Sam Lake called inspiration sources when creating Alan Wake 2
Screenwriter Sam Lake spoke in an interview with IGN about the sources of inspiration while working on Alan Wake 2. Remedy Entertainment used films, TV shows and other games.
According to Lake, the developers did not want the world of the game to seem modern. “He should be felt as a place in time,” the screenwriter added.
The Game director of Alan Wake 2 Kyle Rowley called important sources of inspiration of the work of David Lynch and the Cohen brothers. However, the main example for the studio was the thriller David Fincher “Seven”. Rowley noted that the dialogs of the main characters of the game, Alex Casey and Saga Anderson, remind him of the characters of Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt.
During the creation of the concept of the FBI agent and his partner who came to investigate the murders, the authors relied on the first season of the “real detective”. The dynamics of relations between detectives in Alan Wake 2 will remind players of Rasta Cole and Martin Hart.
“In fact, we were not going to create something like a body choror or a zombie chorror. In many ways, we relied on the genre that installed in the first game, namely on a slightly supernatural psychological horror. Therefore, we paid the greatest attention to the atmosphere, the feeling of fear that comes not only from the world in which you are, and from what we did at the level of the sound design, but also from the narrative, ”- Kyle Rowley.
Lake considers Seven a good example of the merger of the detective and horror. In his opinion, stories about serial killers are often very close to horror films, but at the same time are detective stories. Screenwriter believes that the genre Horror is closest to detective science fiction.
“Usually the premise is this: something strange happens that is very close to the crime. And, on the one hand, we are afraid to find out that, but on the other hand, we are pushed to this, ” – Sam Lake.
Another source of inspiration was the “taxi driver”. New York from the painting by Martin Scorsese influenced the creation of the city of Bright Falls, where reality merges with a nightmare. In turn, the dreaming nature of the dark place was borrowed from the films “Beginning” and “Remember” Christopher Nolan.
“We wanted him to seem more dirty and dull, where it rains heavy. We use the weather not only as a visual thing, but also as an attribute that affects the mood of the game, ” – Kyle Rowley.
From the games Remedy was inspired by series Resident Evil And Silent Hill, as well as indie projects Inscryption And Pony Island Daniel Mallinza.
“I was really inspired by Daniel Mallins and some things that he did with the Inscryption and Pony Island. I think that without revealing too much, [in Alan Wake 2] there is a late scene with the table in which there are moments from these games. I feel that it feels the influence of Mallinza ” – Sam Lake.