We knew we would have to iterate and refine, but there was always a rough road map there.”Īs Alan Wake neared shipping in 2010, the team started focusing on making those rough plans more concrete. “For Alan Wake, from the get-go, we assumed there was going to be a sequel and we mapped things further out when it came to character, story, details and focus changes. That taught us that with Alan Wake and everything we do, the idea of a sequel and sequels has to be there from the beginning. “That proved to be a challenge when making the sequel. “I, for one, happily killed almost every character in Max Payne,” said Sam Lake, Remedy’s creative director and head writer, in a recent Polygon interview. As Wake digs deeper into the story, it becomes clear that things aren’t exactly normal in Bright Falls and that elements of a novel he doesn’t remember writing are coming to life.Ī concept sketch of a Bear Boss Taken. In Alan Wake, players take on the role of the titular antihero, a bestselling thriller novelist who is trying to figure out what happened to his wife during a vacation in Bright Falls, Washington. But then the game, like its fictional protagonist, simply vanished. Remedy even created a functioning internal prototype. It sold more than 3.2 million copies, and its story concluded with a confounding cliffhanger that launched many theories and extensive analysis.

Back at Kotaku, I wrote that the game helped to redefine interactive storytelling. Writers from publications like the Associated Press, The Independent and The Daily Telegraph praised the game’s pacing, its look and its storyline. It showed that episodic gaming could be compelling when released as a package, that narrative was important in games, and that violence and gore aren’t the only way to scare in an interactive experience. In 2010, the original Alan Wake, published by Microsoft, hit the Xbox 360. Alan Wake 2: For a passionate, perhaps not big enough, fan base, just hearing the name of that title can’t help but kickstart a jolt of excitement.

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