Writing Alan Wake 2 | Interview with Sam Lake
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- čas přidán 15. 10. 2023
- Charlotte stops by the offices of Epic Games to talk with Sam Lake, the creative director of Alan Wake 2!
Watch us play Alan Wake Remastered: • Let's Play Alan Wake R...
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ABOUT LITS PLAY
Lits Play is an official CZcams channel from Penguin Random House that explores the intersection of gaming and literature. Join us for weekly videos featuring let’s plays with your favorite authors, recommendations for gaming book nerds, narrative deep dives on the best story-driven games, and other forms of game-streaming goodness.
Send us an email: LitsPlay@penguinrandomhouse.com
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ABOUT ALAN WAKE 2
Saga Anderson, an FBI profiler with a reputation for solving unsolvable cases, arrives in Bright Falls to investigate a string of ritualistic murders. The case slides into a nightmare when Anderson discovers pages of a horror story, a horror story that starts to come true…
Alan Wake, a lost writer trapped in a nightmare prison beyond our world, writes a dark story to shape reality in a desperate bid to escape. Hunted by an insatiable horror, Wake struggles to retain his sanity and beat the devil at his own game.
Anderson and Wake, two heroes on two desperate journeys. Two separate realities connected in ways neither of them can understand. Echoes become reflections. Reflections that can reach out to each other. Trapped in a horror story where there are only victims and monsters, can they break out to be the heroes they need to be?
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#SamLake #AlanWake2 #AlanWake - Hry
This was a great interview and this channel was such a welcomed surprise! We've seen throughout the years that storytelling continues to play an integral role in video game development. I'm glad that Penguin Random House has recognized this intersection of literature and gaming. Just subscribed and look forward to more content from you guys!
totally! In a new Alan Wake game after all these years, instead of playing Alan Wake himself
each night i said...to the gods of woke bullshite
can you please make Remedy take a minor white female character from a earlier game
Saga Anderson, from Quantum Break, who has been in official Remedy video promotional videos and is whiter than Zooey Deschanel during winter link -> czcams.com/video/dbFqmP8CYxo/video.html
have her without explanation and certainly without logic "become" black and let me play her for most of the game instead of Alan and my prayers were answered!
seriously Remedy at some some point people are going to say 'enough" of this... whatever this is and you will lose sales. you lost a sale and a customer here, I know it wont be the only one. What was wrong with Saga as she was?
@@sellingacoerwa8318Show us where the black female hurt you... Please, this would make sense if they gender and race swapped Allen wake, but some 2 bit background character getting changed is a non issue to anyone but racists.
I could hear Sam Lake talking about his creative process for hours, he such an inspiration for me
It’s actually ‘Sam Ocean’.
Alan clearly states that at the end of the first game.
He's real name is Sami Järvi. Artist name: Sami = Sam , Järvi = Lake.
@@ricoracer79did you really not get the joke or is this also a joke?
@@ricoracer79🤦
I actually appreciate the trivia.
Idk why but Sam Lake has this wholesome vibe all the time. Idk why every writer who writes some form of horror has this (like Junji Ito). Sam Lake especially... every interview he does has this positive attitude.
I know right! I think they are just genuinely excited to share the worlds they think up with the world
Sam is just passionate about good storytelling and pushing the limits for what games can do with storytelling, you can tell he just genuinely cares about writing and weird supernatural shit and it's great
This game has huge Twin peak vibes.
Because those who don’t get swallowed up by the dark are genuinely well adjusted. For instance, I can watch the most sickening shit full of murder and rape and remained critically distanced from it. My wife, however, due to various life experiences recoils from and is triggered by it. It’s easier to flirt with evil if you have a good sense of fiction versus reality
It's cuz he's just having so much fun with it. The surprise musical number should tell you all you need to know. It's surreal, dark, but above all entertaining.
Sam Lake having studied literature and screen writing makes so much sense considering how cinematic and conceptual Alan Wake and Control both are.
Don't forget Max Payne.
It's so great to listen to someone talk about video games intelligently like this
The control references in the game tho
@danjarnutowski2331 Not just Control. So many references to other Remedy games. Control is the most obvious, but apparently Quantum Break has some veiled references for those that played it, and Alex Casey has always been an analogue to Max Payne.
Sam Lake is a gem.
This game’s story is a freaking masterpiece… it gives me hope unimaginable to have heard that Sam Lake is also a literature graduate… I am finishing my degree on Eng literature and have been looking into gaming as my next step …
I'm in gradschool for Creative Writing and I'm right there with you. The industry needs more literature-minded writers.
These are the kind of questions I’ve been waiting for someone to ask Sam this entire press run! Kudos!
Great interview!
Thaaaaaaanks :)
So all this time I had no idea the creator of max payne is literally the face of Max Payne. Im floored.
