Alan Wake 2 is a horror game. In horror stories, we only have victims and monsters. We've come up with a new
take on the Dark Presence, which is more dangerous
and terrifying than ever. Horror for me, is something that connects my basic primal fears with reality. I love things like atmospheric horror, psychological horror, haunted houses. I like it because the genre of horror has the guts to look at the things that you are too scared to look at yourself. I think a good horror can
stick with you for days, sometimes even years. And I think if a good horror manages
to give you that feeling, they've really captured something elusive and almost intangible and traumatise the audience in a really, really good way. ALAN: I don’t want to be in this story.
Just write me out of this story I really like writing it
because I don't have to be surprised by it in a way. I'm setting up surprise for other people. I can scare them.
I don't scare myself. I'm in control. Alan Wake 1 was very much known for its narrative and it was telling a horror story, but then there was a bit of a dissonance between the story, trying to
have this slightly more slow burn feel to it, and the kind of
fast-paced action gameplay. So we just felt that there was much
more of a cohesive fit between the genre survival horror and the
kind of story we wanted to tell for the sequel. It’s not so much about the body horror, it's the everyday weird. Things that look just perfectly fine and then a twist comes and you’re like "Okay, what's going on here?" Like using Dark Place as an example, every single shadow or moving piece, I'm looking at it. Okay, what was there? The flashlight only illuminates
a certain part of the scene, so it very easily focuses your attention in a certain composition. Having the lighting and the
shadows dance around the environment quickly incites
your brain to play tricks on you. Essentially what makes the
environment scary is the atmosphere. So when you add the lighting
and the music, that's when the fun begins. Horror tends to be quite a, you know, personal perspective
towards the issue itself. At times I've noticed that I felt unease, even anxious. It's really interesting to bring yourself
towards that edge musically. We've done a lot of sound
design experimentation. For example, with the Dark Presence
and Dark Presence roar, what is that, how do we
make that so evil? And we've listened to an enormous amount
of different people screaming and animals, trying to find the correct scream to fit the Dark Presence. I think we managed to make it feel like it's a place with a personality, with a pretty unique feel. We're trying to avoid a lot of the cliches, we’re trying not to fall into those traps. So the sense of dread
and anticipation is really there. ALAN: Get away. ALAN: Get away! The live action elements are part of the horror for sure. We are using blended video on top of the
game footage for these very strange, nightmarish visions. Alan Wake as a franchise is very much supernatural, very dream like. So it allows us to kind of lean on that and then utilise live action in a way that doesn't feel disconnected
from that kind of overall experience. Using live action film footage in our games comes from several different directions. Our games are set in a version of present day and there I feel that
building the world using the mediums that
are present in our lives is important and makes it more believable and is just a very logical choice. We are almost like shifting
through layers of reality. So we are falling into these live
action bits that you see on the screen and experiencing that,
and then falling out of them again. Doing more live action is very exciting for me. Yeah! I love doing motion capture and all that, - but being with you in the same room, - but being with you in the same room,
- I know, this is our set for the day. it’s fantastic Each shot and each scene feels different, like a different story
and it's been great. I've never done anything like this. It's been cool. Cheers. Kippis. You always have an idea of what the game will be
when you start out, and then more creative people who are better at your job than you are come on and do cool stuff. This idea I had is kind of not
exactly as it was when we started out, but it's become this thing
which is even better than what I thought it was going to be. I feel lucky that I have been able to stuff all kinds of crazy experimental things into this experience. Atmosphere and horror and interactive storytelling and mixing of different mediums together. All of that combines into what Alan Wake 2 is. Fans of the original game and people who may have
not experienced Alan Wake, be afraid. Be very afraid.
