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Alan Wake Show Coming

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2018 8:06 am
by bowisneski
Not sure how many people have played the video game, but I loved it. If you haven't it's sort of like LOST set in Twin Peaks with a good ol' dash of Stephen King. In an interesting parallel to Peaks, at the end of the first game
Spoiler:
Alan ends up trapped in another world while his doppelganger escapes in to the real world
and the follow up left the pacific northwest and went to the desert where
Spoiler:
Alan faces off against his doppelganger to return to the real world.
Anyways, they've announced that a show is coming, with the original writer(Sam Lake) writing and co-showrunning, and figured it might be up the alley of at least some folks here. Especially during the wait for the possibility of more Peaks.

Some excerpts from the Variety article.
“Alan Wake,” which was released on the Xbox 360 and Windows PC in 2010, followed fictitious best-selling author Alan Wake (Matthew Porretta) on a journey to a small town in Washington state, where he hopes to rid himself of prolonged writer’s block. What follows is an increasingly surreal experience that seems to bring the plot from his last novel — which he has no memory of writing — to life.

“Definitely what we have mapped out is a longer thing than the first game and a sequel; there is more to it,” Lake said. “In many ways, we see the universe as a bigger thing. Alan Wake is a very central character, but we have other characters around him like [friend and agent Barry Wheeler] and his wife Alice and Sheriff Sarah Breaker and other characters there. We feel this is a big universe to develop and explore in many ways.”

Lake told Variety that while Wake is very much “in the heart of this story, there are vitally important characters around him as well.”

“The story of the original game is our starting point, the seed which will grow into the bigger story we’re exploring in the show,” Lake said. “We’ll be expanding the lore of this crazy and dark universe and diving deeper into certain aspects of it than the game ever did.”

That includes tapping into some of the story planned for that unreleased second game.

“Not only that, but through the years, we’ve worked on multiple game concepts and stories for Alan Wake’s world that have never seen the light of day,” Lake said. “All of this material will function as potential source material for the show.”

Lake declined to say, though, whether the show’s story will be official canon for the Alan Wake universe.

“In a story like ‘Alan Wake,’ a story filled with mystery and questions, answering this one would be a spoiler,” he said.
If you want to get a feel for it, you can check out the half hour live action prequel Bright Falls

Re: Alan Wake Show Coming

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2018 10:06 am
by dreamshake
this should be fun. I enjoyed alan wake but it seemed to me that the game always really wanted to be a tv show given it's episodic structure. weird it took 8 years tho. maybe the success of the return and twin peaks influenced shows like riverdale finally generated enough interest to get it made?

Re: Alan Wake Show Coming

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2018 10:57 am
by Mr. Strawberry
Do you guys remember the very early footage of Alan Wake? It was a completely different game from what I recall. The main character was shown desperately making his way to a lighthouse as the sun fell, blockading the pier that led to it, shoring up the entrance and so forth. It seemed to me that he had no weapons at his disposal, and that his flashlight was essentially the tool he was forced to creatively utilize in his struggle against supernatural beings that emerged at night. Perhaps it was even a sort of weapon or means of warding off spirits. I was impressed by the sort of creative thinking this vulnerability would lead to.

Years later when the game came out, it seemed to have devolved into another straightforward action game where you shoot the baddies with a shotgun and so forth. Having said all that, I've never played it, so I'm curious to hear what you think.

In my estimation the game that was most like Twin Peaks was Silent Hill 2. It was a moody, small town Pacific Northwest experience, very frightening in a psychological way, accompanied by excellent acting that was intentionally "American B-Movie" to a degree, and a soundtrack and sound design that terrified me to the core. And wouldn't you know it, things were absolutely not as they seemed for any of the characters involved. What a shame the production team disbanded and moved on to other studios and ventures.