He should be very proud of alan wake 2, it's a fantastic game. Graphics are mindblowingly good, and I love the storytelling in this game. it makes you feel like you're in a game and a movie at the same time, and it does it in an interesting and brilliant way, it never feels too slow or boring.
I really think this game deserves game of the year, it's that good. with very good music too actually.
An easy 10/10
Sam Lake and Ken Levine are such talented writers for their industry
Facts man
I just want to say how great an interview this was. I don't know the woman's name who is asking the questions, as I've literally never watched this channel before. But she doesn't ask any fluff crap. All her questions are really good and thought provoking. Throughout this video I found myself repeatedly shocked by just how accurate her questions were to ones I've always wanted to ask a man like Sam Lake. He creates such vibrant universes with the full help of Remedy games, and this interview just felt like it had more meat, or substance to it. Rather than a lot of interviews and tv spots for Alan Wake 2, which really just felt like trying to up the hype train for what was always, going to be an amazing project. Thank you so much for asking such great questions !! ❤❤❤❤
This was one of the best interviews of Sam Lake I've seen so far. Well done, bravo!
He couldn't look her in the eyes when talking about Alan's book sales or Barry... I wouldn't doubt that Barry is grifting the hell out of Wake's dissapearance, and is probably the band manager for a super elderly Old Gods of Asgard band... 🤣
In Alan Wake's American Nightmare it is stated that Barry is the Old God's manager! :D He's even on a radio show discussing their new single.
@@Greel97in control if you go through a secret area you get a hotline from Alan that says that after three tours Barry opened the Vallhalla retirement home for them because each tour, whatever was left of the dark place in them revived them so they could rock n roll and party like hell, but afterwards their condition was horrible. Since Barry didn't wanna see another client die, he took the money from their tour and opened the retirement home.
@@sornyeilevente973this is why I love remedy man. It’s this passive, high level storytelling that makes everything feel real, makes their characters feel human. As goofy as they all are, and as sleezy as Barry initially seems, he really does care about his clients. He’s not the stereo typical soulless creative industry manager you would think.
I do wonder what Mr. Scratch has actually been doing all the years Alan was in the Dark Place. I mean, there was that one thing he did in the House of Dreams thing, but besides American Nightmare, which doesn’t seem to be real, we don’t know what he’s actually done.
@@ContrastCopy the best we got is that he haunted Alice prior to Hartman breaking loose from the investigations sector. In the bright falls awe area you can find interviews where she says whoever haunts him looks like Alan but isn't him, and there's even a picture.
As for American nightmare it's considered as a failed attempt but I do wanna see how that affected Scratch.
I have waited for many many years for a Alan Wake continuation, it looks stunning and worth the wait.
He became one of the greatest inspirations for me.
For me too, as a writer I look up to him
This was a great interview. Best one I've seen from the many interviews which I watched already. Questions were on point for sure.
I'm so glad you asked about Barry replaying the remaster reminded me how great a character he was so ngl I'd be a little sad of he didn't show up, I'm curious generally about what characters from the first game'll show up because it's been so long
Well, I'm really glad the CZcams algorithm showed this video and channel. Sam Lake is always a joy to listen to and the questions were really interesting. Really like the concept of this channel so I'm gonna share it around. I hope you'll gain a lot of subs fast, you deserve it.
Welcome and glad you enjoy the channel! Let us know if there's ever any specific game content you'd like to see.
Best interview I’ve seen with Sam by far. Thanks for asking such interesting questions!
Scratch!
I bet people weren't expecting Sam Lake to sound like that, since they normally associate his face with Max Payne's voice.
I am a huge Sam Lake fan. He's a brilliant storyteller and comes across as one of the nicest human beings anyone will ever meet. Every once in a while a creator will bring into existence a very special character that just intrigues the audience. Sam Lake has done that with Ahti. Ahti is a very special character that I absolutely adore. I hope we get to learn more about him and come across him in future Remedy creations. He fits a very special archetype that I enjoy seeing in stories. Bravo to Sam Lake and the Remedy team. Alan Wake 2 is a masterpiece in my opinion.
This was a fantastic interview. Well done and very interesting topic
It's always cool to listen to the real Max Payne! Cheers Sam, you are a great human being! Been a fan since I can remember.
Great video! Thank you for posting it
Sam never disappoints
Great well-prepared questions! Good job!
An absolute Masterpiece thank you as always Remedy
I have so much more to say, but thank you so much for asking him if Barry would make an appearance!
just bought the game, looking forward to play it
really lovely interview!
All of us could have been born at anytime in history but we were fortunate enough to be here to see Sam Lake's amazing creations. I cannot wait to see what is next
Awesome interview!
This was great!
Lovely interview, thanks Charlotte.😄
Good questions!
Amazing interview!
