things where it was a relatively difficult project to find its final shape, and the fact that we managed to do it – I personally feel that the finished product was great. As far as I can see, there are more Alan Wake fans – eager and active ones – than there were early on. There’s definitely some staying power. I’m really proud of all the games that we’ve made, but Alan Wake has a special place in my heart.”
