Writing Alan Wake 2 | Interview with Sam Lake

[Music] today we are catching up with Sam wake who is the creative director of Alan Wake 2 how are you feeling that the game is almost out I'm I'm I'm feeling happy excited uh nervous uh I I think that the whole mix of cocktail of different emotions is is part of the part of the whole thing uh obviously look looking forward for everybody to get to play it like we we've been working for this for a very long time your background you studied literature in school and then you did screen play writing y now you're writing games how is that different from everything else uh it is different uh in in in some ways obviously kind of the medium has certain uh practices and and and rules that you you need to learn but many aspect of it aspect ects of it is is well it's storytelling and writing a story and then it's uh screenwriting in the like you know good dialogue is good dialogue and and so certain things are the same for different mediums like film and TV or or just pros and and then the interactive element on it uh requires uh some specific knowledge yeah do you at the game design angle of it like with the story fully planned out or does the design kind of influence where the story goes it's teamwork uh definitely so so different areas influence uh each other and and it's back and forth and it's iteration uh a lot of the uh developing a game is iteration uh at at at remedy perhaps we lean on the St story a bit more and and earlier than than some other Studios uh so very early a lot of thinking goes on who is the protagonist and and what is the setting and what is the story uh overall uh but then uh different aspects of the game are going hand inand and side by side forward yeah so Allan has been stuck in the dark place for over a decade now howy how do you approach writing that he's gone through all that but still having him be recognizable as the character we last Saw yeah I mean this is a horror story and and uh there is lot of psychological horror especially on Alan W's part of the story uh yeah we come back to him and he has been stuck in this nightmare dimension of the dark place for 13 years and it does show it is an important part of where we start with the character and and how his story arc goes is that it has left a definite mark on him and and he struggling and and well he in in more ways than one he's in the in in a dark place uh in his in his life the bit of the game we just played with you there's a lot of Shifting in realities when you're writing kind of a world where anything can happen how do you set forth rules to keep it still grounded yeah Ru rules are really really important uh I mean this this is a very dense layered uh story experience uh so there is a lot packed into it but all the more reason even if we don't explain them we are following rules and and and and that's a big part of it it there is a lot of mystery um lot of that kind of Thriller elements uh tied to it and and we don't want to hold the player's hand too much we don't we don't want to overe explain anything uh we we we rather have the gamers piece it together on their own or form a theory of of what's going on uh but but for that to be kind of honest and true we need to ourselves understand and have have an idea especially for this like with interactive storytelling and we have two playable characters we have Alan Wake in the dark place and then we have FBI agent Saga Anderson uh in in Washington state investigating these murders and the player is free to past the experience like as they choose so they can follow Saga further along they can follow uh wake or or they can switch between them uh and and just to get that working and not have the control to say lead one uh hero character into an awful Cliffhanger and then we switch to the other side it it it meant that we are giving up these kinds of rather basic suspense storytelling tools uh and and and needed to come up with with rules for that as well that there are twists and turns in in in both story threads but not across them uh and and in the interactive storytelling in games what you gain instead is that the player is very engaged and and and that that way you you have U uh kind of a excited audience and and who are invested into finding out what's going on yeah and with the introduction of saga as a player character what does she kind of offer that Allan doesn't for remedy games overall we wanted to create a new hero character we've been working on games and and uh like for over 28 years now and and and still looking at the kind of like Hero characters that we have created along the way there are not that many so so for us it's always a a big thing to to come up with a new protagonist uh wanted to do uh kind of a modern uh interesting character uh with her something different that we have done before uh but also like like one aspect of this is that because this is a sequel and and and because we have now established the concept of Remedy connected Universe with control the game and Alan Wake and both play a part in Alan Wake 2 uh we we we were also mindful of wanting to create an experience and story that is approachable for those Gamers who have maybe not played any remedy game before and and and that is also a part of you know having a point of view character like Saga who has before the events of this game never experienced Supernatural things which are obviously supernatural horror story uh so when she comes in on an FBI investigation of these ritualistic murders and then strange things start to happen and supernatural horror Creeps in she's experiencing it for the first time she's a really capable uh uh agent and a profiler and and and and she starts putting bring it together and and with that you know the gamers the audience is learning about that as well you know Saga takes us into this experience whe whether you have played the previous Alan Wake