Nearly done the game, and I like it for the most part. The only baffling writing part is in the beginning where 2 officers are dead in the morgue, the sheriff disappears, and the 2 FBI outsiders are the only ones left on the scene. The officers that later come down to investigated don't even suspect the FBI agents at all. It's like another day at the office with this police department.
I’m new to writing… never taken classes for it. But I’m gonna dive right in and come up with something!
Tip: don't relay on courses, read books, must reads are Robert McKee story and save the cat
3:30 Hadn't thought that certain suspense story techniques like leaving a protagonist in a bad situation/cliffhanger and then being forced to see the story from a different perspective/character, would have to be suspended with this parallel controllable narrative. Great interview!
totally! In a new Alan Wake game after all these years, instead of playing Alan Wake himself
each night i said...to the gods of woke bullshite
can you please make Remedy take a minor white female character from a earlier game
Saga Anderson, from Quantum Break, who has been in official Remedy video promotional videos and is whiter than Zooey Deschanel during winter link -> czcams.com/video/dbFqmP8CYxo/video.html
have her without explanation and certainly without logic "become" black and let me play her for most of the game instead of Alan and my prayer were answered!
Heres a man who loves what he does and does it right. Remedy games are incredible
Great Questions
Amazing 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥❤❤❤❤❤
These are the inspirations for Alan Wake 2 that he mentions if anyone was looking for it!
Stephen Kings Autobiography
Paul Auster's New York Trilogy
Brett Easten Ellis, Lunar Park
Sam Lake really is a genius and just the nicest guy. Great interview.
SEEING THIS MAKES ME BELIEVE ILL BE ABLE HAVE A DINNER WIT THIS MAN ONE DAYY!!
I just finished The first game (don’t know why skipped it) I loved it so much that I bought American nightmare and after I finishing it I’m buying 2 immediately
So.. Max Payne wrote Alan Wake? 😁
"it's Payne!"
I hate it to say because I always play games that are bangers and this is my Top 1 Horror game. That's unreal the story graphics everything. But the cliffhanger you left us without saying anything😭
Bc the stories goes together.
The one of main rison why i bought PS5 is Alan Wake 2. In the next week i'll play the game!
Sam always has that devious look on his face... Like he farted 5 minutes ago, and is just WAITING for you to smell it...
Damn now I can’t unsee that. You’re exactly right.
Man, if someones fart is lingering for 5 whole minutes, they got some problems lol.
@@LoyaltotheNightsky That high fiber diet will get ya!!! 🤪👍
Seeing Sam Lake Reminds me of Max Payne protagonist
I love you Sam. ♥
INSTANTLY recognized him from Max Payne 1 as Max's face lmao.
Aw i was hoping she’d ask if Jesse has a cameo
Where do I apply to move to Finland and work for remedy
Sam Lake ❤
At first glance i thought it was Courtney Hope interviewing him xD
the face of my childhood
I can’t wait to hear this guy talk about the max payne remake
B A R R Y
Mah boy is alive!
It is interesting that Alan Wake 2 chooses to go with Alan being stuck in the dark place as long as it has been since the first game in real world time. It raises the question that what has he been up to in the dark place all this time because 13 years is a long time? Has it been daily survival for him (which I would imagine could eventually wear you out completely) or has there been times or even long periods of safety for him? How has his writing been and how much has he been writing? Has he been in contact with Thomas Zane? What has changed in the real world since his absence?
Idk if some of these have already been answered in the Control DLC because I haven't played it yet so kindly please no spoilers from there ^^
Hes been writing for sure, he created the entirety of controls situation
Probably keeping balance while he gets Jesse or someone to get him out
@@jesusrodriguezcolon8315 Great job you did not spoiling the whole plot of Control for me...🤦♂
@@KanohiVahi you shouldn't be mad
After such a long time I think it's safe to talk about it regardless if you get spoiled or not
Deadline has long since passed and after such time I don't mind being spoiled since it's on me
We played a tiny bit of the game before we chatted with Sam, and no spoilers, but based on your questions, I think you're going to have a great time in the game!
@@jesusrodriguezcolon8315 It is not hard to not spoil when I SPECIFICALLY ask in my comment to not do so.. People always make this excuse for stupidly spoiling and while you are right for some cases, here I was asking you to not do so. I have every right to be disappointed. Maybe read people's comments before just typing out major spoilers. It's not hard
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I need a Max Payne 1&2 remake nowwwwwww?!? And 3 can be remastered and also add Sam lake skin optional
Alex Casey look like a very cool guy
Sam Lake is amazing.
So he worked on the writing alongside Sweet Baby, because they have the game on their site as doing the writing.
so nice to see Max Payne again
Sam, we need to have a word about those system requirements mate...
