Sat, Jan 29, 2011 | 21:32 GMT

Remedy shares its thoughts on Alan Wake inspiration, what consitutes a thriller, Mr. Scratch

alanwake

Remedy’s head of franchise development Oskari Häkkinen, and creative director Sam Lake sat down will Hell Decent to talk about their inspirations when creating Alan Wake, whether a possible sequel will contain more horror elements, and just who or what Mr. Scratch is.

According to Häkkinen, there’s a “fine line,” between horror and thriller, and the later is what Remedy considers Alan Wake.

“Horror is often associated with blood and gore, with Alan Wake we are going for a more cerebral experience where we add the psychological layer that really taps into a players emotions to be not only scared about the events that are happening, but also the terrifying events that might happen,” he said. “I think there certainly is a fine line between the two, however we feel thriller describes Wake better.

“Stimulating emotions is what good entertainment is all about. It’s apparent that we worked with components such as light and dark for instance. We felt they are emotional touchstones that can be used in a wonderful way in a thriller – we all have a primal instinct where light entails safety, while darkness and creeping shadows evoke fear.”

As far as Mr. Scratch was concerned, Lake offered: “Maybe we’ll find out at some point, but it might turn out to be something very unpleasant,” he said. “Maybe we should hope we’ll never have to find out. You have been warned.”

You can read the full interview over on Hell Decent, where neither Remedy man would be baited on announcing a sequel in the works.

19 comments

#1

BULArmy
29/01/11, 9:32 pm

That game had so much potential to become one of the greatest games ever made but it turned out just decent.
Of course we must take into account that Remedy is a small studio which started witch ambitious ideas but the lack of resources made them cut too many corners. Also I feel very dissapointed that the PC version was canned and I can sound like a PC elitist but I blame 360 with its mediocre hardware for the most changes to the game.

#2

Suikoden Fan
29/01/11, 9:39 pm

#3

itsucks
29/01/11, 9:39 pm

YOU in other and sound the mediocre pc fanboy wich didn’t even play the game (didn’t came out for the shitty piratestation) and talks shit on foruns about games he never played.

#4

OrbitMonkey
29/01/11, 9:41 pm

Sequal to be multiformat plz.

#5

Crysis
29/01/11, 9:49 pm

@3, His opinion is that the 360 hardware was to blame for the game not reaching it’s full potential, drop your testicles before replying with such immature nonsense, you can’t seriously be in love with you console THAT much, that you defend it’s comparably weak hardware from fact.
Seriously, get a fucking life kid.

#6

BULArmy
29/01/11, 9:50 pm

@3Wut?! I know my English is bad but I did’d understand anything except: not played the game. And I played the game twice and I said it is a decent game with great story. I am dissapointed that the game changed, almost completely from what was the intensions in the begining.

#7

Stephany Nunneley
29/01/11, 9:51 pm

@2 That guy sounds a lot like Gordon Lightfoot.

#8

Crysis
29/01/11, 9:53 pm

@6, He’s the largest 360 fanboy on this site, he’s probably only like 12, chances are he hasn’t played the game himself, but no ‘insult’ against the 360 or any of it’s exclusives must go undefended according to this baby.

#9

itsucks
29/01/11, 9:56 pm

Shut Up Crybabysis, go play Crysis 2 on you pieceofshit3… oh wait, Its in such a shitty state there isn’t even a demo ou. Pieceofshit3 is trully a crap system.

#10

Crysis
29/01/11, 10:15 pm

@9, LOL, do you accomplish anything by attempting to insult others? & assuming Microsoft isn’t paying you, do you accomplish anything by defending it against random people across the internet? Wait, no? hmm… in that case, grow up you little punk, there’s better things to do in life than trolling the internet.

#11

Prof.Dr.Moertel
29/01/11, 11:10 pm

I just love this game :)

#12

albo88
29/01/11, 11:44 pm

just look at how pathetic this PC nerds are
did Gears of War lose its potential after begin an 360 only?
i dont thing so Alan Wake didn’t sell as well cos with a concurrence like Rockstar Games u cant win
u see ubisoft is like ages that has finished its game and is not publishing it
im curios to see how will they move this winter will they push they game in to 2012 or will they release it

#13

HighWindXIX
30/01/11, 12:16 am

Sequel? Yes please!

#14

Wesker
30/01/11, 12:31 am

I so want a sequel, and I guess it is happening.
They won’t abandon Alan Wake that quickly, that’s just not Remedy’s style, I’d say.

And if everybody and his grandmom buy the Death Rallye remake for iPad and iPhone, the company has some nice entry fee for Alan Wake 2.

#15

YoungZer0
30/01/11, 1:03 am

I wonder what vg247 would be like without its trolls.

#16

I Am A Troll
30/01/11, 1:30 am

@15 Ah don’t say that, YoungZer0. Some of us are nice chaps. :)

#17

osric90
30/01/11, 1:54 am

Alan Wake dissapointed me so much (and I was expecting it a lot, maybe that’s why) and not “only” because of the graphics and system but because the full argumental and artistic part. Seriously, was there a part in this game that wasn’t obvious plagiarism to cult movie classics and old horror films? Even the jokes inside the game were about movies and others. A little is ok, but the full game being based and copying everything of everywhere was “fuck, let’s finish this already” and when I reached that stupid… SPOILER tornado thing after the lot of clone boring enemies… END OF SPOILER I wanted to die.

#18

Johnny Cullen
30/01/11, 3:55 am

I’m basically counting the days to when they announce the sequel. Absolutely loved Alan Wake. Best game I played last year bar Mass Effect 2 and Heavy Rain.

#19

Blerk
31/01/11, 8:55 am

It wasn’t all that I wanted it to be, but I think people are overly harsh on it. A bit more variety, a bit more complexity, a little less ‘corridor’ and it’d have been right there. Playing the second bit of DLC over Christmas made me realise how much I’d like some more.

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