maybe you know over 10 years ago and don't really remember that much or have not played it uh at all all right and Allan has been a character that's been with you for so long do you always know what he's going to do in a plot or does he ever surprise you he does surprise me like like I I think that that's part of it like uh part of a writing a story uh and and kind of something that should also happen uh if you are truthful to the character and and and the story uh I mean part of writing for video games is the fact that that you know as we talked about these tracks are moving and and you need to have a pretty firm idea of the story overall like locations where things happen and and kind of the overall plot because that needs to be communicated to the rest of the team early enough so that everybody can be working on the same thing but that does not mean that when we get to specific scenes and you kind of like go in and start writing the actual scene in detail and and the dialogue very often it happens that wait a minute this doesn't feel right for the character and and and then suddenly new ideas start to come that okay this is what the character actually does in this scene so so on on the high level we we we need to look enough but then when we go deeper into the details yeah the characters do kind of start taking over in many ways we obviously see a lot of Stephen King and Allen are there any less known especially maybe Finnish authors that kind of inspired him ah yeah yeah I like the the funny thing for me is that that I've I've always like you know I'm a Finn and and and Finnish is my native language but but for the longest time it feels to me now uh everything I've I've read and and the the working language overall has been English uh there are certainly lot of inspiration lot of lot of books especially kind of related to Alan wake's character yes Stephen King for sure and and and and funnily enough I feel that the biggest inspiration for him to me came from his writing guide on writing his autobiographical book where he actually goes on to state that when when things were bad in his life like with alcoh alcoholism and and and things like that it was the time when he was riding The Shining or misery and and obviously they are the famous books where there is a very tortured and flawed writer writer character but but he's saying that that's basically me and and and to me then it was really interesting reading reading that book and and thinking about uh you know Inspirations for the character um Paul Oster like us being in New York uh is is is definitely one inspiration that I've felt uh through the years I I Prett Eastern ls's like lunar Park where where he puts himself as this kind of a you know writer character who is not doing so well uh into the story yeah I mean that there are plenty of plenty of examples like like you you mentioning Finnish uh writing and and it's it's something that that looking from Finland to outside and American popular culture uh especially uh has been kind of the main driving inspiration but more and more I found that kind of and maybe it's partly growing older you you like like I I've started to appreciate kind of Finnish culture and folklore and these kinds of things more and more and just realize how exotic and how unique it is as as something to tap into and bring into our experiences so definitely in Alan Wake 2 overall there there is more not to finish culture than than than ever before and and in some ways that started with our previous game control where we brought in AI the the kind of a quirky strange janitor character who comes from Finland um and and we we kept certainly kept running with with this idea uh for Alan Wake too how have Allen's books been selling since he disappeared Publishers consider locking authors in the dark place yeah yeah um I mean obviously like like that there there are a lot of layers a lot of meta kind of and and and um lot of metaphor overall in this uh you know the dark place being stuck in your head all of us being stuck in our heads and and you know struggling with the creative process uh overall that that was very much part of the kind of the the uh theme and and and and plot of the first game and yeah it it is part of this this one as well uh his his writing is is affecting reality and coming alive especially in the dark place around him and and and we do learn that he's been he's been constantly writing for 13 years trying to crack the perfect story that would shape reality and allow him to escape and he just keeps failing and and trying different things and and and and kind of it's it's a mess he keeps forgetting but it it is affecting the reality around him so we are everything has a meaning in the dark place like it's it's now New York because he comes from New York for years he wrote his crime books said in New York and and and his detective character Alex casy now seems to haunt the whole place he keeps running into casy and and and seeing visions of casy and even even down to kind of like graffiti everywhere it it seems to be all kind of from his mind messages back to him all right great and final question will we be seeing Barry in alen Wake too well it's a it's a good question Barry was obviously a very very uh important part of the first game uh and and we we have a big cast in this game new a bunch of new characters coming in and and many of the old ones let's just keep it on the level of uh we will certainly get some glimpses on what has been going on in in Barry's life all right great thank you so much for talking with me thank you this was fun

Channel: Lits Play

Views: 22,701

Keywords: gaming, books, booktube, video games, Let's Play, interview, Sam Lake, Epic Games, creative director, video game writing, Alan Wake 2, Alan Wake II, writing process

Id: 2ZhCLgSlMtM

Length: 15min 51sec (951 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 16 2023