Lake: 'Remedy is not a factory,' team fortunate to spend time on Alan Wake's debut adventure

by Xav de Matos { Jun 8th 2009 at 11:00PM }

Following our extended look of the Alan Wake demo showcased at Microsoft's E3 2009 keynote, Remedy lead writer Sam Lake took a moment to answer our questions regarding the evolution of the title, since it was first announced in 2005.

"We have been in the fortunate position where we've had time to do research and do prototypes ... keep the quality bar high and explore, until we find the right combination of different elements," Lake said. "Things have evolved along the way. This is an action game, but there is a lot of variety." Lake also explained that Alan Wake will feature segments of gameplay during daytime sequences, which will allow players to explore and interact with the "quirky locals" of Bright Falls. According to Lake, the day and night cycle is governed by the game's linear storyline.

Lake also made it clear his team is no stranger to the perception that Remedy Entertainment had been taking their time bringing Alan Wake's debut adventure to players. "Remedy is not a factory," Lake said. "We take our time and try out different things until we feel have found the right combination and a good balance for the game." Alan Wake is scheduled to release in Spring 2010.

Gallery: Alan Wake

Tags: alan-wake, microsoft, remedy, remedy-entertainment, sam-lake

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jawmuncher @ Jun 8th 2009 11:15PM

This is really looking like a great game

The Dark Wayne @ Jun 8th 2009 11:20PM

know who else wasnt a factory? 3D realms

Gamertag: GOPAL892005 @ Jun 8th 2009 11:29PM

Was just gonna say that :p

seemoneh @ Jun 8th 2009 11:39PM

HAHAH!

Jcarpio @ Jun 9th 2009 12:44AM

You know who else is not a development factory? Polyphany. Remedy's last game was released in 2003 and polyphany in 2001.

Dr. Gregory Holmes @ Jun 9th 2009 1:38AM

Oh crap! JUAJAJAUJAUAJAJAJAJUAHA.

Dani Reader @ Jun 8th 2009 11:37PM

hmmm. I'm not sure what it is, but something tells me this will not be a very good game. Call it intuituition, call it bullshit; but something isnt right about something.

Christ, i should really think about what i type now and again

The Dark Wayne @ Jun 8th 2009 11:58PM

i get the same feeling, long delays are almost never a good sign, a lot of games that take forever to come out end up sucking, this looks like it might happen. I cant really place anything it's just that foreboding sense of suckage

Crusty Magic @ Jun 9th 2009 12:26AM

Remedy made Max Payne.

They know how to make good games.

Alex @ Jun 9th 2009 10:23AM

Was I the only one who thought Crysis sucked after it's many delays?

CH3BURASHKA @ Jun 8th 2009 11:58PM

God bless those Norwegians.

Swedes?

Xav de Matos @ Jun 9th 2009 12:03AM

Remedy is from Finland.

joeybeast @ Jun 9th 2009 12:41AM

God bless those Scandinavians.

Got them covered.

joeybeast @ Jun 9th 2009 12:41AM

That lighting engine is money.

Dr. Gregory Holmes @ Jun 9th 2009 1:41AM

The demo wasn't that good, dodging was like pole dancing, i expected more frome a big project like A.Wake.

myabsolution @ Jun 9th 2009 3:06AM

The entire game sucks because of its dodge animation.

That is such a deep argument.

Torence @ Jun 9th 2009 6:13AM

"The day and night cycle is governed by the game's linear storyline"? WHAT?
What's that supposed to mean? In that old tech demo they said the night/day cycle would be independent from the game, and the atmospherical effects too, like a real open-world...now it's no more like this? It's all scripted? Please tell me i'm wrong...I'm having too much faith in this project...

Rishad @ Jun 9th 2009 7:32AM

@ Torrence

They always have said that the day and night cycle would be governed by the linear storyline, as well as the weather effects.

Guys have a little faith in this game, it will be great! Remedy, while taking long wit this game, knows how to make quality stuff. Perhaps why they are taking so long IS because they want to make it the best possible experience.

Alan Wake will be nothing short of spectacular. Especially when Microsoft is boosting so much about it. So far, everything Microsoft boosted about, turned out to be a smash hit! (Halo, Gears of War, Fable)

Alphathon @ Jun 9th 2009 9:30AM

In all fairness Halo, Gears and Fable were smash hits BECAUSE they were boosted by microsoft (if there is one thing microsoft can do well it's advertising). I have never personally been a fan of Halo (too colourful and dare I say it, consoley) but I liked gears, and fable. All are worthy of praise, but IMO not as much as they get. I still maintain that Halo is nothing more than a generic FPS. Watch Yahtzee's review of it and you'll pretty much get how I feel about it. Gears is much more unique from a gameplay point of view, but the setting is also a bit generic. Fable is a good, but doesn't go in depth enough for an RPG (and the co-op which it was touted for before launch sucks balls).

I'm not digging at MS for this, as nintendo is probably worse. They didn't even have to advertise Mario Galaxy and it would have been a smash hit purelly because of the fanboys (again, also a good game).

My point is, simply being exclusive is usually enough to almost double sales on that system (over what they would have been on that platform had it been multi platform). That is as long as they advertise. Killzone 2 for example didn't do nearly as well as Halo 3, but IMO should have done (it is also just as generic, although I prefer the feel a bit, and the graphics are better, no matter what the fanboys say). It did do far better than it probably deserved as well though, compared to titles like CoD4/WaW or Half-life 2, or heck even things like UT3 (which while not as good as UT2004, is still good, even in it's shitty 360 version).

*prepairs to get downvoted by fanboys of all kinds*

Taylor @ Jun 9th 2009 9:51AM

Color was the reason I enjoyed Halo. That and Call of Duty seem like the only colorful FPS games left. I had to sell Killzone 2 and only played a few hours of Fallout 3 before getting tired of it. Maybe I'm an old gamer, but I don't like games without color.