Uncovering Alan Wake: Four Questions For Remedy

10/6/2008 7:24 PM | 3 Comments | Page 1 of 2

Alan Wake has been a mystery since it was first revealed back in 2006. Since announcing the game for the Xbox 360 and PC, Remedy Entertainment has gone completely underground, and Alan Wake has more or less fallen off the map. Many thought the game had become vaporware -- until recently, when the company announced that it would debut the first new trailer for Alan Wake during the theatrical release of "Max Payne" in Finland.

What took so long? Has the game changed at all? Crispy Gamer has an exclusive interview with Sam Lake, Lead Writer at Remedy. Lake, who wrote the story and screenplay for both Max Payne titles, is one of the main figures behind this eerie title.

Crispy Gamer: What took so long to come out with new information about the game? Was this a Microsoft decision, or was the game just not ready to show? Was it a technology situation with the Xbox 360 hardware? Alan Wake has fallen off the map for two years, and many people believe the game won't even come to the Xbox 360, but rather the next Xbox. Why debut a new trailer in Finland instead of making a huge splash at something like E3 or Leipzig?

Sam Lake: Remedy is a relatively small company compared to many other developers working on projects of Alan Wake's magnitude. Our quality bar is high. The Xbox 360 is working just fine for us. We have been silent because we have been concentrating on making the best possible game -- PR work takes a lot of time, and all that is time not spent on the game. That said, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." We make cinematic games, and with the Max Payne movie we were presented with an opportunity to see the Alan Wake trailer on the big screen.

Crispy Gamer: Has the original premise of the game changed since you debuted it back in 2006? When originally shown, it was mentioned that Alan Wake would be played out in episodes, much like a television show. This psychological thriller would take place in the Pacific Northwest, in a small town called Bright Falls, Washington -- it instantly made us think of "Twin Peaks." How did that show influence Alan Wake, and did you have any other major influences?

Lake: The premise of Alan Wake remains true to the original vision of the game. If anything, along the way we have been looking hard for ways to make the game more Alan Wake, if that makes any sense. "Twin Peaks" is certainly one major source of inspiration for us. An idyllic, quirky small town with something terrible lurking under the surface is the core of our setting. Another major theme in our psychological thriller is the mind of an artist, and the way his fears are transferred to the world around him through his art -- a theme that writers like Stephen King, Paul Auster and Bret Easton Ellis have explored, to name just a few.