Remedy finally launched Alan Wake 2 13 years after the original horror game, but creative director Sam Lake already has other ideas to explore. Lake told GQ that he’d like to work on a dark fantasy next, assuming enough people are interested in the project.
“‘Would I ever do anything else?’ Lake said, restating GQ’s question. “Yeah. I’m still thinking that I will. There will be a time when I retire. It’s just that… this has all been so engaging.”
Lake told GQ he still has plenty of untold stories he wants to pursue. “One was this crazy, huge budget, dark gothic fantasy, which I haven’t used for anything yet.”
Whether he does do anything with that idea is up in the air, but Lake and Remedy are certainly in a better place to explore bold, new ideas than they were when the first Alan Wake launched. Alan Wake was a risky follow-up to Max Payne and a bid for Remedy to avoid getting stuck in a rut, Lake says. The unexpected success attracted plenty of attention and offers to help make Alan Wake 2 and even to bring Alan Wake 3 concepts to life – at a cost.
Lake told GQ that Xbox wanted to partner with Remedy in exchange for the Alan Wake franchise rights, the same way Take-Two bought the rights to Max Payne.
Lake and Remedy declined the offer and made Quantum Break instead. That was not the success Remedy wanted, so the team took another chance and made Control, which earned over half a dozen Game Awards nominations, and Lake told Shacknews’ Lex Luddy that the success inspired him to pursue a more adventurous storytelling style that wasn’t afraid to dig into Finnish culture.
The result was the form of Alan Wake 2 that Remedy released to critical acclaim last week, with the strange, psychological horror and reliance on Finnish folklore standing out as particular high points for reviewers. Remedy has two Alan Wake 2 DLC expansions in the works as well, though Lake’s dark fantasy project is probably going to have to wait. Remedy is also working on Control 2 and a multiplayer game spinoff.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
