Recording Alan Wake audio was just as scary as listening to it

In a recent interview with Designing Sound, the audio team behind Alan Wake revealed much about their process creating the game's creepy soundscape. One of the more interesting bits in the interview involves the field recording that was done to capture some of the nature sounds of the forest. Pete Comley, a freelance sound designer hired for the project, actually lives in Washington and recorded sounds in many of the forests on which Alan Wake's environments are based.

"Some of the recording was done very late at night in environments very similar to the ones Alan Wake tromps through, far in the woodsy backcountry," said Comley. "I had to keep reminding myself that there were no such things as "the Taken" when I heard the sound of elk crackling through the underbrush in the moonlit darkness (or even worse, total darkness)," he said, adding, "Making this game scared the daylights out of me more than once since I feel like I live where it takes place."

Check out the full, exhaustive interview for more on Alan Wake's audio design process, including how the team approached creating the sound of light, the Dark Presence and the Taken.