Re: Alan Wake Show Coming

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2018 1:37 pm
by bowisneski
I definitely do. It was originally much more open world and had day/night cycles and all of that. Remedy eventually switched things up because they found that the open world made the shortish linear story they were telling harder to engage with when you're supposed to be saving your wife, but instead are doing sidequesty stuff around the town. Sort of like what Deadly Premonition was, if you know anything about that game. Which I actually agree with having played both. There was a little bit of dissonance in the fact that I was supposed to be solving a murder, but instead I was just running odd errands for townsfolk in Deadly Premonition.

I do wish that it had been just light instead of switching to a more actiony approach because of the way it is implemented. Since Wake is a writer and not an action hero, the combat is kind of intentionally clunky(sort of like Silent Hill). But, in addition to the clunkiness, it can get repetetive. Sometimes enemies feel like more of an annoyance than a threat. I didn't really notice it that much on my first play through, but did on a recent one. However, they do keep the light aspect in for in so far as well lit areas are safe, the evil surrounding enemies has to be removed before you can shoot them, and things like flash bangs instantly kill a group and the flare gun is essentially the rocket launcher of the game. There's also a few neat light related set pieces that I won't spoil.

Overall though, the story kept me sufficiently engaged and it's one of my favorite games narratively speaking. It can be ridiculous and cliche at times, but the passion, overall atmosphere, and story shone through those things for me. Even on the replay I found myself engaged. There's also some good tie in stuff in a couple of digital comics and a tie in book that came with the collector's edition. I'd suggest watching the Bright Falls prequel and maybe the first couple cutscenes and if they grab you definitely search it out. If they don't I wouldn't suggest it as the gameplay is fairly average.

Oh man, Silent Hill 2 is the still gold standard of this type of game. Really wish they hadn't screwed the pooch so terribly with the HD version. Honestly, Silent Hill 2 is exactly what I thought of as Cooper and Carrie drove through Twin Peaks.

Re: Alan Wake Show Coming

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2018 3:29 pm
by dreamshake
i am glad there's some other people share my opinion on the similarities b/w silent hill 2 and twin peaks. great posts yall. wish my ps2 wasn't in storage right now. want to fire that thing up now.

i actually had a buddy who was so disappointed with season 3 because he thought silent hill 2 was the perfect aesthetic for a twin peaks follow-up and he couldn't get over that.

Re: Alan Wake Show Coming

Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2018 7:50 am
by Saturn's child
Mr. Strawberry wrote:In my estimation the game that was most like Twin Peaks was Silent Hill 2.
Great, great game, although funnily enough I never really equated it with Twin Peaks (despite the -- after the fact -- obvious similarities). Great to hear your, bowisneski's & dreamshake's love of it. It affected me pretty damn deeply, despite my not being too thoroughly a gamer. Gets into those deep places.

I played Alan Wake through a few years back & remember enjoying it quite a lot even if it didn't stick with me for long afterwards. Series could turn out well, depending, so I'll definitely keep it in mind! Thanks for the heads up bowisneski.

(kind of off topic, but in relation to video games & Peaks-type stuff, have any of you heard of Petscop? Only just got into it recently, but it's a cool little rabbit hole to dive into).

Re: Alan Wake Show Coming

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 6:50 am
by bowisneski
All of that horrible Other World imagery just sticks with you forever and you slowly suss out the terrible things that have happened to those people or the terrible things they did. That is one of the things I love about FWwM and The Return, that cheery veneer over the darkness is mostly gone and you really have to engage with it. Especially in Part 18.

No problemo, I was just stoked for the news and figured others here would enjoy it. If you want to do a slightly deeper dive, there was a cool blog by the writer a couple years ago that ties in http://thishouseofdreams.blogspot.com/ And, if anyone wants to read the tie in comics just message me and I'll share a link since there is no way to purchase them anymore(mods, please edit or delete this if that is considered piracy and forgive my misstep).

Never heard of Petscop, but I'll definitely check it out. If you guys are looking for something Peaks/Hill-ish definitely check out Lone Survivor.