By Jason Cipriano
One of the bigger surprises as this year's VGAs was a look at the next game staring Alan Wake, which turned out to be "American Nightmare." Earlier this week the team at Remedy pulled back the curtain on the game's Fight 'Till Dawn mode, as well as what gamers can expect when the game hits Xbox Live Arcade early next year. While it isn't a complete 360 from "Alan Wake," there are a variety of gameplay tweaks and lessons that were learned that developers Oskari "Ozz" Hakkinen and Matias Myllyrinne helped shed some light on at a recent game demo. Below are ten of the most noteworthy developer insights.
From High Score Whiteboard To Reality
Fight 'Till Dawn is more than just an arcade mode tacked on to a story; it's actually the impetus of the whole game. In a surprising turn of events, the story actually came second. The team at Remedy basically created test levels out of the response to the fans hopes for more combat, just to see what could be done within the confines of the game. As it turns out, they started keeping score on a whiteboard in their office, and decided that fans should probably have a chance to enjoy the mode as much as they were, and "American Nightmare" was born.
Less Is More On XBLA
"American Nightmare" is a bit of a different take on the "Alan Wake" franchise, but that doesn't mean that everything that was conceived made the cut. The was a conscious effort made on behalf of Remedy to steer away from stereotypical gaming conventions that just didn’t fit within the fiction, or the setting. For example, Myllyrinne noted that there wouldn’t be any "tentacle porn" elements of "American Nightmare" because they wouldn’t fit within the limits of what they were trying to do. Also, with the game being an XBLA title, the dev team needed to make some decisive choices when it came to weaponry. If something was too similar to another weapon, it was dropped in order to keep the game from getting too convoluted.
Wake's Acoustic Album
One of the most glaring issues that fans had with "Alan Wake" was the time between when it was originally announced (E3 2005), and when it was actually released (May 2010). The team at Remedy learned from this, and, in a relatively daring move, developed the game to an alpha state before surprising Microsoft with it. Myllyrinne was confident that they would love it, but were relieved that they actually did. He said that they wanted to do the same for the fans as well, and that the last thing they wanted to do was announce something then have anxious gamers wait to play it. "Nightmare"'s dev cycle served as a breath of fresh air for the dev team as well, as Myllyrinne compared the game to an "acoustic album" since it was the same creative force behind the original, just creating a product in a different form.
Bringing Back The FMV
The game's protagonist, Mr. Scratch, can be seen momentarily in debut trailer, taunting Alan Wake in a full motion video sequence on a TV screen. When pressed about the stigma that usually comes with using FMVs in a video game Myllyrinne retorted with the idea that the medium is the message. He noted that while it is risky to use FMVs, since Mr. Scratch was appearing through a television transmission, it wasn't out of place for him to appear as real, much like the Night Springs episodes in the original.
How Long Is The Story? It Depends…
When asked how long the story in "American Nightmare" is, Hakkinen hesitated, saying that it's hard to put an actual number on it. For your hard-earned MS Points, you're going to get at least five hours of gameplay, but there's a whole lot more content if you want to dig in. Throughout the game there's collectable manuscripts, TVs, and NPCs that help craft the "Amercian Nightmare" story, but they also tie the game back to the original. The more you discover, or the more times that you chat with the NPCs the more dots you'll connect back to "Alan Wake."
These Devs Spend Time On Facebook
The team at Remedy listens to their fans, especially on Facebook. Hakkinen noted that while the story from the original game was universally liked, fans expressed some concerns on social media and over email about how they wanted more variation in the game's combat. They also wanted to see a greater escalation in weapons, both of which are included in "American Nightmare."
The Risky Multiplier
"Amerian Nightmare"'s arcade inspired Fight 'Till Dawn mode isn't just a straight shooter, there's quite a bit of skill involved in racking up the highest score on the leaderboards. The mode's risk/reward system centers on increasing your multiplier by racking up kills, and dodging various attacks. Getting up close and jumping out of the way is the easiest way to add points, but get a little too lax, and you'll lose your head.
Can You Survive Nightmare Mode?
Fight 'Till Dawn mode features five different maps to survive each with a ten-minute time limit. For more advanced "Wake" players out there, each of those maps are also playable in Nightmare Mode, which features "cranked up enemies," which should allow for you to run up your score... or die a whole lot more.
The Batman Entry Effect
Since its inception, Alan Wake was always intended to be a multiplatform franchise. Myllyrinne compared it to Batman, stating that the Dark Knight means different things to different people, depending on where they first discovered it, and he hopes that the same can be said about Alan Wake. The game franchise has already extended into an online video series, and the team at Remedy hope that "American Nightmare" will serve as another entry point for potential fans.
Night Springs Episode 101
The story in "American Nightmare" is set in an episode of "Night Springs," the "Twilight Zone"-esque television show from the original game, that was written by Wake. Because the game is based off a "series" it does leave room for more episodes to be released. Myllyrinne was hesitant to say whether or not any additional releases were in the works, stating that it was dependant on how well "American Nightmare" went. He also went on to say that other standalone content might not be out of the picture either.
Overall Remedy have put together a solid XBLA release that takes the two thirds story, on third action of "Alan Wake" and flips it around, all while giving nods to Tarentino and Rodriguez this time around instead of Hitchcock and Kubrick. If you liked the first one, but thought there wasn’t enough action, "American Nightmare" should scratch that itch with a nail gun.
VGA 2011: Alan Wake: American Nightmare Exclusive Debut Trailer
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