Alan Wake episodic format “a massive risk”

We spoke to Remedy Entertainment’s Aki “AJ” Järvilehto on the upcoming sequel, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, to find out what he thinks has ensured American Nightmare’s success:

360 Magazine: Alan Wake was originally planned as an episodic release, what was behind the original thinking and why was it changed to a boxed release?

AJ: With original Alan Wake we wanted to really go for a Stephen King meets Lost theme, tipping our hats to some of the greats like Alfred Hitchcock and Twin Peaks. We took a lot of inspiration from different TV series, and this way we could create an experience, which was easy to jump in an out of. Structuring the game to episodes with “Previously on Alan Wake” inserts to help players get back into the game just flowed naturally. It was also a great structure for storytelling in videogames.

While the episodic format for the game was an awesome fit, however, distributing it this way would have been a massive risk. The world simply wasn’t ready for this new model. Gaming has come a long way since then and continues to balloon. Who knows, I at least hope it’ll be a very viable option in the near future.

360 Magazine: What are the benefits for you as a developer to having your game on XBLA and not on shop shelves?

AJ: There are benefits to both models of course. The fun part about digital distribution is that we can do things faster and with easier iteration. Another really important thing is that in a sense were quite a bit closer to our actual audience, the gamers. Believe it or not we actually read our email and everything people write on Alan Wake’s Facebook pages and forums, and now it is just so much easier to react to the feedback from the fans!

You can read the full interview more about Alan Wake’s American Nightmare in issue 97 of 360 Magazine, on sale 22 February.