New details have emerged on Alan Wake recently, the long awaited game from Remedy Entertainment. GameZine have sourced new details from PCAction on how the game will be delivered and some of the game mechanics to expect.
The story revolves around the best selling writer, Alan Wake who has found himself with writer's block now for two years. To help overcome this block, his wife Alice suggests a trip to the small and pleasant town of Bright Falls. Shortly thereafter Alice goes missing and Wake finds himself witnessing his latest work, which strangely he has no recollection of writing, come to life before his very eyes.
The new details learnt about the game involve an important role around light and darkness. Unlike the most current games on the market, where daylight changes dynamically, Alan Wake's lighting will change depending on the player's progression. In Alan Wake light will become his friend in searching for his wife while darkness will be used to create a tense atmosphere filled with anxiety.
The sound design, whom David Lynch (academy award winning director) was an inspiration behind, focuses on an eerie direction, especially for the weather throughout the game.
Although Alan Wake will centre on a linear storyline, the player will have many large free roaming areas to explore, even allowing the player to use vehicles for the larger parts of landscape. During the development of these landscapes Remedy created what they describe as a "bio-system", which allows them to populate the land with mountain ranges and forests with one click.
Sami Vanhatalo, the lead artist told PCAction:
"We have to code such tools to enhance efficiency and to be able to put emphasis onto game content. After all, we don't have 150 guys working here, like other studios do!"
With this brief insight to the game's development, a surprising announcement was made where gamers' will have their chance to use an Alan Wake level editor when the game releases. It is presumed the tool will only be available for PC gamers'.
Alan Wake was announced at E3 in 2005 and will be published by Microsoft Game Studios for Windows Vista/7 and Xbox 360. The game however does not have a solid release date and Remedy have declined to give more detail on the game, even as recent at GDC where they refused to even talk about the game. When the game arrives, it will be released in episodic fashion, however unlike Valve's Half Life series; Alan Wake will release in the same way a TV series is aired and make use of cliff-hanger plot devices.
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