Sam Lake carrying the artistic integrity of AAA games industry on his back
This is not an interview, it's a trailer! Just look at that interviewer, she is clearly possessed by the darkness
I am choosing to take this as a compliment
Bwahaha 😂
God he’s so handsome. Convince me this man is 53! What’s his secret!?
Just discovered this channel with this video, the channel clearly being a Sam Lake vanity project
BARRY CONFIRMED!
It's not a Sam, it's a genius!
ummm I've never heard him speak before and I was expecting Max Payne's voice. This through me off.
He should get involved with a new max payne so it can be aligned with the noir style again and build from there. A story plot that would sell it might be Max getting back at the drug underworld.
Why are the PC requirements so ridiculous? Why make a game that nobody will be able to run wth is that about?
Are we getting a physical copy eventually???
Max payne
I just finished the game and i have one major problem i want to relieve my soul and to say it here. It was one sentence Saga say before ending and it includes word "another" and colour white and the thing you eject on your toilet often. I feel it was too much. The rest is fine.
There were many more anti-white jabs in the game you neglected to mention.
Is max payne going to sit in the back and watch while we play as a black woman in that game to?
Alan WOKE?! Hope NOT! xD
Honestly feel like we was supposed to play as agent Casey but some blue haired dev or from corporate inserted themselves as the second playable protagonist
Why exclusive to epic store just WHY! Cmon remedy man!! Epic?!?
so just pretend your ESG score didn't effect the writing and you didn't hired sensitivity proof readers from Sweet Baby to make it for a modern audience .
The writing. In this game. Is so distracting. Why? Is everything. Written like this?
Because it was infected by Sweet Baby Inc
Can you ask why it’s gonna be digital only?!?! Does it keep cost down? Because it’s the same price…. Waited for 13 years for this garbage? It’s a testing ground, control 2 will now be digital only… no thanks won’t spend another penny on your products.
Take a cold shower...
Alan Wake doesn’t even feel like the main character in his own game. Such a fail.
Why the game is called AW2 when half of time you play as somebody else?
Because why the fuck not?
MGS 2 trauma !
Because you play as Alan Wake too.
It's part of the narrative... He needs someone from the real world to pull him out, while manipulating things in the background... You kind of HAVE to have another playable character...
@@Zach-it2jo except half of the time you don't. I want to play as Alan full time.
Man this guy is a hack writer. "We don't want to over explain anything. We want the community to come up with theories" Problem is these fan "theories" are based on nothing because you're not giving enough info.
So this sequel (like the first game) will have no story. It's just gonna be a bunch of muddled, convoluted and contradictory plot points with no actual answers whatsoever.
1 Game
2 DLC's
2 Comics.
1 Novel
American Nightmare
The Alan wake Files
A prequel live action series.
Control.
AWE DLC.
And still nobody knows what's actually going on after 13 years.
Lake stating that the ending of AW2 will be the beginning on Control 2 is gonna make things even more muddled.
Great writing job on Max Payne, but you completely botched Alan Wake. So many inconcistencies and contradictory plot holes.
the day i stopped being interested in remedy connected universe is the day where they explained all the mysteries in the lore. Lord of the Ring writer J.R.R Tolkien once said when asked to explain certain unexplained mystery continent that if that mystery is explained, then he would have to create another mysterious continent.
@@Stevexupen Problem is there is no actual mystery, it's just extremely bad writing. Lake saying he wants the "fans" to come up with their own theories rather than provide actual answers is just a cop-out excuse for bad writing.
Lake himself admitted he had to rewrite the story on short notice because Microsoft ordered Remedy at the last minute to make it a linear action game rather than an open world. It's a bunch of muddled ideas thrown together with no coherency whatsoever. If you need to be "mindfucked" by bad writing in order to stay interested that's fine. Me? I like actual good storytelling. And Alan Wake ain't it.
Extra baffling since the theme of the game is about the "art" of storytelling.
@@datatsushi2016 i'm not sure if i can relate to you because for me all games from remedy so far have the best story out there especially compared to other AAA developers.
Imagine thinking about stories this way. It must be unbearably dull.
Like, we get it, you don't like the writing in the games. Everyone has their opinion and that's fine, but there's no need to develop and present a working theory about why they're bad to justify your opinion to all of us. The only reason to spend all that energy trying to somehow prove your opinion is objectively right is to stoke your own ego, and it just makes you look like an ass.
@@itsaUSBline Imagine being such a simpleton that you can't recognize bad writing when you see it.
And whilst you're at it? imagine being a white knight for a game developer that doesn't even know you exist.
Last but not least, imagine having a username that's making fun of the misery of a child who's life has been COMPLETELY destroyed. And im the asshole here? That's rich coming from a paedophile.
Why did he raceswap character and basically surrender the writing of the game over to a company for sensitivity readings?
Money, like most studios there signed up to ESG, so they added a token black person for financial gain.
Yeah but no one asked for or wanted Saga.
At all.