Remedy’s Oskari Hakkinen, had a lot to say about the studio’s design choices in creating Alan Wake in an interview with OXM. When asked about Alan Wake 2, and what direction the studio might take for the game, Hakinnen revealed that it’s not really feasible for tight storytelling.
“I think that this episodic structure that we’ve landed on is something that’s a very strong thing for very tight storytelling in videogames,” he said. “Wherever and whenever the story lasts between 10 and 20 hours, where the movie-like structure doesn’t really work that much.”
He also said that he wasn’t really certain about the open world design for storytelling, and mentioned some things about Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, and how it features some open ended mechanics.
“How that would be possible in an open world, I’m not so certain about,” Hakkinen said.
“American Nightmare – yeah, it has gone a little more towards action, and we’ve actually found that there is a more open world-ish atmosphere where you can discover these radio shows and TV shows around the world.
“Games need to be made for the platform, we felt that that a more action-oriented Alan Wake fit Xbox Live Arcade much better. Had we done a boxed retail version of that it would have been a much tighter, heavier story,” he added.
“It’s quite a light, pulp adventure story with a lot of action in there, it’s pick up and play – just dive into it and have a ton of fun, and if you like it then go play the original Wake, because that’s the psychological thriller part of it.”
So, basically what Hakkinen means is that – Remedy excels in story telling and an open world design is detrimental to that.
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